stangcrazy85 Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 or pump rod to the guys who work in the oil fields i have acess to bunches of this stuff anyone know anything on it it's carbon content or what kinda metal is it ?? thanks was wondering if it was just good for fire pokers or could i use it as a knife blade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woody Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 Do a search of the archives on this site, there is a whole list of various manufacturers of Sucker Rod and the composition of each Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stangcrazy85 Posted April 11, 2009 Author Share Posted April 11, 2009 (edited) ok but **** i wouldnt know who made it its all rusty and pitted the piece i was using took forever long to heat and man it was tough Edited April 12, 2009 by steve sells foul language Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
new guy Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 maybe it is low carbon, i think that stuff works a higher temp than med or high carbon steel. also your forge may have been too cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlotte Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 (edited) Living in southern louisiana there is a lot of sucker rod floating around. The only thing I know for sure is that you can not know for sure what it is. Treat it like junk steel and don't invest a lot of time and effort in making something that needs high performance. Above all don't make a tools out of it that, if it fails, could hurt someone. Try the spark tests and the various forging, hardening, and tempering tests on that our teachers recommend. Edited April 15, 2009 by Charlotte spelling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stangcrazy85 Posted April 15, 2009 Author Share Posted April 15, 2009 ok thanks all i'll just be making fire pokers out of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweany Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 usually 4140, makes good tools Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 The carbon content varies depending on use, deep wells take stronger rod, shallow (older) ones can use weaker rod. Rod for sour gas (H2S) wells is a different alloy that those for sweet wells. So if your local field is pretty much the same the rod may be pretty much the same; but if you start talking about someplace else; well you may be giving bad advice. Why not ask a local producer what they use in their wells? Shoot they may even hook you up with their scrap pile and then you would have stuff you have a decent chance to know what it is, (not 100% it is still scrap...). New guy; you work low carbon steels at higher temps because you can not because they require it---they don't burn or cottage cheese on you! They are softer at any forging temp than a high carbon steel at the same temp (that's not falling apart on you.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweany Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Thanks Thomas I didn't know that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
new guy Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 thomasPowers: yes your right i got it backwards. stangcrazy85 sorry for the bad advice. spark testing may not work depending on the grinder you use and also the light in which you grind. sorry again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlotte Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 thomasPowers: yes your right i got it backwards. stangcrazy85 sorry for the bad advice. spark testing may not work depending on the grinder you use and also the light in which you grind. sorry again. I have a several scraps of known steel laying around to compare to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stangcrazy85 Posted April 17, 2009 Author Share Posted April 17, 2009 ok ok well at least i am getting some good feedback on this one thanks fellers for the help i'll eventualy get some pics up here for yall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
new guy Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 charlotte your right you need to get control testing etc. also stangcrazy the spark test must be done in the same light conditions (preferably dim lighting) and with the same grider at the same speed. just for the sake of perfection :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmy seale Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 anyone wanna die? ol rods/casing out of a h2s well will kill ya,,, is up to you but.....be warey "rotten egg" is not good= less than .001 in a 8 hr. period but when ua heats it turns to sulfer dixoide= deadly please don mess w/ rods-casin that came from a sour well!.sorry jimmy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
new guy Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Jimmy i only got hydrogen and slufur and how lethal it is. what are you trying to say/ask? it seems that your advice could be useful but it is hard to understand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlotte Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 I think he is saying that the black crud you find on sour wells, gas or oil, releases Hydrogen sulfide when it is hot. Yes Not a smart idea to mess with sour gas material because the clean up is more trouble than the goods are worth. Actually there are several componds that form on those well componets that are disgusting, posionours, and contaminate your shop and your work. Better left alone like stuff with hot dip galvanize on it. More trouble than just a little bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stangcrazy85 Posted April 17, 2009 Author Share Posted April 17, 2009 all this over fire pokers huh well at least you are looking out for me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken leedy Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 here in southeast kansas i have run across high carbon rods, medium carbon rods and even some very old wrought iron rods ( wood grain appearance and structure and all ) ken leedy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quenchcrack Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 I would suggest you visit BP 0020 and do a bit of reading on spark testing. It is not as easy as most of us would believe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 BP0002 Junk Yard and Rail Road Steels Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Evers Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 (edited) anyone wanna die? ol rods/casing out of a h2s well will kill ya,,, is up to you but.....be warey "rotten egg" is not good= less than .001 in a 8 hr. period but when ua heats it turns to sulfer dixoide= deadly please don mess w/ rods-casin that came from a sour well!.sorry jimmy new guy Jimmy i only got hydrogen and slufur and how lethal it is. what are you trying to say/ask? it seems that your advice could be useful but it is hard to understand. What Jimmy is trying to say is one of the secrets of oil well firefighting. It's common to light a sour gas blowout on fire to burn the H2S to SO2, but that does not reduce the toxicity. SO2 is actually more toxic than H2S, but the thermal plume from the fire carries high where it gets diluted and is harmless on return to earth. (The universal solution to pollution -- DILUTION) If you are working outside, I doubt that fumes from heating sour gas steel would be a problem, but in a closed shop it might be. Additionally, H2S has the characteristic "rotton egg smell", SO2 does not. H2S is detectable by smell at .03 parts per million, a safe level, but at 300ppm it paralyzes the olfactory nerve and you con no longer smell it. At 500 or so ppm (.05%), it can be quickly fatal. That said, high carbon steels do not do well in an H2S environment, so rods from a sour gas well would be low to medium carbon. If in doubt, use a weed burner to burn the gunk off outdoors on a windy day.http://www.wccoff.org/hydrogen%20sulfide%20gas%20fact%20sheet.pdf Edited May 18, 2009 by Jack Evers add link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlotte Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 Very Accurate information Jack thanks. The main point here is that sour well iron is a lot more trouble than it is worth. One of the major problems is that the various sulfides will contaminate your shop and your steel as you work with it. Avoidable problems true but agin more trouble than the material is worth. These days steel is cheap but forge time seems to get scare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finnr Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 Free isn't always cheap. If you haul home something that can make you sick or kill you the price of free was WAY too high. Finnr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SK-Buckwheat Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 To answer your original question it is about 4140 or slightly better. Yes it can contain nasty crap, but I have welded lots of old well casing and forged sucker rods before also. For forging I pick the ones that are better looking and not pitted. I have made so hard that none of my drill bits would touch it. Just my 2 cents worth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcraigl Posted May 28, 2009 Share Posted May 28, 2009 Aren't most sulfides water soluble? Just seems that most of the sucker rod I've seen has been laying around in a pile out in the weather for some time before it was acquired by a smith and most of the nasty sulfides were probably gone? I've used a bit of it and never noticed anything but rust on it. Mark Aspery uses it all the time for the tooling in his classes (which is where I've gotten most of mine). I know there are a number of different alloys, but I recall seeing a chart that cross referenced the numbers on the female end of the rod to the alloy somewhere. Thought it was here. Anyway, the stuff I've used will make a serviceable tool, is easy and forgiving to forge, and easy to heat treat using a water quench / triple temper process also developed by Mark. It is a little tougher under the hammer than mild, so I'm not sure I'd make a lot of pokers or decorative stuff out of it unless I was broke or couldn't find cheap scrap mild though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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