Welding on pipe that's been in the ground

True. You will have to grind down to clean metal. Which may be hard, depending on how long its been in the ground..what the soil was like..acid or alkalyne and so forth.

Now me..I weld that sort of stuff all the time, but the soil here is dry, drains well, while a bit akaline..still is easy enough to knock off the surface rust and still have decent parent metal.

Assuming its not been in the ground HERE for more than 60 yrs. YMMV

Gunner

"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences."

- Proverbs 22:3

Rusty pipe is always a problem. The rust needs to be cleaned out or the weld process will need to melt around the rust inclusions. Not to mention the problem with varying thicknesses of material if it is really bad.

TIG will be terrible, MIG may work, stick weld with a high penetrati> word is that the used oil well pipe that I acquired will be difficult

Lots of variables there. If it's upset tube then it will not be mild steel and will require a low hydrogen process to weld reliably. Rust, salt water deposit, paraffin deposit, plastic liner, etc if present will all work against you when working with this stuff. Finally there's a chance of it being magnetized. This can cause mild to severe arc blow.

It boils down to you won't know till you try.

Couldn't he just burn down a root weld with 6011 first, then 6013, or something like that ?

I suppose he could...assuming that the Iron Worms havent been eating both the inside and the outside of the pipe. Ive thumped a pretty nice looking piece of Range 1, 2 7/8" pipe..and knocked a hole completly though it. Looked pretty good on the outside. Shrug

Rain water had collected INSIDE the pipe..fence post and didnt drain. Outside looked typical for the area..but they had plugged the bottom off when driving it into the ground..so it had fermented for many years every time it rained, while the water on the outside simply drained away.

Which is why when I put in a fence post..I put in a half shovel full of pea gravel, then stand the pipe..then concrete. Or waste time capping it.

Gunner

"I think this is because of your belief in biological Marxism. As a genetic communist you feel that noticing behavioural patterns relating to race would cause a conflict with your belief in biological Marxism." Big Pete, famous Usenet Racist

I hears ya! Them are good ideas, and I somehting similar. Speaking of welding "pipe" - anyone ever us 6010 ? Man, that stuff's nas-tee. ...but its susposed to be for "pipe". Reverse polarity mind you, but I've never been able to use that stuff (much let alone on pipe). But yea, 6011 will let you know real quick whether or not you got a thin spot.

Ernie Leimkuhler wrote: " 6010 is 6011's mean cousin that just got out of prison after serving

Exactly the truth too...

"I think this is because of your belief in biological Marxism. As a genetic communist you feel that noticing behavioural patterns relating to race would cause a conflict with your belief in biological Marxism." Big Pete, famous Usenet Racist

Ha! - well said. Try running it on A/C, he gets even meaner. (for newbies who didn't know that 6010 is a DCEP rod)

Is it me or do a lot of guys just run 7014 all day if possible? I can't think of a time recently- on good metal I have used anything else

Thanks if there is a FYI on this one.

Respects,

' Rob