Interesting week at work

[DonRed7]

I'm the maintanence supervisor(not that i have anyone to supervise) at our shellfish processing plant here on the east coast of Canada and am responsible for the operation of a pretty signifigant amount of equipment and well pumping systems. This past monday i had a 20 hp deep well pump over drawing current and tripping out it's drive system which typically means a hole in the side of the pipe letting the pump move more water than it should. Sooooo it had to come up,.....this is never fun and other than being out of the plant for the morning i generally hate lugging on 4' pipe wrenches. Long story short,...during the removal of the first section of 3" galv pipe it broke off where threaded into a bronze check valve(typical electrolytic action stuff). This of course, without being dramatic means the rapid acceleration downward of 240 feet of heavy galvanized pipe with a 20 HP submersible TO the bottom of a 500 foot deep well.

****....

So i now have $7000'ish worth of stuff sitting at the bottom of a 500' hole that cost $12,000 to drill. The hole was deep enough such that we could have set a new pump/pipe and pittless adaptor down on top of the lost system but i considered the retrieval a more interesting challenge. After several phone call's and some internet time it seemed as though i was on my own. Over the next couple of days while looking after my usual stuff inside the plant i created a pretty interesting device in the shop (while fending off my fellow employees) thinking that i was wasting my time with this "thing" i had in the bench vise. Anyhoo,.after much grinding/welding/bending and file work i had created a device from a 4' piece of round bar and some other bit's. We attached it to a coil of 5/8 rope and after several fishing attempts 250 feet! into the ground i finally got the "Teeth" of this thing to engage inside the body of the check valve.

It was overall many hours of modification's to the device to get it to grab the right way and getting it by all of the submersible wire was quite a battle, However............

The Pump and Pipe are now above ground :yahoo:

No,.... there will not be any pic's of my creation as i think it my be time to talk to a patent lawyer.

It's gonna' take a few days for my chest to deflate.

-Don

 

[jwilly]

Cool Story, Good Job!

 

[Murph]

Fantastic! Your accomplishment reminds me of a great book called "Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea" (by Gary Kinder) that follows the story of Tommy Thompson and details his ingenious manner of thinking and inventing with the goal of accomplishing something that had never been done before.

Congrats!

 

[Wicked Webby]

Don,

I, too, love it when a plan comes together!!

Good work!!

WW

 

[dcarver]

Next door neighbor had same experience. He devised a claw-like hooking device, hooked up some Mule tape and went fishing; caught him a $2,500 motor/pump assembly!

You are right - nothing really exists on the open market, and my bud was eager to build and sell his pump fisherman tool. Then, after contacting 10 or so different well companies, he found out they ALL had their own home-brewed fishing tool.

Good luck, and CONGRATS!

 

[Scab]

Yeah, but we still want the pictures.

Trust us.

 

[Checkswrecks]

Good job.

Sounds like something to be proud of!

Let's see the photo of muddy you with the ****-eatin' grin.

 

[GunMD]

Very cool. Congrats, Macgyver.

 

[DonRed7]

This also brings me to ask for help from the "collective" knowledge here,....How do i stop the electrolytic corrosion thats is happening between both the stainless steel pump/pipe and the bronze check valve/pipe. As it's just the threads that are touching these different materials that are getting "eaten" away. The last time we pulled the system(16 months ago) i put anodes on the pipe but they are not being sacrificed. The water is quite salty yet as mentioned the pipe is only being eaten at certian spots?

thanks

-Don

 

[FJRay]

Whenever you have dissimilar metals in an electrolyte you are going to have some problems. In marine applications I was able to find SS valves and check valves and solve a lot of the problem. Don't know what kind of anode you were using but Zinc works the best. I some applications I have seen Aluminum used but it is not as good and it is also possible to use to much zinc and then it becomes dominant instead of sacrificial.

There are a number of books that deal with this problem but it is sort of black magic to find out which one works for you. There are meters around that will tell you the level of protection you have and which way to adjust the amount of anode to balance the load. From there you will need to monitor it and adjust to keep the right level of protection.

 

[weekend rider]

Why don't you try seperating the two metalss with a coupler or some plastic fitting , of course schedule 80.

Check the tech specs plastic vs. metal. I think you will be able to use schedule 80 plastic.

If you are pumping water why are you not using schedule 80 plastic for your pipe length instead of metal ?

You might be able to to use to coat your galvy pipe with copper in that area to help slow down the electrolesess

 

[panayoti]

i am not sure what type bronze you are using. silicon bronze, alum bronze,

with the Chloride (salt) in the water you might have stress corosion cracking brought on by the galvanic action. You could have other harmful components. Sulfides could intensify the effects.

i am assuming the bronze failed ? You could send the parts to a metalurgist. He could tell if it was straight corrsion or stress corrosion cracking. A water sample would help also.

would it be possible to fabricate a bronze adapter, threaded on one end and flanged on the other ? if so put a flanged connection on your ss pipe, then isolate the mating surfaces of the flange with a gasket, also isolate the bolts and nuts from the flanges using gaskets etc. Also if you have room you could support the ss piping to another component so the entire weight of the ss pipe is not supported by the threaded connection.

i am not a corrosion engineer but i did stay at a holiday inn express

 

[ionbeam]

[left field, around the corner and out of the ball park...]

In the Galvanic Series in Seawater, a general grade stainless steel would be noble (most cathodic) and the bronze would be the anode. Most bronze isn’t too far down the series from SS but we would need to know the types of alloys to know for sure how far apart they are in the table. The closeness of the two alloys means that they are not too reactive together. The bronze is the pitcher (give up the ions) and the SS is the catcher. The pitcher will eventually become reduced by the continual stream of metallic ions being given off.

Adding an anode was a good idea, it just needs to be sized correctly and placed correctly. Your system may be too big for an anode to be effective. You also need to be sure that the motor housing and the water being lifted share a common ground.

A non-reactive collar or spacer between the SS and the bronze would sure limit the electromotive reaction to almost nothing. The threads could be plated with a more noble element like silver or gold… $$$ . Zinc is a very common electroplate element for threads, though the zinc may eventually be consumed.

Two dissimilar metals in the presence of an electrolyte (seawater) is tantamount to a single cell battery. It is possible to stop corrosion by connecting a power supply in the reverse direction to counteract the electromotive ion transfer. There are dedicated anti-corrosive power supplies available, but sizing it is the trick. A properly sized and installed power supply will absolutely stop galvanic corrosion. IIRC, this kind of power supply is referred to as an Impressed Current Cathodic Protection (ICCP) system :wackosmiley:

Just some ideas for you to do some research on.

 

[FJRBluesman]

Awesome Story Don, and great job!

Now what I want to know is, what type of Farkles do you have? After this I'd say you're the Farkle King!

 

[RonBB]

Certainly not an expert on corrosion here, but was wondering if there is a cathodic protective system available for this application? Also congrats on your solution to the removal problem. Sounds like the patent would be worth pursuing. Best of luck. :clapping:

 

[jwhite518]

One time my underwear got caught in in our laundry chute, so I unbent a clothes hanger to just the proper shape, and I reached down and hooked the sucker!

j/k. Great story, Don!

 

[rickcorwn]

Well Don, if anyone looses an FJR in the drink... we know who to call :fans:

 

[juniorfjr]

And my wife said, all those guys on the forum were idiots. Who'd a thunk it.

 

[Stephen]

One time my underwear got caught in in our laundry chute, so I unbent a clothes hanger to just the proper shape, and I reached down and hooked the sucker!
j/k. Great story, Don!

And just what were you (or someone else wearing YOUR underwear) doing in the laundry shoot ... er... chute?

Pictures?