Way OT: used oil field pipe

my one son asked me to help locate a quantity of used oil field pipe about one and a quarter inch diameter. We are WAY down in Florida so freight is a factor. Can anyone suggest a source? What is the current price? any hints on using it for cattle pens? it will be off the ground and epoxied.

I use a lot of it. I can take a look out the window and see a dozen wells in this section alone. Pipe is prolific here. I was pretty glad to get a big load here a while back for 35 cents a foot. I also got sucker rod for 33 cents a foot. If you get pipe for less than a buck a foot here you aren't getting taken too bad.

I use one inch for the bottom rail and alternate with sucker all the way up. I use two inch for the posts and sometimes for the top rail depending on what I will use the paddock for I have had cows bend it a little if they are determined but the only ones that can get through are calves under 250 pounds.

Mine is all welded. I use my tombstone Lincoln with extensions on the supply cord and lead cords. I have used my mig as well but that pipe is always rusty and nasty so the Lincoln works well with a trash rod. I slide a piece of smaller pipe in the end of the pipe and tack it in four spots. Then I slide then new one on and tack it to the other long piece. They get welded to the posts. I've also used some wood posts. I set the big corner post and drill holes to put the pipe in it. I then put in the smaller wood posts and use the two "eared" conduit holders to hold the pipe to them.

One of my jobs on these warm days it to finish a loading chute I started. I am using wood posts and then putting the pipe on the inside so even if they want out they can't get the pipe off. I like them that way since I can use the hotshot through the sides. If you use wood the have to be spaced farther to do that. I load pigs there so the pipe will be about 8 inches apart.

Are there oil wells there? If there are wells there will be pipe. Call the oil companies and inquire. I don't know that you will get the size you want - ours is one inch and two inch.

I would stay away from used oil field pipe. It never quits rusting. I had a corral built out of it 30 years ago and now building it over again. My dad had a corral built a year or two after me and did not use oil field pipe and it is in good shape yet. The oilfield pipe will rust from the inside out and you can't stop it.

Oil field pipe is likes flies on cow dung around here. You can find it everywhere.
If you look around you can see many a cow/horse yard built out of it. Many swear by it because it is cheap and plentiful.
Heck you can often find it for close to scrap price. I had one guy give me a 16 foot trailer load of it all cut into 7 foot lengths ready to be used for fence post. All I had to do was load it and haul it off.

So one must ask themselves WHY would someone sell pipe piece mill when they could just haul the whole load to the scrapyard and unload the whole lot at one time for about the same price.

Well I found out the hard way WHY.
I hauled that load home and used it as fence post for years. Worked around it all the time. Then when it starting rusting out years later I tore the fence down and hauled the pipe to the scrap yard.
Imagine my surprise when the scrap yard said....
Sorry we can not take that....
Its radioactive!!!!!

Yes this is more of a problem in the south so you may find some pipe that will be great; but you better at least check it before buying it. And I do not mean taking the pipe sellers word for it that it is clean.

Just google used drill pipe radioactive or oil field pipe radioactive and watch how many hits you get about the dark and dirty little secret the oil companies what to keep hush hush.

Former oil field pipe and a used grader blade made into a dozer blade for John Deere A-630. Now part of fence-row decor.

Rust is what makes it hot. Gotta watch it around here Salta Pipe puts PVC inside 2-3/8,2-7/8. This stuff is nasty to about anything with. We have lots of parafin in some here and gets pretty hot when gets going.

2 3/8" and 2.7/8 "Drill stem is in hot demand up here.
People make 30' long 5' ,6' and 7' high cattle and bison panels from them, some free standing ones as well
Beats building plank corrals.
I wish i could get a truckload of it.
Never heard of them pipe rusting out or being radio active.
Only thing i am aware of that they can contain sour gas which stinks like h"ll when cutting or welding them.
Some stems are magnetic and gives trouble with welding, but there's a cure for that.

yes we have it here in IL its called NORM (naturally occurring radioactive material) the scrap yards use a Geiger counter when you pull on the scales http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturally_occurring_radioactive_material

Radioactive compounds that come up out of the ground with the oil is what makes it hot. I've hauled a few old tanks in that were borderline.

Talk to someone who hauls propane across the border. They will set of the Geiger counter every time they cross.

Natural gas pipeline is NORM hot also. There is a little bit of radioactive material in the gas. A lot of these pipes are 50+ years old.