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New Post has been published on http://www.attachhealth.com/how-to-buy-steel-pipe-for-fencing-gobob-pipe-shares-how-to-save-time-and-money/

How to Buy Steel Pipe for Fencing: GoBob Pipe Shares How to Save Time and Money

(PRWEB) March 10, 2014

More and more lately, I have been getting calls from people pricing materials for the fencing of corrals, arenas, working pens etc. with a lot of confusion going on. They want to make sure they are comparing apples to apples and from the sound of it, there are a lot of apples and oranges out there. I get a lot of questions about gauges, schedules (relating to wall thickness) and about used vs. new vs. reject vs. secondary vs. surplus. Questions like: what is the difference between schedule 30 and schedule 40? How come as a “schedule” gets bigger, the pipe gets thicker, but as a “gauge” gets bigger, the pipe gets thinner? Is used pipe OK to use? What’s the difference between “new” pipe, “new reject” pipe” and “new secondary” pipe?

Well, these are good questions and not all of us are blessed (or cursed) with 29 years in the pipe and steel business. Furthermore, with the wildly fluctuating steel prices these days, and the fact that steel is still by far the best way to fence livestock, it is very important to understand what you are buying. It is also very important not to waste money by over killing your needs. So when I was asked to write this article, I was happy to do it. Maybe it will save me a few hours on the telephone. So let’s break it down.

NEW VS USED

Let me tell you up front, I’m biased and I don’t have a lot of good things to say about used pipe. Now I’m not saying all used pipe is a bad buy, I’m just saying that MOST used pipe is a bad buy. Let me count the ways. First of all, the used oilfield pipe available for the fence market is pipe that is deemed no longer fit to be used in the oil patch. With the high oil prices and the pipe shortages, believe me, they (the oil operators) are wearing it out before they sell it off as structural.

Here’s what happens: Let’s talk about salt water and oil production. Most of the existing wells in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas are classified as stripper wells. These are wells that produce a lot of fluid on a daily basis but take it from my oil patch pipe days; the oil operators consider them selves lucky if they get a 10% “cut” in their production. This means that if the well produces 10 barrels of oil a day, it also produces 90 barrels of SALTWATER per day. Do I need to explain the effects of saltwater on steel? Don’t think so! Furthermore, periodically, acid is dumped down the wells to help the flow of fluids into the well bore. Hmmm, That can’t be good on the pipe. I think you’re getting it.

Last but not least, let’s just touch on rod wear, the most destructive effect on oil field pipe. Bet you thought the hole that is drilled to make an oil well goes straight down…right? Wrong! That is what I thought when I first started selling oil country tubulars in the early 80′s. Well let me tell you, oil and gas wells are spiral! Without going into the dynamics of drilling into rock several thousand feet, you’re just going to have to take my word for it cause I hate to type. But if you really want to know, hey, I love to talk, so call 877-851-2365.

What were we talking about? Oh yeah. Rod wear. Inside the oilfield pipe, which a lot of folks call drill stem, are the sucker rods. Now very quickly, a brief lesson on oil production and artificial lift. The pumping unit sits on the surface. Attached to the horse head on the pumping unit is the bridle. Attached to the bridle is the polish rod. Attached to the polish rod are the sucker rods. Wayyyyy down the hole is the rod pump. Well, to pump this fluid (saltwater & oil) out of the hole, the horse head, the polish rod, the sucker rods and the pump have to go up & down, 60 minutes per hour, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. OK, stop and think. All these rods, going down all this pipe, IN A SPIRAL HOLE, are rubbing against something and that something is YOUR USED PIPE. By the way, did I mention that sucker rods are harder than the hubs of H E double hockey sticks? Getting my drift on rod wear?

To spell it out, these super hard rods, rubbing constantly against YOUR pipe, causes some very thin spots inside the pipe. Thus pipe that was nice and thick when it was new, has salt-water corrosion, acid corrosion and very thin spots due to “rod wear”. Does this sound like pipe that will last a lifetime? Don’t think so. How does an oil operator determine their pipe is no longer fit to re-use in their well? Usually there are 3 ways. The first is the easiest. They know their pipe has holes in it because their well is leaking down the backside or will not hold pressure, so they pull it out and get rid of it (hopefully not in your fence). The second way is by pulling the pipe out of the well and hydro-testing it. Here a service called “pipe testers” fill each individual piece of pipe with water then pressure up on it to see if it will hold the pressure or “pop”. This is where the splits we have all seen come from. Is all pipe without splits OK? Not necessarily. The third way to test is by electronic-magnetic inspection (known as an EMI). Here each piece of pipe is run through a high tech inspection unit that determines if there are thin places in the pipe.

There are four grades of EMI’d pipe. Most generally they use these specs: White band – Means pipe has a maximum of 12% body wall loss (this is new specs according to the API, we will cover this later). Yellow band – Means the pipe has a maximum of 15 % body wall loss. Blue band – Means the body wall loss is somewhere between 16 & 30%. Finally, Red band – Means the pipe has a body wall loss of over 30%. This is the pipe usually that is turned over for structural use. All the white, yellow & blue are reused in oil wells. Does that mean you should stay away from pipe with red bands painted on it? Well, probably yes, but many times the inspection companies simply do not paint the red band so you don’t really know.