came here to post about NORM....apparently I'm late. We used to turn out the geiger when driving over cattle guards and you'd be suprised how often those are "hot".

Are you actually talking about 2-7/8" tubing or drill? Big difference in weight per foot. 4.7# and 10.4 per foot

6 5/8" DP or GTFO

The stuff I was looking at on Craigslist had joints. It had to be string pipe.

I worked for an offshore company doing inventory and rig warehousing. I've seen the big stuff. Piles of it. Try sleeping while the crane crew is stacking it in racks on the deck right above your cabin.

Big stuff huh, former pipeline guy here, 48" OD X 1.125"WT. Talk about burning rods...

Not dissimilar to casing.

Big is guys building submarines.

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...is hard to imagine messing with 16.6 pdf 4 1/2 drill pipe to build anything without a very stout forklift and a crane. You have two cuts to remove the upset on both pin and tool joint ends, two very heavy pieces of unusable steel for each joint. I mean, how on earth are you going to move that stuff?

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50 + years ago, we built a lot of corrals, corner (brace) posts in fences, and barns using drill stem with upset collars. Simply screwed them together and went on! No waste. Sure, it was heavy, but managed with tractors, chains, and hoists. Woulda been nice to have a skid steer back then!

I was mostly concerned if the steel would be sturdy enough to frame a barn. 2.875 apparently has a wall thickness of .362", and weight about 10lb/foot. I imagine that is pretty sturdy stuff.

dahouse said:

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Big stuff huh, former pipeline guy here, 48" OD X 1.125"WT. Talk about burning rods...

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120", .625 wall and 144" .750 wall on my last project. 48" was our vent piping.

I did some boiler steam piping years ago - 42", 1.75" wall. It was a beetch to move, fit and weld.

MouthBQ98 said:

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I was mostly concerned if the steel would be sturdy enough to frame a barn. 2.875 apparently has a wall thickness of .362", and weight about 10lb/foot. I imagine that is pretty sturdy stuff.

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It would be plenty stout, maybe not for the support columns, but for everything else.

CanyonAg77 said:

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I have no idea how magnetism would effect welding. Am open to explanations, but I'm skeptical.

On a side note, we had some farm equipment that was made from old oilfield pipe. When we tried to scrap it, it was rejected because it was radioactive. Apparently, a radioactive source was used in some well logging operation, and the pipe still had traces, some 50 years after it left the oil field.

I also learned that scrap yards have Geiger counters. I had no idea.

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I have welded on drill pipe when putting a fishing pier in for an old boss. The rotation of the drill pipe in the ground is what causes it to become magnetized. It can be very difficult to weld. It tends to "splatter" back on you instead of laying down. This is why another poster said to make sure you turn up the heat. It's almost as if you're forcing it to lay down.

MouthBQ98 said:

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Anyone try to build a pole barn using drill pipe for the basic frame? I'm talking a very simple 24x24 or 24x36 barn that is basically covered storage with a 1:4 slope roof, 12 foot spans between posts, and in the area of 12 or 13 foot clearance (for trailer storage).

I have designed some plans for wood construction, but used drill pipe is fairly abundant and cheap, and though I hear it can be tough to weld, it is steel, and there's ALWAYS a way to weld steel with the right welder and technique. Was wondering if 2 7/8 would be overkill or maybe undersized?

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Did you ever get this built? I'd like to see some pics if it was built.

Nope, not yet. Too many things going on the last year or so and now waiting for building materials to become reasonably priced again.