On Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:06:20 -0700, "SteveB"
wrote:

I don't have a clue why, but just a short time ago, I was lying in my hot
bath contemplating time spent on drilling rigs. I've come to realize that
I've forgotten more than most young guys know. But I digress.

Question: Why is it that 5" drill pipe comes in random lengths. Every
crane operator had that denim covered tally book in their back pocket, and
losing it could bring on severe consequences.

Out of everything we used, jars, collars, stabilizers, saver subs, fishing
tools, ........... the thing there was the most of was drilling pipe, and
that would seem to be the easiest to fabricate in standard lengths. Same
with casing.

Can anyone tell me?

Steve


Pins and collars are standard sizes, but stem tends to be random lengths
from the mill. Plus pipe repairs, recutting the pins, cutting off
collars and replacing them etc etc tend to make pipe lengths rather
random.

Some drill stem I punched in the ground was over 50 yrs old, based on
company records.

But its a really good question.


Gunner

"Lenin called them "useful idiots," those people living in
liberal democracies who by giving moral and material support
to a totalitarian ideology in effect were braiding the rope that
would hang them. Why people who enjoyed freedom and prosperity worked
passionately to destroy both is a fascinating question, one still with us
today. Now the useful idiots can be found in the chorus of appeasement,
reflexive anti-Americanism, and sentimental idealism trying to inhibit
the necessary responses to another freedom-hating ideology, radical Islam"

Bruce C. Thornton, a professor of Classics at American University of Cal State Fresno