Perils of used pipe

[wroughtn_harv]

There are two very serious, make that three, problems with good old used drill stem or casing.

First of course is one is never really sure what passed through it and what kind of residue is still about. Saving a couple of bucks might mean poisoning your land.

Second is so much of it's heavily magnetized. I've talked to pipeline welders welding it up where they could never get a solid joint. About the time they had one side welded up the other side would fracture, just come apart. So if the piece is for a structural unit there could be a serious problem down the pike.

Third, there's a reason why it's sold. Most of the time it's because it's shot, worthless, not any good.

Here's a section of three and a half inch drill stem that I cut out. Note that two sides are about sixteen gauge in thickness. Time, pressure, and a little abrasive substance going through and you wear down even steel.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I did some trading with a friend who needed a barrier gate. He had the drill stem and he drove in some posts for me to work with. He also had this thirty two foot length of what he thought was killer pipe.

I took it from there.

The two discs are five and a half inches by by nineteen and a half inches. We came up with them weighing two hundred seventy pounds plus. My calculating the needed weight for the counterweight by using sixty five pound tractor weights put on until I had what I thought was a manageable system evidently worked.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Another shot.

These can be lifted up and pulled back down by a smallish man with no problem. They also make it easy to make the double padlock system required so the property owner and the fire department has twenty four hour access.

 

[Egon]

Looks like rod wear on that piece of pipe.

Egon

 

[MF1455v]

Harv, usually the drilling company's discard drill stem long before it gets to this point. It is cheaper to replace the pipe after X number of uses than to twist it down hole. If it gets twisted down hole it could possably mean moving the rig over and redrilling the hole, costing big $$$'s.

Now casing and tubing used in the oilfield is a different story. It is very much as you discribed. It is used for different operations and is not required to handle the digging force that drill stem is.

 

[centex]

Harv, I bought some used drill stem and found that what I bought could not be cut or welded. Actually I was finally able to melt it and get it cut but not anywhere near cleanly. I thought I might be able to anneal it but that did not work either. I hate to think what kind of fumes I generated.