Oil Pipe Fencing

[GotMyHandsFull]

Does anyone on the board use oil pipe for fencing instead of barbed wire? And if so, can you ballpark what it cost to build a perimeter fence around 1280 acres? I would also like to cross-fence into 10 equal pastures/grazing areas. I'm wondering if the one-time cost will be worth never having to worry about fencing again.

 

[bigbull338]

not tobe smart but itll cost you and eye popping amount.because drillstem pipe cost $32 a joint or more.

 

[Kingfisher]

You would need to win the lottery...

 

[Aaron]

Did the math for here, and it would cost 180k for materials alone. Can't say it wouldn't be worth it, as the resale value on the property, in terms of value of the fence, should be at least 2/3 of that amount.

But,

You can put brand new barb wire, steel corners and treated posts for less than 1/2 that.

 

[Angus Cowman]

5 rail pipe would rub you around $15 pr ft

Pipe and cable with a top rail will run $8 to $9 pr ft

 

[cow pollinater]

I'm wondering if the one-time cost will be worth never having to worry about fencing again.

Not even close.

 

[Angus Cowman]

You will have around $475,000.00 in just perimeter fence

 

[backhoeboogie]

I understand Used and damaged drill stem now has to be tested for background radiation before it can be sold to the public. A majority of it fails and goes out of the country. I was told Mexico. This is why prices are so high. Supply and demand.

I remember Dad buying trailer loads of it cheap back when.

 

[GotMyHandsFull]

Looks like it's gonna be barbed wire. Can't afford oil pipe. When my uncle still had the place, he rented most of it out to three other ranchers, and they were responsible for fencing their sections. So now, I've got some sections with five strands of wire, some with four, some with wood posts and T posts and some with the fence stapled to any tree they could find. The leases all expired this past Jan. 1 and I didn't renew them. For now, I just want to make the fencing along the county road all uniform, and worry about what can't be seen later. It's a mishmash, but it will keep cows in. I appreciate the feedback on the oil pipe costs. I had no idea it was that much.

 

[cow pollinater]

On 1,280 acres barbed wire works just fine. You'll learn in time that once the cows figure out where home is you can have a complete blowout and you won't know about it until you check fence a couple of months later. The first year that the cattle are on the place you'll find every broken wire there is and get a good feel for all of your neighbors country while you're on it chasing your cows but once they figure out where home is they stay there. ;-)
Bulls will shred fence fighting with the neighborhood bulls but it's a thirty minute project to stretch a little wire and put the clips back up and they usually do it out in the open where it's easy to spot.
After the first year on a place that size you'll learn to work with the fences you have.

 

[ohiosteve]

I am really surprised when I hear some of the Texans on here talking about using "Drill stem" for fencing. I think there is something lost in translation because up here drill stem is at least 3" diameter and usually close to 1" thick wall or more. Call me crazy but no way in heck you could justify using that much iron for fencing. They must be confusing "Drill stem" for production tubing.

 

[jedstivers]

We use a lot of drill stem for bridges for center pivots. Use the 4" for the runners and 2-5/8" for the cross pieces. It's gotten so high and hard to get we've gone to new tubing.
The first we bought back in 89 with freight and all cost 32 dollars for the big stem and 12.50 for the small. Sucker rods were 5 dollars.
When we were first building in 89 we thought it would last forever, I've found some rotting from the inside out.

 

[greybeard]

I am really surprised when I hear some of the Texans on here talking about using "Drill stem" for fencing. I think there is something lost in translation because up here drill stem is at least 3" diameter and usually close to 1" thick wall or more. Call me crazy but no way in heck you could justify using that much iron for fencing. They must be confusing "Drill stem" for production tubing.

Yep most of the time it's 2 3/8 or 2 7/8--sometime 3 1/8 tubing.
https://easttexas.craigslist.org/grd/4863640759.html
I've never heard it called much other than drill stem unless they were talking sucker rod.
We call drill pipe-- well---drill pipe, and I've never seen any API drill pipe with anywhere close to a 1" wall thickness except in the tool joint itself unless it was API HW dp and even with HW, you didn't see 1" wall thickness till you got up to the 5" dp..

 

[backhoeboogie]

I am really surprised when I hear some of the Texans on here talking about using "Drill stem" for fencing. I think there is something lost in translation because up here drill stem is at least 3" diameter and usually close to 1" thick wall or more. Call me crazy but no way in heck you could justify using that much iron for fencing. They must be confusing "Drill stem" for production tubing.

Whatever they use it for, it gets magnetized, which makes it hard to weld unless you either heat it or wrap your welding lead around it. Since it is so heavily magnetized, I assume it has been hammered over and over. But that is just an assumption. Wall thickness is around 1/4 inch. It is now expensive whereas you could get it cheap, back in the day. Most welders and laymen refer to it as drill stem. It has machined collars that are heavy.

We do get what oilmen call "barrel" tubing occasionally. This is indeed "tubing" as we refer to it in the industrial trade because it is measured by its outside diameter. This is where I get even more screwed up. "Pipe" is measured by it's inside diameter. What I refer to as 2 inch pipe is 2 3/8 inch outside diameter. The inside diameter varies because of wall thickness variances. If you go to home depot and buy 1 inch pipe, its going to be about 1 3/8 " O.D. It is hard for me to refer to pipe sizes in layman's terms. Especially when I am buying 3 inch pipe and expecting 3 3/8 O.D. and it turns out they are selling 2 1/2 inch pipe ( 2 7/8" O.D.) and calling it 3 inch. But if the price is right I can still use it for many things. I am generally matching existing pipe sizes when I am doing additions or repairs. I have already used up all my surplus piles of pipe.

 

[Brute 23]

The 2 3/8 or 2 7/8 you see barns, pens, fences, ect built out of is usually production tubing.

You will know drill stem because it is heavy. It's not real easy to handle.

I have access to quite a bit of tubing, drill stem, casing, ect but I don't use pipe unless I know where it came from... meaning which wells. There is so much corrosive and abrasive stuff down hole that it's not worth the risk to me. I've seen too much time and money spent on pipe structures and they rust out a couple years down the road.

 

[TexasBred]

Does anyone on the board use oil pipe for fencing instead of barbed wire? And if so, can you ballpark what it cost to build a perimeter fence around 1280 acres? I would also like to cross-fence into 10 equal pastures/grazing areas. I'm wondering if the one-time cost will be worth never having to worry about fencing again.

I've got the pipe fencing around the house and lawn and down the driveway to the front gate but not way I could afford to use it around the entire place. Just too expensive. Best I recall it was about $12 a foot.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Is the 1280ac figure correct, not a typo? Just checking.

 

[TexasBred]

Is the 1280ac figure correct, not a typo? Just checking.

:lol: :lol: Two sections. That would be a he11 of a lot of 10 acre tracts huh?? Wonder how you get to the ones in the middle ??

 

[greybeard]

Whatever they use it for, it gets magnetized, which makes it hard to weld unless you either heat it or wrap your welding lead around it. Since it is so heavily magnetized, I assume it has been hammered over and over.

I've had good luck welding magnetized drill pipe and collars with 7018 (low hydrogen) rods.
The reason wrapping your lead around the pipe helps, is that when you weld two pieces together, you are trying to weld 2 magnets together and ends are of opposite magnetic polarity--each piece has a magnetic north and south pole. Even if you cut it into pieces, each cut piece will still have a N & S pole. Wrapping the lead degasses the pipe. The degaussing only works while you are welding--while current is flowing thru the lead. Once you are done, you will find the magnetic field has returned. Sometimes, wrapping doesn't seem to work, and the fix is to unwrap the lead, and wrap it again in the opposite direction--it does make a difference. The more wraps you make, the better it works.

Using AC instead of DC also makes it lots easier. Drill pipe and collars get magnetized by the rotation it experiences in the hole as it is turned within the earth's own magnetic field as well as when it is raised and lowered out of the hole--same with sucker rod. The tubing (just dropped down in the hole) becomes magnetized by that descent and from months and months of being down in strata that easily transmits the same Earth natural magnetic field to the tubing.

 

[GotMyHandsFull]

Is the 1280ac figure correct, not a typo? Just checking.

1280, or two sections.

Is the 1280ac figure correct, not a typo? Just checking.

:lol: :lol: Two sections. That would be a be nice of a lot of 10 acre tracts huh?? Wonder how you get to the ones in the middle ??

100 acre pastures, not 10 acres.