Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

I've got an old fence I want to salvage some pipe from. It's a two
rail fence made out of 2 3/8 drill pipe. I've cut the top rail off of
the uprights, but I'm left with a short stub of pipe welded on every
12 feet. I need to cut those off.

I can do it with a cutoff wheel and a grinder, but it takes a while.
Anybody got a good way to get these off pretty fast? It doesn't have
to be that pretty.

Thanks!

Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

In article , (Sparks) wrote:

I've got an old fence I want to salvage some pipe from. It's a two
rail fence made out of 2 3/8 drill pipe. I've cut the top rail off of
the uprights, but I'm left with a short stub of pipe welded on every
12 feet. I need to cut those off.

I can do it with a cutoff wheel and a grinder, but it takes a while.
Anybody got a good way to get these off pretty fast? It doesn't have
to be that pretty.

Cutting torch. Sawzall with a metal-cutting blade. Take your pick.

Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

"Doug Miller" wrote in message
...
In article ,
(Sparks) wrote:

I've got an old fence I want to salvage some pipe from. It's a two
rail fence made out of 2 3/8 drill pipe. I've cut the top rail off of
the uprights, but I'm left with a short stub of pipe welded on every
12 feet. I need to cut those off.

I can do it with a cutoff wheel and a grinder, but it takes a while.
Anybody got a good way to get these off pretty fast? It doesn't have
to be that pretty.

Cutting torch. Sawzall with a metal-cutting blade. Take your pick.

No, no, no, silly.
Turn it on a lathe, of course. Stop just short of the zinc plating.
--
DT

Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

Sparks wrote:

I've got an old fence I want to salvage some pipe from. It's a two
rail fence made out of 2 3/8 drill pipe. I've cut the top rail off of
the uprights, but I'm left with a short stub of pipe welded on every
12 feet. I need to cut those off.

I can do it with a cutoff wheel and a grinder, but it takes a while.
Anybody got a good way to get these off pretty fast? It doesn't have
to be that pretty.

You could get most of it off quite quickly with a plasma cutter or O/A torch.
If you aren't scared of warping, you can try a flushing tip on your torch.
If you have an arc gouging gun, you could also scarf off the welds, that's
quick and dirty.

Grant

Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

On Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:38:54 GMT, (Sparks)
wrote:

I've got an old fence I want to salvage some pipe from. It's a two
rail fence made out of 2 3/8 drill pipe. I've cut the top rail off of
the uprights, but I'm left with a short stub of pipe welded on every
12 feet. I need to cut those off.

I can do it with a cutoff wheel and a grinder, but it takes a while.
Anybody got a good way to get these off pretty fast? It doesn't have
to be that pretty.

You used to scarf those off with a big Gas Axe with a curved tip, so
the cutting oxygen jet was parallel to the surface. Hit the Oxygen
lever, and the offending material starts to disappear at a rapid rate,
and rather neatly if you had the technique down.

I watched a Maestro clean up the old weld from the baseplate of a
light post, and then we chopped off the bottom three inches of the
post where it rusted out and welded it back together again. (I putz
around, but when it's structural work I let someone who welds all day
and has the certs to prove it do the work.) And lots of Zinc Rich
Primer before painting.

Wonder if they make curved tips for plasma cutters...? (Miller says
to use the "extended" or "gouge" tips.)

-- Bruce --

Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

Portable bandsaw will remove most of it. Just stay flush or you will
start cutting into the salvaged piece rather than the stub. Fast and
fairly quiet. No sparks.

On Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:38:54 GMT, (Sparks)
wrote:


I've got an old fence I want to salvage some pipe from. It's a two
rail fence made out of 2 3/8 drill pipe. I've cut the top rail off of
the uprights, but I'm left with a short stub of pipe welded on every
12 feet. I need to cut those off.

I can do it with a cutoff wheel and a grinder, but it takes a while.
Anybody got a good way to get these off pretty fast? It doesn't have
to be that pretty.

Thanks!

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Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

Sparks wrote:

I don't have enough experience with a torch to not burn through the
pipe I'm trying to save. :-/

Consider this your training session.
:)

--Winston

Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

In article , (Sparks) wrote:
(Doug Miller) wrote:

In article ,
(Sparks) wrote:
but I'm left with a short stub of pipe welded on every
12 feet. I need to cut those off.

Cutting torch. Sawzall with a metal-cutting blade. Take your pick.

Thanks! I tried the sawzall. It works, but takes a while. And it eats
up the blades pretty fast. The pipe is about 3/16 wall thickness.

Are you using Milwaukee blades? :-)

Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

"Sparks" wrote in message
.. .

I've got an old fence I want to salvage some pipe from. It's a two
rail fence made out of 2 3/8 drill pipe. I've cut the top rail off of
the uprights, but I'm left with a short stub of pipe welded on every
12 feet. I need to cut those off.

I can do it with a cutoff wheel and a grinder, but it takes a while.
Anybody got a good way to get these off pretty fast? It doesn't have
to be that pretty.

Thanks!

Not sure how that metallurgical mix would react to mechanical cutting. Were
it me, I'd just take a cutting torch to it. Realize you will probably have
some blowback from scale on the inside of the wall, and cut it at an angle
rather than 90 deg. to the pipe. At an axis parallel to a line drawn
through the center. That way, you will just bounce off the scale, and
actually get a prettier cut. Watch out for the drops. That stuff is heavy.
I used to work on oil rigs.

Steve

Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

Pipe cutter - Chain wraparound and a long bar on the pipe cutter.
Martin
Martin H. Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
TSRA, Endowed; NRA LOH & Patron Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot's Medal.
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.
http://lufkinced.com/


Doug Miller wrote:
In article , (Sparks) wrote:
I've got an old fence I want to salvage some pipe from. It's a two
rail fence made out of 2 3/8 drill pipe. I've cut the top rail off of
the uprights, but I'm left with a short stub of pipe welded on every
12 feet. I need to cut those off.

I can do it with a cutoff wheel and a grinder, but it takes a while.
Anybody got a good way to get these off pretty fast? It doesn't have
to be that pretty.

Cutting torch. Sawzall with a metal-cutting blade. Take your pick.


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Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

Sparks wrote:

(Doug Miller) wrote:


In article , (Sparks) wrote:

(Doug Miller) wrote:


Cutting torch. Sawzall with a metal-cutting blade. Take your pick.

Thanks! I tried the sawzall. It works, but takes a while. And it eats
up the blades pretty fast. The pipe is about 3/16 wall thickness.

Are you using Milwaukee blades? :-)


Now that I look, yes! In fact, they are labeled "The Torch" :-) It's
not a Milwaukee saw, though.

I'd be interested in any tricks to keep the blade from overheating
(other than "wait";) that seems to be what does them in.

That would be some kind of coolant. I recently discovered a spray can product
made by Union Butterfield which works great and is very portable. It's
basically a drilling fluid but it would work fine for keeping a sawzall
blade cool too.

I think you should try cutting this with a torch. You might nick the
parent pipe a little, but you will rapidly learn and gain confidence. It should
be an order of magnitude faster than a sawzall.

Grant

Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

On Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:46:10 -0500, "Martin H. Eastburn"
wrote:

Pipe cutter - Chain wraparound and a long bar on the pipe cutter.
Martin

Yeah, that chain pipe cutter will pop the post off the top rail real
fast and leave a nice square clean cut - but that still leaves the
"fishmouth" of the vertical post welded to the top rail pipe.

He's trying to cut that fishmouth and weld off, and either a plasma
cutter or oxy-acetylene cutting torch is the tool for the job. The
choice depends on what you have available or the budget for.

Angle grinder for cleanup, and a stick, wirefeed or MIG welding
torch to fill in the inevitable divots. Then hit it again with the
grinder.

-- Bruce --

Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

On Aug 9, 1:14*am, Grant Erwin wrote:
Sparks wrote:
(Doug Miller) wrote:

In article , (Sparks) wrote:

(Doug Miller) wrote:

Cutting torch. Sawzall with a metal-cutting blade. Take your pick.

Thanks! I tried the sawzall. It works, but takes a while. And it eats
up the blades pretty fast. The pipe is about 3/16 wall thickness.

Are you using Milwaukee blades? :-)

Now that I look, yes! In fact, they are labeled "The Torch" :-) It's
not a Milwaukee saw, though.

I'd be interested in any tricks to keep the blade from overheating
(other than "wait";) that seems to be what does them in.

That would be some kind of coolant. I recently discovered a spray can product
made by Union Butterfield which works great and is very portable. It's
basically a drilling fluid but it would work fine for keeping a sawzall
blade cool too.

I think you should try cutting this with a torch. You might nick the
parent pipe a little, but you will rapidly learn and gain confidence. It should
be an order of magnitude faster than a sawzall.

Grant- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Graduate school is learning to cut one exhaust pipe from the inside of
a larger one that its a press fit into, and has been clamped for
years.

Man, that's a lifesaver now and then!


Dave

Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

I thought this hater of fine oil pipe had cut the top into lots of
short length pipe. Leaving the T on the post.

Best way is to put it into a long lathe and turn it down. :-)

Martin

Martin H. Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
TSRA, Endowed; NRA LOH & Patron Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot's Medal.
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.
http://lufkinced.com/


Bruce L. Bergman wrote:
On Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:46:10 -0500, "Martin H. Eastburn"
wrote:

Pipe cutter - Chain wraparound and a long bar on the pipe cutter.
Martin

Yeah, that chain pipe cutter will pop the post off the top rail real
fast and leave a nice square clean cut - but that still leaves the
"fishmouth" of the vertical post welded to the top rail pipe.

He's trying to cut that fishmouth and weld off, and either a plasma
cutter or oxy-acetylene cutting torch is the tool for the job. The
choice depends on what you have available or the budget for.

Angle grinder for cleanup, and a stick, wirefeed or MIG welding
torch to fill in the inevitable divots. Then hit it again with the
grinder.

-- Bruce --



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Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

Martin H. Eastburn wrote:
I thought this hater of fine oil pipe had cut the top into lots of
short length pipe. Leaving the T on the post.

Best way is to put it into a long lathe and turn it down. :-)

My gut reaction is that this will not work in a lathe. I think it will
only work if this is a very stiff pipe (think short pipe) and you turn
it down very slowly to avoid the tool jamming against the protrusion.

Best wishes,

Chris

Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

What's that Lassie? You say that Sparks fell down the old
rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue
by Sat, 09 Aug 2008 02:13:24 GMT:

Thanks! I tried the sawzall. It works, but takes a while. And it eats
up the blades pretty fast.

What kind of blades did you use.
I have been cutting up some scrap channel and tube, and have found
that the milwaukee blades called " the torch" are way better than the
"metal cutting" blades.
--

Dan H.

Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

On Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:16:58 +0000, Christopher Tidy
wrote:

Martin H. Eastburn wrote:
I thought this hater of fine oil pipe had cut the top into lots of
short length pipe. Leaving the T on the post.

Best way is to put it into a long lathe and turn it down. :-)

My gut reaction is that this will not work in a lathe. I think it will
only work if this is a very stiff pipe (think short pipe) and you turn
it down very slowly to avoid the tool jamming against the protrusion.

Congratulations, Chris! You figured out 'interrupted cuts'.

-- Bruce --

Best way to un-weld pipe?
 

If you must sawzall it........
Squirt can of used motor oil - hit the blade every 20 seconds or sooner.
Slow cutting speed
Use a long blade and move blade back and forth so the heat dissipates.
Heat is what kills the blades.

Torch is the best way to go.

Mark
"Sparks" wrote in message
. ..
(Doug Miller) wrote:

In article ,
(Sparks) wrote:
(Doug Miller) wrote:

Cutting torch. Sawzall with a metal-cutting blade. Take your pick.

Thanks! I tried the sawzall. It works, but takes a while. And it eats
up the blades pretty fast. The pipe is about 3/16 wall thickness.

Are you using Milwaukee blades? :-)

Now that I look, yes! In fact, they are labeled "The Torch" :-) It's
not a Milwaukee saw, though.

I'd be interested in any tricks to keep the blade from overheating
(other than "wait";) that seems to be what does them in.










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