February 15, 201412 yr Posting a couple pics for fun. I was told that since I live in West Texas that I should look for sucker rods as they are decent steel. Plenty at my local scrap yard Maybe folks can give me some ideas or examples of things they have made with them.
February 16, 201412 yr Tongs, fullering tools, chisels, crow bars or digging tools (you can sell those last two), etc. Sky's the limit - use your imagination...sucker rod is medium carbon and will harden in oil.
February 16, 201412 yr Around here it comes is 3 sizes, but the most common size has 1" flats for coupling it to gether, so it lends itself to a hot cut. One can also fuller or slit the flats to make handled punches, drifts and hot sets. Dinner bells...
February 16, 201412 yr That is a lifetime of tools.... And the same for your children, and your children's children's children (etc) Load up!!! :-D
February 16, 201412 yr Author Ok, I have no idea what a sucker rod is. Looks like rebar? Sucker rod is used on a pump jack. Those rocking horse looking things in oil fields that bring the oil to the surface after the well as been dug. They connect together via a threaded end. They go all the way down the well shaft, at the bottom is a suction cup of sorts. so as the pump jack goes up it pulls oil to the top of the tube. usualy they come in 30 foot sections. Very flexible as they have to travel a long way, depending how deep the well hole is.
February 16, 201412 yr Here is a link to a typical sucker rod. http://www.weatherford.com/Products/Production/SuckerRods/APINormalizedSuckerRods/
February 17, 201412 yr Tongs and fullers. I like to take the male ends and flatten the ridge so the sq flat will fit in the anvil hardy hole and then weld balls, etc to the top for armour making tools. I once used one for the shaft and handle of a foot jousting war hammer...
February 17, 201412 yr If they are medium carbon then quenching in water may get a little more hardness then oil. Would have to experiment obviously. Great find.
February 17, 201412 yr per the Aspery line of training we make all sorts of hand tools from sucker rod hardened by quenching the working end in the slack tub and tempered by allowing the remaining heat in the shank to travel back to the tip and quenching that off at the right color, repeat as many times as you have heat remaining. I always forget which but we generally assume that its 4140 chrome/moly, I gotta write that down somewhere.... Steve, is there any way to visually determine if the rod has come from a sour well (contaminated with sulfur/hydrogen sulfide right?)? what would be the failure or unwanted side effects stemming from such exposure? safety hazard or material hazard that could lead to failure of the tool?
February 17, 201412 yr Hydrogen Sulfide is toxic; I worked a well where it was my job to test the sensors; one of the dangers is that you only smell it *once* and then your nose is deadened to it for an amount of time so you don't know that the exposure is still going on.
February 17, 201412 yr Author Hydrogen Sulfide is toxic; I worked a well where it was my job to test the sensors; one of the dangers is that you only smell it *once* and then your nose is deadened to it for an amount of time so you don't know that the exposure is still going on. Is it isolated to the outside of the steel. does it burn off? Just wondering if a respirator is necessary when using sucker rod. Is there a visual way to identify contaminated steel? Or just a crapshoot as to what out pick out of the pile?
February 17, 201412 yr I'd love to play with some sucker rod.... but we're oil wells are noticeably scarce in these parts. Looks like a great stock supply, though. So much you can do with a pile of stock like that.
February 18, 201412 yr I haven't had much of a problem, older stock has weathered and newer stock has EPA regulations attached, such as testing for radiation and other contaminants, befor it can be despised of (sold as scrap, or used material)
February 18, 201412 yr The problem with hydrogen sulfide and sucker rods (or any tubular material for that matter) is that HS will make steel brittle. In many oil or gas wells, drill string, tubing, sucker rods and just about anything else tubular exposed to sour gas i.e., hydrogen sulfide, have broken off in the borehole due to HS embrittlement, requiring expensive fishing jobs to recover the broken pieces. Drill collars, for example that may be 8" in O.D. with a 3" or 4" I.D would break like spaghetti. Special alloy steels are required in HS environments. You will not suffer any ill effects working with sucker rod that has been around HS. Being a gas, it has long since evaporated. The only problem might be that it may break unexpectedly.
February 18, 201412 yr Author great info fellas. VaughnT, I would ship you a length to play with but it may cost a small fortune to do so.
February 18, 201412 yr Chop it up and put it in a flat rate box? Always fun to watch the eyes bug out of the counter person at the post office
February 18, 201412 yr A lot of tong building sized pieces would fit in a flat rate box---though I generally make a plywood box to fit inside the flat rate ifn I'm shipping steel...
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