Mig welding oil field sucker rods???

[scapegoat]

I am getting ready to do a large hand railing project. To save time I was hoping to mig weld all the 3/4" sucker rods being used as the spindles in a hand railing. The railing has channel iron with 3/4" punched holes. I have thousands of feet of sucker rod and 1 pile that has been sitting in for a good 20-30+ years. I will have to check for magnetism. I have stick welded sucker rod for corrals before.

I will be cutting on a band saw, and grinding the ends to be welded clean. I figure the amount of time being on the ground they might have lost most of their magnetism, and any and all oil residue should be long gone.

Do I need to heat the ends cherry red?
Will mig welding these in my shop indoors work?

I will have several days of welding all of the spindles in so mig will be the fastest.
Railings will be sandblasted and powder coated after welding, so knocking slag and cleaning up welds only adds even more time.

Thanks in advanced

[mla2ofus]

As you well know sucker rod is extremely hard so I think you'll need lots of amps to make the welds fuse good with mig.

[propanehotrod]

The main problem is high carbon content. You could try preheating and welding some samples and see if you can break them.

[Welder Dave]

A coral or fence is one thing, a hand rail is something different. Where is the hand rail going? If it's something people could potentially lean on and it breaks could be a liability issue. I don't know if hand rail has any requirements for the type of steel used.

[OPUS FERRO]

scapegoat

. . . To save time I was hoping to mig weld all the 3/4" sucker rods
. . . I will have to check for magnetism
. . . I will be cutting on a band saw
. . . I figure the amount of time being on the ground they might have
. lost most of their magnetism
. . . Do I need to heat the ends cherry red?

OK
Why
Good
Witchcraft
You are not rehardening a Bull Prick - [only heat to non-magnetic] . . .

As you well know sucker rod is extremely hard so I think you'll need lots
of amps to make the welds fuse good with mig.

B.S. - [Hooper Water ?] High heat - makes the HAZ zone harder . . .

The main problem is high carbon content. You could try preheating and
welding some samples and see if you can break them.

Stay tuned . . .

A coral or fence is one thing, a hand rail is something different . . .
If it's something people could potentially lean on . . . could be a liability
issue . . . any requirements for the type of steel used.

Sage advice . . .


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


I'm confused: I regularly build garden arbors, and furniture from Sucker
Rods . . .

I - band saw cut, turn in a lathe, drill/counter-bore/tap [with HHS] and
weld with Mig/Tig/Stick - and have none of the afore mentioned issues -

Sucker Rods: turns in a lathe like butter - and weld conventionally with
Mig/Tig/Stick - without Undercut . . .

Maybe I have been lucky with raw stock - but I believe the real issue is
a matter of expertise . . .

hth


Opus



ps -

What are going to do now . . .



.

[In Utopia]

Several years ago I mig welded sucker rods to a frame to make an arena drag for a neighbor. He also used it to smooth out his caliche driveway. Never had a weld break, and never did anything special except to really clean both the ends of the rod and the mating tubing I welded it to.
Never even tested the rod for magnetism.

[metalman21]

No oil fields in my neck of the woods, WTF is a sucker rod?

[cwby]

Pump jacks go up & down in the oilfield. They raise & lower sucker rods inside the pipe to operate the slide pump in the bottom of the well. Pump sucks oil into the pump body & pipe when the rods go up, check valve closes when the rods go down, sucks more oil when the rods go up, check valve closes when the rods go down - hence sucker rods.

[smithdoor]

If remember that is 1060 steel close rails for trains

You welding to A36 heat both parts to above 750°F and use E71T-11 or rod 7018.

Dave

I am getting ready to do a large hand railing project. To save time I was hoping to mig weld all the 3/4" sucker rods being used as the spindles in a hand railing. The railing has channel iron with 3/4" punched holes. I have thousands of feet of sucker rod and 1 pile that has been sitting in for a good 20-30+ years. I will have to check for magnetism. I have stick welded sucker rod for corrals before.

I will be cutting on a band saw, and grinding the ends to be welded clean. I figure the amount of time being on the ground they might have lost most of their magnetism, and any and all oil residue should be long gone.

Do I need to heat the ends cherry red?
Will mig welding these in my shop indoors work?

I will have several days of welding all of the spindles in so mig will be the fastest.
Railings will be sandblasted and powder coated after welding, so knocking slag and cleaning up welds only adds even more time.

Thanks in advanced

[Kevin Morin]

Scape',
if I understand the original post? the welds at the ends of the rods will be into sockets?drilled/punched into channels? of will the welds be the T-fillet around the rods as they face into the channel?

I've only worked with down hole materials that are used in Alaska, so I can't confirm the alloys you'll be welding? But another note of reference on others' past projects: I've used flux core MIG, with CO2 cover gas and the alloy was the N2 or 2% nickle wire.

This was recommended to me by another welder who'd had lots of work with 2-3/8" & 2-7/8" & 3-1/2" 'tubing' that was claimed to be L-80 alloy and some A333 alloy. My experience welding this pipe has been good using the N2 flux core and cover gas.

just another reference to consider? You can always chop up some short pieces of rod, weld with various methods; and wail on the welds with a big hammer to see if any method or another is particularly likely to come apart?

Cheers,
Kevin Morin
Kenai, AK

[walker]

If you are inserting this through punched channel top and bottom, then a weld under the channel top and bottom should work just fine. Even if the weld cracks it should still hold it in the hole.

[Leogl]

Well there are 100s of different sucker rod brands and alloys some are weldable some are marginable but there are other factors 1 what kind of use it was in for example if it was in a high h2s area it could have a lot of sulfur in it which usually makes them hard and brittle a lot of rods get work hardened or have a small scratch or nick in them and they will break. Rods have been known to break without even welding on them. That is why the general rule of thumb is to weld with a low hydrogen electrode . For what your doing I would get them really clean and weld them with some .035 wire making sure there is no undercut and not worry about it