WORST MAGNETIZED PIPE I'VE EVER WELDED ON - how to weld it? what causes it? radiation? and ...

How magnetized is too magnetized? We ended up with some super magnetized pipe on a pipe fence project when we used old oilfield pipe as material. So I went out to the jobsite with a Gauss meter (magmeter) to see just how magnetized it was, share tips I’ve learned from our community, and weld on it for myself.

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NEW CHANNEL WITH QUICK TIPS AND TRICKS

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Social Media links - come hang out after hours.

[bartbley]

When we welded new drop in sections to replace old pipe the old pipe in the ground was a lot of the time magnetized . Sometimes you could hold a hammer on the end . I always carried a Gauss meter . One could weld the pipe usually up to about 7 gauss after that we would de mag . We always had a spare welder on site for broke down welders or for de magging . This welder had a polarity switch for changing the current direction . We would put about 10 wraps of cable on the magged up end close to the end to be tied in . Once that was done we would hook the ground to the stinger (dead short) The welder was turned off and set at the lowest settings then we would turn the welder on and with gauss meter in hand at the end of the pipe we would check the end for gauss, and slowly turned the continuous dial up till the meter showed close to 0 if it got more magnetism we would switch polarity . It worked very well and saved our bacon many a time, because all welds were 100% xrayed . If you can't de mag . change your polarity that helps . This method of de magging is in a 70 page booklet I put together called tie in tricks and stolen Ideas . There is 3 pages in it about de magging . hope this helps

[jh]

Wrap the ground cable around the pipe a few times. you can just keep coiling it until the pipe is weldable. If it gets worse, then coil the ground cable the other way around the pipe.
Only used it for tig welding where it was not possible to strike a consistent arc, but it should give the same results for stick welding.

[danielarriaga]

My grandpa, who is no longer with us who welded for 50+ years, told me to wrap the lead cable around the pipe a few times and then weld. I did it and it welded like normal. I hope others use this method and pass it on to the next generation.

[benhaecker]

This is why a Miller Bobcat or Lincoln Ranger is necessary when welding pipe fence. All you have to do is switch to AC current and use an AC rod. Welds as smooth as a MIG.

[kelleypack]

I don’t know if you guys know how much you are helping with these videos but I’ll tell you they really help a lot.
I’m 66 and weld a little on pipe pens and implements and just for fun. If you would have told me when I was young that I liked welding I would have laughed.
I’ll never be a pipeliner but I like to do something to the best of my ability.
I’ve been watching several different welders videos for about three months and you can’t believe how much I improved.
Also the little tips about working really help. I’m glad you guys are sharing your knowledge.

[bannedfromtheshow]

Another good video Austin. I've pipelined for 40 years including maintenance and rehab. I have found swapping the leads can help with the bead. I also have used a strong horse shoe magnet on really bad magnetized pipe. Use the horse shoe to straddle the bevel and weld between the magnet. It has worked really well when I needed it. A plus is to have another welder walk the magnet along as you put in the bead. I'm really impressed with you young man. Keep up the good work.

[lorencolt]

When we pulled pipe out of holes we would stack the pipe in a east west direction for a couple months to demagnetize it. Plus we would wrap the ground also to weld. In the surplus oil field pipe yards in the Dakotas, Mont. and Wyo. you will see the pipe racks laid out for the East West orientation. We did the same for the sucker rod.

[AWDJRforYouTube]

Austin...just for the heck of it you should try welding some of that magnetized pipe with an AC welder and E6011 rod. No magnetic arc blow with AC welding current. I have done some good structual welding with a Lincoln 225 AC welder with E7018 and E6011. If you are having just magnetic arc blow from DC welding, try moving your ground around and wraping the ground cable several turns around the pipe near your joint.

[thaiman]

Hey Austin! Really love your content and keep up the great work! As for the radioactive drill pipe, the way that occurs is when we’re targeting a shale formation (it’s our source parent rock for oil and gas hydrocarbons in unconventional plays). We usually drill it using a horizontally and have about roughly 10k of pipe rotating in that rock. Shale is a radioactive sedimentary rock that collects fine amounts of uranium when deposition occurs.
Sorry I nerded out! Again awesome job!

[peternaffziger]

Hi Austin. Really enjoy your channel and am a learning welder. The other pipe issues I understand well. The pipe gets magnetized from the earths field. Although the earths field is not particularly strong, when you insert a long ferrous (iron) object into the ground and spin it, it will get magnetized at a rate dependent on the surrounding ground (how much ferrous material is in the soil as well as the alloy of the metal. The ability of the tube to pick up magnetic field is function of how much iron and other alloys such as nickel and chromium are in the pipe. Stainless for example does not readily magnetize nearly as well as cast iron. These residual magnetic fields in the metal steer the electron flow out of the tip of the electrode causing the havoc. AC makes sense that it would help but not solve the steering. Heat will demagnetize the metal but that would be a lot of preheating for tubes of the size you are dealing with. Degaussing also will lessen but probably not completely solve the gnarly puddle unless you really ge-gauss the crap out of it. Interestingly, submarines get magnetized because they are long enough, like the drill pipe/tube to cross the wide gaps across the earths magnetic field and become magnetized as well. Submarines are regularly degaussed because the enemy will use magnetic fields to try to detect you. The degaussing is done with cable and electric current that reverses the magnetic field of the object to cancel the induced field whether from a welder or big coil wrapped around a ship. When welding, the problem gradually subsides both from current flow from the welder as well as heat reducing the field. This makes me wonder whether gas welding the pipe would solve the issue although I assume very expensive.
Radiation in the pipe is a totally separate issue not related to magnetism. The radiation comes from the ground being drilled and does not make the tubing radioactive itself but is *contaminating* the material. If you can clean it sufficiently, there will be no contamination and the radiation will wash out. But drill tubing is frequently full of sludge that will be hard to get out and that holds the contamination in the pipe. When talking about the hazard related to working on it, I am guessing that the radiation levels coming from the pipe itself are pretty low (although detectable) and the real danger is that welding it is releasing it into the air. The (probably) dominant form of radioactive isotope in the contamination is alpha emitters which come from radium like isotopes in the soil and alpha (actually a energetic helium atom ejected from the radioactive isotope in the contamination) is very damaging to soft tissue like in your lungs so breathing that is bad. I am guessing that a yard that won't accept radioactive contaminated scrap has to do with not being able to clean it out without generating rad waste that is super expensive to get rid of so they just avoid it. If I found a load of tubing (2 3/8) that was radioactive that someone wanted to get rid of real cheap, I would buy it and just take good precautions like cleaning out the first 4-6 inches away from where I was going to weld it. If cutting with a carbide wheel, I would also use a good air filter (not dust mask) and clean my clothes out good before washing them in the house. Take care to collect that dust and oil it down to prevent it from going airborne. To find out specific isotopes coming out of a production area, find a good geochemist or petroleum engineer working that field and they can probably give better specifics as to what the pipe is contaminated with. Do you call Drill pipe Tube or Pipe?? All the best.

[haroldphipps]

Thanks for addressing the questions!
I also appreciate the comments from the experienced hands here!

[tophand]

I've always heard wrapping the ground lead around the pipe several times would make it easier to weld, or demaganatize it

[doucet]

Hey Austin weld on magnetized tools that come out the ground down here in Southern Louisiana. Most of the time the inspectors can demag but just like a lot of these guys in the comments said some ol school guys said wrap the ground around your workpiece and it will help tremendously. Love what you do man I like to learn something new everyday

[ThumperKJFK]

🙃👍👍👍 Thank you, This made a lot of sense now that you have tried to explain the problems in this type of pipe. From my own experience in electronics. A magnetized object having very strong flux field lines, will cause you to have problems in trying to weld, or solder on the first pass or attempt. Pre heating the object will kill most of the magnetic fields at that joint. Heating a magnet will do the same. But because that pipe was in the ground over a longer time and in close proximate to magnetic material in the ground, the problems are much more pronounced. Only my option from my work not on pipe or anything you do. This was very fascinating to watch.

[jaredperrigo]

on the NDT side we were taught to wrap the leeds around the pipe, also for the gieger counter we use survey meters to detect radiation

[ronb]

I've used my strong earth magnet to control the direction of an erratic magnetized arc, and also used coiling the ground, and ground position to get more control.

[blweldingservice]

Also wrapping the ground around the pipe about 6 or so times helps a ton!

[dylanmartinez]

Austin, look into a cheap AC machine for fencing, especially now that in my experience most the pipe right now in Oklahoma is magnetic. I still get a arc blow on mine with 6011 but like you said fill it First, I cap with 1/8” 7018. Run it hotter promise it’ll help. If you’re ever south of okc, let’s go drink some coffee.

[willgallatin]

Ran into this on a small project at home. Nutty as it may sound a switched from stick, to FCAW. For whatever reason it worked a treat. The welds were not expected to take much of a load, say under 500 pounds. Ran a bit more crispy than normal, but nice looking welds that I could walk out on the finished parts.

[ethancook]

Had bad magnetic pipe doing some tig work in a boiler on heavy wall 9 chrome. 100% phaser ray. With tig welding the arc you could see it push back towards the tungsten instead of going away like normal. Things I found that helped is to get your ground lead and wrap it around the pipe you’re welding on several times. Also turn your heat up at least 10-30 more amps than you normally would. After bead pass is in it will start welding closer to normal.