My cousin just gave me about 750+ yards of sucker rod (cut down to about 16' lengths) from a drilling company he works with. I'm just curious as to what some of my fellow smiths have made with sucker rod. I plan on making some punches and other tooling, as well as try using some for hooks and...:confused:
Any ideas would be welcome.
So show me what you've made with sucker rod and give me some ideas... I've got the steel, now I need to figure out what to do with it :cool:

Thanks everyone

I used a section of it for the handle of a warhammer; it was the male end and I flattened the section just behind the fillet to make the tang and then squared the rod above the fillet and twisted it to make the handle and heat shrunk the hammer head on it.

I also use the male joint ends to make hardy tooling with for my anvils where I can forge it down to fit in the hardy.

Sucker Rod...gift of the gods..........have made hammers, hardy tools, tripods, punches, drifts, tongs, weather vanes, trellises, sign posts, and anything else needing steel of that size. Oo, oo, a sord......yeah, next project "Sucker Sord".....:)

What is a sucker rod?

its used on wells

A buddy of mine made this. Great reference.

Edited November 15, 200817 yr by Tald the dead

What is sucker rod?

Paul,
This link gives specs for one brand of sucker rod. In the picture shown you are looking at the male end of the rod. This link was shared by IFI member Irnsrgn, one night in the chat room, that I bookmarked. So Thanks Irnsrgn.

To answer your question, It is used link the above ground mechanical pump rig to the underground pump unit. This pumps are used to pump oil and etc. from bottom of a well.

Nos, Look on the flats of the square part of the ends, to see what kind of steel your rod is.

Let your imagination be your guide as to what make with your material.

Larry

Tald thanks for the chart, I added it to my junkyard steel list

But isn't sucker rod a hollow tube?

No it's solid rod.

It's solid and comes in 1/8 inch increments from 1/2 inch diam to 1-1/4 inches, but 5/8, 3/4, and 7/8 are probably the most common diameters.

It takes a little work, but makes good tongs, excellent punches, etc. I have used lots of it. All of what I have used is 1/2" to 1". You will find that most of it is magnetized, but that goes away in the forge.

Wow! I can't wait to use this stuff!:cool:
Thank you everyone for the input!
A special thanks to Tald the dead and LarryM for the charts.
I'll have to make my cousin a special gift for giving me all this steel... I suppose I could make him a "Sucker Sword" lol
I'm thinking of making some sort of tripod "lowering" device for turkey frying for Thanksgiving. We usually fry about 6-7 turkeys and about 4 chickens for friends and family at Thanksgiving. My arm sure gets tired quickly from slowly lowering each bird into the oil (lowering slowly prevents any overflow or splatter). Last year I used the "boom" lift I had on the bed of my work truck (you might be a redneck if... )and it worked pretty well. I'll post pic's of some of the things I make.
Thanks again everyone

Here is a link to Norris' specs on sucker rod
Norris Products - Sucker Rods

Where can a person in central Virginia get sucker rod?

On 7/29/2011 at 9:50 AM, Prokopto said:

Where can a person in central Virginia get sucker rod?

That might be difficult, It's found mainly in oil producing areas........

 

Pennsylvania is the closest oil producing state that I know of, though surplus sucker rod shows up at scrapyard and fence builders' yards.

If you can't find it locally as cheap or free scrap, you really have to ask yourself how much trouble and expense it's worth. Steel isn't that hard to come by.

Now I feel real bad! I turned down a mile and a half of three rail horse corral made of sucker rod two years ago and didn't bother to alert any of the smiths I knew. It all went to the salvage yard. What a waste that was, it all went to a rebar manufacture. I ought to be taken out and shot for that lapse of judgement.

Hmmm... I have a cousin in PA. Her dad and I might just be going to help her move into a house in the Fall. Maybe we can bring some back. Thanks for the tip Mr. Powers.

Theres a guy that goes by NOS onthe site that has about 2000 feet of it he might sell for a small phenominal fee? LOL

You can find it for $5-$8 per joint these days. Wyoming is full of it. 

Uh HUH. Leave it to a guy in Montana to tell us Wyoming is FULL OF IT. 

Well DUH!    

Has anyone mentioned I LOVE a straight line and that one is a doozy. Thank you.

Frosty The Lucky.

They also make very good cone mandrels for making bells ,candle holders,ect.   Forge the threaded end to fit in a hardy hole cut the rod around three inches past the square piece .the use the taper from the round rod to the square as your mandrel. Different size rods make different sized mandrels. I use a piece of grader blade with a square hole as they hardy. For me it is way easier for me to drive the pipe straight down to bell the end of pipe on this mandrel then any other way i have tried. 

Where I come from, sucker rod is from water wells, and "polish rod" is from oil wells.  Polish rod is highly polished, and case hardened. We used it for head ache racks, and whatnot.  Fencing was made from sucker rod.