Welding on Sucker Rod

[JTMcC]

I believe anytime you move a piece of metal back-and-forth thousands of times in close proximity to another piece of metal, you will end up with magentism.

Wow, this is an old thread, but it got brought up so here goes....

Oil field tubular goods don't become magnetic due to motion, they become magnetic by being in the earth for a period of time.
Bury any large, long metallic object in the earth (and pipelines are both large and very, very long. Drilling tubulars are lesser so but still qualify) for a period of time and they become magnetized by the earths magnetic field.

It's that simple.
Even severely magnetized pipe can be welded successfully to code standards.


JTMcC.

[Jim-TX]

For welding sucker rod use 7018 or 8018. Trust me.

[hogan]

If it is short lengths you can wrap some copper wire around it and use a
12v battery hold one end of wire to - post and just ark other end to + post
you can mag and demag small objects like this. But try at own risk I have never had a problem but anything can happen. Or if you have a local tool or die shop around they all have demags.

This is not a very productive method. Nothing personal. If your going to use sucker rod on a continual basis then I would suggest the following method. It's cheap and not that difficult.
First you will need a gauss meter either build your own ($6 and a interesting project) http://web-ee.com/schematics/instrum...ld-gaussmeter/
or buy one http://www.amazon.com/E-L-F-Zone-E-L.../dp/B000519WXA

You can check the field strength of the pipe by placing the meter at one end of the pipe. It will tell you if it's + or -. Next take your welding machine and hook up the + cable to the - side of the pipe and the - cable to the + side of the pipe. What you will want to do now is set the machine to the lowest setting energize it and slowly turn it up with the gauss meter at one end ( it helps to have someone to help you ). You will reach a point that the charge in the opposite direction will create a field that will overcome the existing field and reverse it. Stop at this point. After the reading on the meter is reversed it should be reading a lower intensity level, but in the opposite direction ( from + to -). Now you switch the cables on the machine or pipe tot he opposite side. Lower the energy level and repeat the sequence, stepping down every time.
It may take a little practice, and you can over compensate strengthening the field in the opposite direction. Just start over. A pipe should only take about 5 minutes to demag, tops.

[Sberry]

I have welded some of it and never had an issue, just weld it up and we use 7018 on the rods.

[projectwelder]

7018 seems to be the rod of choice. The easiest way to demagnetize ferrous metals is to pass an AC current through it.