"TURTLE" wrote in message
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snip-------
This is Turtle
If you want it to shine Smooth finish and looks pretty you use the 300
series
and if you don't care about it looking pretty you use 404 industrial grade
Stainless Steel Pipe. 404 has a ruff finish and sometime off color in gray
looking colors. You usely will paint the 404 to make it look pretty in the
oil
industry. For the shinny smooth finish you pay dearly for it. years ago it
sold
for about $90.00 for a 20 foot joint of 3.5" Sch. 40. It must have went up
in
the last 15 years and could be up to $150.00 to $170.00 a 20 foot joint.
These
prices was for Oil field work and not for a hardware store to sell. If you
request the 300 series smooth and pretty this joint would run you maybe
$300.00
to $400.00. The oil Industry buys ruff ugly pipe and cheap and not shinny
and
pretty.
When you say a joint of pipe. The slang words for this is a joint of pipe
is any
length over 10 feet that you want to refer to it as talking about it.
All pipe like this is sold in 10 feet joints, 20 feet joints, and rolls of
a
half miles. 10 feet and half mile rolls are rare and most everything is
sold in
20 feet joints. The half mile rolls are used on pipe line laying from big
spools
off Catapillar skid and can lay a 1/2 mile of pipe before they have to
make a
weld. A bought the only way to transport it is by ships or railroad for
the
spool is about 30 feet high and 20 feet wide. It is also used a lot in the
Gulf
of Mexico where they can supply it to the pipe laying equipment and not
have a
transporting problem. Now I have been told they have longer spools for the
Gulf
work and can get 2 or 3 miles on spools to lay in the Gulf.
The public buys the 300 series and the industrial works buys the 400 and
600
series for their use. Also the Industrial people buy sometimes 50 to 100
miles
of pipe and they get discounts out of this world.
TURTLE
Hey Turtle!
Things in the oil industry must be far different from those in the
manufacturing industries. There are no 400 series pipe types listed
(Jorgensen stock list, 1988) which doesn't surprise me in the least. 400
series stainless is a straight chromium stainless (no nickel), unlike the
300 series. The 400 series is heat treatable, which could present
particular problems when (field) welded.
Pipe and tubing are available in 304, 316, 321 and 347 only, according to
Jorgensen.
I can't help but wonder if the 404 designation pertains to oil field jargon,
not to the alloy from which the pipe is made. Comments?
Thanks for the explanation of "joint". Again, likely an oil field term,
certainly nothing ever used where I worked, but then we didn't specialize in
pipe, either.
Harold
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