No oil up here in SE Nebraska, but fascinated with your videos. Making a living farming with old wore out iron doesn’t seem all that much different than the headaches you face daily. Thanks for sharing!
I'll admit, I know nothing about oil wells, but this is all fascinating stuff, and reminds me of the kind of television documentaries we used to see in the 1960s. It's a view into someone else' world, and the work they do. Thank you for taking the time to make this great and interesting content.
@@TheZachLife Hello Zach, and happy New Year to you and yours 🎉 . Looking forward to more great content in 2025, but be safe. Working alone out there must be a load to bear, and when we see nothing for a while, I do wonder, and worry that you're okay.....
Wow, another awesome video, Zach!! Enjoyed seeing you work with the babbitt, very interesting, so neat to see. You are fantastic at wrenching those rods, wow! Your experience in the oil field is very evident. It's so great to see your enthusiasm and enjoyment in what you do. I see pulling and swabbing units all around my neck of the woods, practically every day. I love living in an oil producing area here in SW Indiana and SE Illinois. It is addictive being around this kind of work and getting to observe it first hand. Keep these oil field videos coming, can't get enough of 'em.
I came across one of your videos when I was researching how an oil field pump works. I learned more from your videos then any others. Really amazed by the RV build series.
In the steel industry overhead crane service, we did the same procedure on the drum ends of the cable deadends. The only difference was we put flux on the stranded end of the cable after heating and cleaning it and packed conduit duct seal in the cable thimble gap. I never saw one ever pullout.
It would kinda be like headed straight down towards 6....but it got fubard some where between 4 an 5:45 ....makes sense why the rods are bow legged...👍👍👍👍
We call that spelter socket joint..spelter being an ancient term for zinc. Used a bunch offshore. Dipping the frayed end in zinc chloride flux greatly improves the bond with preheating socket and wire before pouring. Sealing with clay works great. Just any mud hole with fine clay works. Hot dipped galvanized wire rope doesn't need fluxing as long as you don't burn the zinc.
You bring back a lot of memories. I grew up in a lease house in the Mexia, Tx oil field. My Daddy was a life long oil field worker and did all the things you are doing. Great videos. Thanks. Chris V.
Thanks for all that you do. Some of us love all the stuff related to oil fields,just seeing and hearing the noises from the oil pumps and seeing them moving is relaxing and you bring it to us while we enjoy our coffee. “Gracias amigo”🙏🏻Stay safe .
Awesome video! Love watching the smaller little rod service rigs workover the little wells like these and how you can just get after her with no safety bullshit and dramas.
Brings back memories for me, too. When I was a teenager (many moons ago), my Grandfather had a small lease with several shallow (for oil wells) "stripper" wells in Pleasants County WV. I cannot remember their depths. They were in a formation called the Cow Run Sand. My job when he was pulling a well was tailing the rods. Great fun! LOL
There are several wells in my area and in pastures I've rented, the process has always intrigued me, thanks for explaining everything, I always thought I'd like to pump wells if I didn't farm and run cattle.
Zach, just found your channel. I drive a lot through IL on I-70 and see the small wells pumping. Read a little and it's fascinating. Then I discover your channel. You could not be more clear and detailed. Well done Sir.
I do bridle replacements on location with the cable bells you use on a bed truck tail chain. If you got the carrier bar free off the jack, then some machine shops will babbitt them. Oil companies here in Alberta are extremely concerned with downtime, so we're typically repairing everything on site, or swapping parts if it is more economical.
First paying oilpatch job I had was tailing rods on a single pole. I was fifteen years old. A lot of parafin in those old wells, pretty nasty job. Hit 'em with the rod wrenches, globs of that crap falling everywhere. Scrape it off my clothes with my knife and throw them in a bucket of diesel. Decided roughnecking was marginally cleaner and definitely paid better lol. First drilling rig I worked on was made from the remnants of a twin pole cable tool. Six cylinder Waukesha on propane, floor was about 6ft high. Drill about 2300ft max. Had a rotary table but no chain, spun it up with chain tongs going in the hole. Latches were half shot on the big tongs, had to watch yourself with those. They'd sometimes pop open and could knock you winding. It was a real peach lol. In truth the old rig worked surprisingly well, punched a pretty straight hole.
I see you found your gloves, another good video. Thanks. I just watched a video from Africa where they were drilling well and they didn’t even wear shoes.
Lol, babbit. I saw a bar of that stuff at Eagle Supply "If it's difficult, try us!" oilfield supply. I was thinking people were still using babbit bearings in the oil field, did not know it was used up front, near the horses head.
A lot of old mining equipment uses babbit bearings, generally cast in place. For that matter, modern engines still use babbit on the crank, cam, and rod bearings.
Wish we had you around when we lost an extremely expensive geophys probe down a test-shaft. BTW, the phrase Couldn't give a dam referred to the tinkers who would patch holey cooking-pots with molten tin. They chewed an old piece of bread and used that to make a dam around the hole.
Love the content i run a cooper single pole service rig i can relate to pouring babbit on rope sockets and sticking myself with wires lol, also don't pour it in the rain learned the hard way years ago
I wish there was oil drilling close to home here. Id love to do what you do everyday. Its honest work and independent. We seem to value depending on others in our society far too much.
@@edc1569 Solar is retarded and also worse for the environment in the long run that fossil fuels. Now if I could run a nuclear plant in my backyard I would.
I grew up and kermit Texas and I truly loved all feel my dad had Clary well servicing they’re in Kermit. One of the proudest things I can say that was in my life was my dad‘s business. I was very much that I could have gotten seven or Tim wells like you’re showing their and had myself a good old pole unit lot do you want do you have really would’ve been a good Life
For those interested in how older oil fields are kept producing, you do very good videos. My father was foreman on a what he called a pulling unit(workover rig) for many decades. He mentioned pulling the tubing and rods. I had not known why these had problems, but this video offered a good explanation. The field he worked in dates from around 1930. He also mentioned casing issues and fishing for parted rods. I became interested in electronics, so went a different way. One question: Do you have any underground or "Reda" pumps in your leases? The oil well that gives me a small royalty check is pumped using one of these.
@@TheZachLife The the one I get my check from makes a little more than 5 barrels per day. About 15 years ago, there was another well active with it and the two together made 15 barrels per day.
What gets me is that all these little parts and techniques were developed over a century or more of doing this. And so much of it is in the heads of guys like Zach and his cohorts in this video. I'll think of you guys next time I gas up.
That hammer union on the tubing is genius haha never have thought of that. How’s that working for you? Also if you ever need to track down old docs and wells files give me a holler. Great stuff as always Zach!
The only thing that I learned different from how you poured your rope socket is I was taught to tap it when you pour your babit it helps spread it out a bit better. And yes either burn the cosmoline off or take brake clean to it and clean it that way, if not the babit won't "stick" to the line. At least that's how always done drill lines and haven't had any pull out yet. Edit* the cheater pipe in the wheel to "lockout" the pumping unit made me laugh
loving watching these oil well vids. Thanks :-) if i had a gripe, it would be the end-cards cut right over everything we were supposed to see. add 20 seconds of blank vid so the end cards dont overlay the video. :)
Great video Zach. Rotation of the tubing will lengthen the time before a rod cut, but will that risk a tubing separation? 1550 feet of tubing isn't that heavy, but I didn't hear you say how deep the rod cut was happening, 1000'? I'm certain you have already thought about this. Look forward to seeing the next video. Keep them going.
Thanks. I don't really expect for it to be a problem. The tubing leaks are always in the last 10-12 joints. I suspect there might me several different problem spots form 1000' and down.
I'm pretty sure you make the right decision with this one. Rod guides/Wear bars/scrapers do break off occasionally and cause pump problems and find there way into places that they don't belong. But pulling the tubing once to replace worn sections is cheaper than pulling the pump four times to clean garbage out of it.
I was a little surprised when he beautified the cable protruding from the Babbitt. Just seemed like an extra step he usually doesn’t do. Then I realized he had a couple of guys that were gonna lay eyes on his work…😂
That was great. Mittens? I remember on another video you talked about rotating to help eliminate wear. Homemade Babbitt cooker. No sign of the Pete in the background. What are we going to do tomorrow? See ya soon. Kc
Zach - in some of your other videos you talk about what happens when you get some junk or trash or schmutz in your wells. Can you describe or go over that well cleaning / clearing process in detail? How to ‘recover’ a well? The video I’m thinking of had you spending a bunch of money in hydrochloric acid and like 3 or 4 pumps and a whole lot of service rig time.
hes getting 10% oil 90% water, its pretty much worthless (still has some value though) from what i seen hes got a 3 tank setup with 350bbl each so in a month he'll produce about 200bbls ? maybe 200x 98$ barely covers the cost of running em. dunno who buys it i just know they come in a vaccuum truck and suck that shit up every so often (very vague since i dont know exactly what this guy is running )
I recall running pipe (as a floorman) on a double stand well drilling for gas in Alberta. Great fun. Not! Big heavy pipe and bits........ Hope your well produces for another 100 years!
Another informative, well explained video Zach! Your hammer union under the pumping tee is a good idea. About how long does it take for you to cut a hole in your tubing before you started rotating the entire string? In theory this method should buy you close to 3 or 4 times the production time before having to call the pulling unit again
I learned a trick pouring babbit,, instead of tying wet rope around the bottom of the rope socket, squeeze in playdough around the bottom of socket, when you pour the babbit it stays in the rope socket with no dangerous popping an splatter..
I've heard you can use plumbers putty for babbitt damning material. It's reusable too. Thanks for sharing these videos, very interesting! Do you have any videos on your horizontal mill? Looks like a converted line shaft machine.
Hi Zack My first time to watch your videos and Ive 3 watch so far. Que: Why is it worth maintaining a well that only pumps 1 or 2 barrels a day and it's not even the kind of oil that pays the top price?
Just a thought about turning the tubing - you would be better off spinning it more if possible. If the well has a good amount of spiral to it, you could get a full rotation of tubing at surface before it moves at all at 1000-1500' tvd. There's a lot of trapped Torque in there. My experience is with drill pipe but the physics should be close to the same. We can put 3 full rotations into 5" drill pipe before there is any change in toolfaces at 9500'. Glad I found your channel. I've been working directional for 12ish years now but have always been curious about completion and production side.
But the bottom of the string isn’t stuck/doesnt have weight on it, it’s just hanging from the wellhead slips, so there shouldn’t be anything down there holding the pipe to allow it to torque.
@@TheZachLife back in the day …. (Mid 70s) I worked for Dowell on cement and later on stimulation crews. I always though the frac/stimulation work was fascinating. I remember working on few wells in East Texas, Miss and Alabama that had work over rigs on them. I believe we were doing stimulation work to clear the crud in the production zone. Always very interesting what was going on at the bottom!
So what I see the rigging guys to for ferule ends is just stuff a couple small nails in the end of the rope, usually only one for a swaged block, but I could see one in each strand for a babbit end. be a little quicker maybe?
If the cable size & hole its in are closer in size, that'd work great. This is just a bigger version of motorcycle cables I did as a kid in the 60's. Also, a little soldering flux to make sure it really sticks? Also, also, heating red hot might lose the cables temper/hardening?
well, if the taper and the cable are correct for each other, there shouldn't be a whole lot of room, a couple of finishing nails would swell the end enough that it would be rather difficult to pull out on its own, let alone after being filled with Babbitt, babbit also never seems to need any flux, its not really a lead or copper based alloy. it sorta does its thing regardless.
Note to noobs! When Zach preheats that cable he's also getting rid of any MOISTURE. Never, ever pour molten metal on anything wet because it will flash boil any water into steam and you probably do not want to wear molten metal. (Eye protection is a rather good idea depending on how many eyeballs you have to spare.)
Okay I'm gonna say it- The off side of the rig [away from the operator] is the only place that we ever laid down rods. we always racked Tubing on the operator's side. I don't know.. everybody does things a little different. Even during the '80's $8 Bbl oil, when my dad would often run a rig by himself, he had slide troughs for single rods and always racked them on that side. If not and you end up having to pull tubing, You're gonna be laying pipe down over your power tongs and stiff arm and fighting the sand line? Oh snap!Y'all must not be using tongs. Are you using Crummies and breaking tubing out with a rope and cat head? Now that I wanna see!
Southern Illinois...I remember seeing oil wells everywhere...more like stripper wells...not pumping much oil. Maybe fracking idea might work tho these wells have been really worked over for the past 80 or so years.
I love the channel. Not being a namby-pamby, but get yourself a face shield to to that stuff (especially if you are using HCL on on a well. I lost an eye and partial sight in the other doing industrial type work. You only have one set of eyes, mine were 20/10 before the accident, now I cannot see crap if I saw it. Take care of those peepers…no doctor can give you another set, and (from experience) you do not want the doctors to try. I live in daily pain from a screwy accident from something I had done 1,000 times without incident.
grab the rod up high and straighten it out while the other guy turns the wrench it makes a difference .. if your rods are bent why not buy some betters ones? i buy mine for 5$ each lol
No oil up here in SE Nebraska, but fascinated with your videos.
Making a living farming with old wore out iron doesn’t seem all that much different than the headaches you face daily.
Thanks for sharing!
I'll admit, I know nothing about oil wells, but this is all fascinating stuff, and reminds me of the kind of television documentaries we used to see in the 1960s. It's a view into someone else' world, and the work they do.
Thank you for taking the time to make this great and interesting content.
Thanks.
Noticed you don’t seem to using any sort of chemical for any treatments.
@@TheZachLife Hello Zach, and happy New Year to you and yours 🎉 . Looking forward to more great content in 2025, but be safe. Working alone out there must be a load to bear, and when we see nothing for a while, I do wonder, and worry that you're okay.....
@ explanation video in like 2 minutes.
Wow, another awesome video, Zach!! Enjoyed seeing you work with the babbitt, very interesting, so neat to see. You are fantastic at wrenching those rods, wow! Your experience in the oil field is very evident. It's so great to see your enthusiasm and enjoyment in what you do. I see pulling and swabbing units all around my neck of the woods, practically every day. I love living in an oil producing area here in SW Indiana and SE Illinois. It is addictive being around this kind of work and getting to observe it first hand. Keep these oil field videos coming, can't get enough of 'em.
Thanks. That's the plan.
I came across one of your videos when I was researching how an oil field pump works. I learned more from your videos then any others. Really amazed by the RV build series.
Thanks you. Hang around I plan on doing more oilfield videos in the future.
Neat! I love the great outdoors, so thanks for takin us along!
In the steel industry overhead crane service, we did the same procedure on the drum ends of the cable deadends. The only difference was we put flux on the stranded end of the cable after heating and cleaning it and packed conduit duct seal in the cable thimble gap. I never saw one ever pullout.
It would kinda be like headed straight down towards 6....but it got fubard some where between 4 an 5:45 ....makes sense why the rods are bow legged...👍👍👍👍
We call that spelter socket joint..spelter being an ancient term for zinc. Used a bunch offshore. Dipping the frayed end in zinc chloride flux greatly improves the bond with preheating socket and wire before pouring. Sealing with clay works great. Just any mud hole with fine clay works.
Hot dipped galvanized wire rope doesn't need fluxing as long as you don't burn the zinc.
Interesting. Thanks.
There are plenty of spelter joint instructions online. It works very well and prevents corrosion.
You bring back a lot of memories. I grew up in a lease house in the Mexia, Tx oil field. My Daddy was a life long oil field worker and did all the things you are doing. Great videos. Thanks. Chris V.
Thanks for all that you do. Some of us love all the stuff related to oil fields,just seeing and hearing the noises from the oil pumps and seeing them moving is relaxing and you bring it to us while we enjoy our coffee. “Gracias amigo”🙏🏻Stay safe .
Awesome video! Love watching the smaller little rod service rigs workover the little wells like these and how you can just get after her with no safety bullshit and dramas.
Thanks.
Brings back memories for me, too. When I was a teenager (many moons ago), my Grandfather had a small lease with several shallow (for oil wells) "stripper" wells in Pleasants County WV. I cannot remember their depths. They were in a formation called the Cow Run Sand. My job when he was pulling a well was tailing the rods. Great fun! LOL
Am blown away by all that is involved. Hats off to you
Hard working men providing Americans the energy America runs on. The best.
Used to make bridles up with a tapered collector for the babbit. Made them by the hundreds on the heavy crude wells around here.
There are several wells in my area and in pastures I've rented, the process has always intrigued me, thanks for explaining everything, I always thought I'd like to pump wells if I didn't farm and run cattle.
Zach, just found your
channel. I drive a lot through IL on I-70 and see the small wells pumping. Read a little and it's fascinating. Then I discover your channel. You could not be more clear and detailed. Well done Sir.
Thanks.
They make damming putty you can use for babbitt to keep from running where you don't want it to.
I was a roustabout for 8 years. I sure do miss the work. I worked up in North Dakota
I do bridle replacements on location with the cable bells you use on a bed truck tail chain. If you got the carrier bar free off the jack, then some machine shops will babbitt them. Oil companies here in Alberta are extremely concerned with downtime, so we're typically repairing everything on site, or swapping parts if it is more economical.
Thanks for the video, Zach learned something new today.
Zach you have such an understanding of life above and below. Pure genius my friend.
Thanks.
First paying oilpatch job I had was tailing rods on a single pole. I was fifteen years old. A lot of parafin in those old wells, pretty nasty job. Hit 'em with the rod wrenches, globs of that crap falling everywhere. Scrape it off my clothes with my knife and throw them in a bucket of diesel. Decided roughnecking was marginally cleaner and definitely paid better lol.
First drilling rig I worked on was made from the remnants of a twin pole cable tool. Six cylinder Waukesha on propane, floor was about 6ft high. Drill about 2300ft max. Had a rotary table but no chain, spun it up with chain tongs going in the hole. Latches were half shot on the big tongs, had to watch yourself with those. They'd sometimes pop open and could knock you winding. It was a real peach lol. In truth the old rig worked surprisingly well, punched a pretty straight hole.
How did it drill if the rotary table didn’t have a chain?
@@Naltddesha The floor hands had to run on the rotary table like a treadmill. A worn out bit torquing up made for a long tower.
Another 19 minutes and 22 seconds of enjoyment!
Man I’ve pumped wells for four years but your videos and knowledge are fantastic! I wish I knew half of what you’ve forgotten!
Haha Thanks.
I see you found your gloves, another good video. Thanks. I just watched a video from Africa where they were drilling well and they didn’t even wear shoes.
You had em spinnin a couple times pretty good. 😂 blame the rods nah I’m playing
Lol, babbit. I saw a bar of that stuff at Eagle Supply "If it's difficult, try us!" oilfield supply.
I was thinking people were still using babbit bearings in the oil field, did not know it was used up front, near the horses head.
It's actually a common cable termination across the industry.
babbits is used everywhere in the oilfield and in railroading
A lot of old mining equipment uses babbit bearings, generally cast in place. For that matter, modern engines still use babbit on the crank, cam, and rod bearings.
Glove, We dont need no stinking gloves.
Keep up the great work. Learning a lot.
I was more concerned about him using a torch with no eye protection!
Pleasure to see a master at work,
Wish we had you around when we lost an extremely expensive geophys probe down a test-shaft.
BTW, the phrase Couldn't give a dam referred to the tinkers who would patch holey cooking-pots with molten tin. They chewed an old piece of bread and used that to make a dam around the hole.
Haha Sounds like a mess. And thats pretty interesting I didn't know the origins of that.
Never seen it done with a damp rag... we always use wet clay packed around the cable. Neat technique
Thats what a lot of people said. Ill have to try it.
Thx for sharing Zach
You are wise to work outside with babbet. There are some toxic metals in that mix. Lead cadmium and other nastys.
I really like your crucible ladle. I must steal your briliqnt design.
Love the content i run a cooper single pole service rig i can relate to pouring babbit on rope sockets and sticking myself with wires lol, also don't pour it in the rain learned the hard way years ago
I enjoy all your videos man even that breakfast burrito one lol get r done from Oklahoma 🇺🇸💯🤘
Hahaha thanks.
I wish there was oil drilling close to home here. Id love to do what you do everyday. Its honest work and independent. We seem to value depending on others in our society far too much.
Setup a solar farm?
@@edc1569 Solar is retarded and also worse for the environment in the long run that fossil fuels. Now if I could run a nuclear plant in my backyard I would.
I grew up and kermit Texas and I truly loved all feel my dad had Clary well servicing they’re in Kermit. One of the proudest things I can say that was in my life was my dad‘s business. I was very much that I could have gotten seven or Tim wells like you’re showing their and had myself a good old pole unit lot do you want do you have really would’ve been a good Life
For those interested in how older oil fields are kept producing, you do very good videos. My father was foreman on a what he called a pulling unit(workover rig) for many decades. He mentioned pulling the tubing and rods. I had not known why these had problems, but this video offered a good explanation. The field he worked in dates from around 1930. He also mentioned casing issues and fishing for parted rods. I became interested in electronics, so went a different way. One question: Do you have any underground or "Reda" pumps in your leases? The oil well that gives me a small royalty check is pumped using one of these.
Thanks I do not have any. They become a more viable option in deeper high volume wells but would be cost prohibitive in wells like this.
@@TheZachLife The the one I get my check from makes a little more than 5 barrels per day. About 15 years ago, there was another well active with it and the two together made 15 barrels per day.
I'm going out to pull an ESP tomorrow, if you have any questions just ask. I've worked on quite a few of them.
Interesting. I’m from Bartlesville OK, and we used to have a Reda Pump business, untill it got bought out by Slumberger.
I just kept thinking silly Babbitt. Lol
haha
What gets me is that all these little parts and techniques were developed over a century or more of doing this. And so much of it is in the heads of guys like Zach and his cohorts in this video. I'll think of you guys next time I gas up.
That hammer union on the tubing is genius haha never have thought of that. How’s that working for you? Also if you ever need to track down old docs and wells files give me a holler. Great stuff as always Zach!
The only thing that I learned different from how you poured your rope socket is I was taught to tap it when you pour your babit it helps spread it out a bit better.
And yes either burn the cosmoline off or take brake clean to it and clean it that way, if not the babit won't "stick" to the line. At least that's how always done drill lines and haven't had any pull out yet.
Edit* the cheater pipe in the wheel to "lockout" the pumping unit made me laugh
loving watching these oil well vids. Thanks :-) if i had a gripe, it would be the end-cards cut right over everything we were supposed to see. add 20 seconds of blank vid so the end cards dont overlay the video. :)
10:04 are you grinding on lead without a respirator? i mean i'd assume you'd want one but this is not my forte
Did that same thing making up logging haul ropes and strops
Drilling with a lot of weight on the string is like “trying to push a wet noodle up a tiger’s ass.!”
Great video Zach.
Rotation of the tubing will lengthen the time before a rod cut, but will that risk a tubing separation? 1550 feet of tubing isn't that heavy, but I didn't hear you say how deep the rod cut was happening, 1000'? I'm certain you have already thought about this.
Look forward to seeing the next video. Keep them going.
Thanks. I don't really expect for it to be a problem. The tubing leaks are always in the last 10-12 joints. I suspect there might me several different problem spots form 1000' and down.
I'm pretty sure you make the right decision with this one. Rod guides/Wear bars/scrapers do break off occasionally and cause pump problems and find there way into places that they don't belong. But pulling the tubing once to replace worn sections is cheaper than pulling the pump four times to clean garbage out of it.
I would think as long as you turn it to the right you’d have nothing to be concerned about
I was a little surprised when he beautified the cable protruding from the Babbitt. Just seemed like an extra step he usually doesn’t do. Then I realized he had a couple of guys that were gonna lay eyes on his work…😂
Hahaha
That was great. Mittens? I remember on another video you talked about rotating to help eliminate wear. Homemade Babbitt cooker. No sign of the Pete in the background. What are we going to do tomorrow? See ya soon. Kc
I have a hard enough time keeping up with what i'm doing today much less tomorrow lol
How many wells do you lease Zach ?? What is the deepest well you have and are most well water free ??? Nice work fella too.
Man I love pouring babbitt bearings.
I was trying to think of that name babbit used it when i work for W.C "dub" allen & Son's
i was hoping you might be able to provide me the plans for that wooden table in your shop, she's a looker
It was super easy. I tack it on one of the shop videos.
Zach - in some of your other videos you talk about what happens when you get some junk or trash or schmutz in your wells. Can you describe or go over that well cleaning / clearing process in detail? How to ‘recover’ a well? The video I’m thinking of had you spending a bunch of money in hydrochloric acid and like 3 or 4 pumps and a whole lot of service rig time.
Yes I'm going to do several videos about this when I get a good example to show.
YAAAAAAAAAAY BEST TRUCK, DRIVER, AND CREE
Thanks for the Video. Is that an old Larkin Well Head by any chance?
Probably a Larkin K.
When u say it makes 2-3 barrels..is that a day?
Who buys ur oil?
How does oil get to the buyers?
hes getting 10% oil 90% water, its pretty much worthless (still has some value though) from what i seen hes got a 3 tank setup with 350bbl each so in a month he'll produce about 200bbls ? maybe 200x 98$ barely covers the cost of running em. dunno who buys it i just know they come in a vaccuum truck and suck that shit up every so often (very vague since i dont know exactly what this guy is running )
I recall running pipe (as a floorman) on a double stand well drilling for gas in Alberta. Great fun. Not! Big heavy pipe and bits........ Hope your well produces for another 100 years!
Haha, thanks. Me too.
Another informative, well explained video Zach! Your hammer union under the pumping tee is a good idea. About how long does it take for you to cut a hole in your tubing before you started rotating the entire string? In theory this method should buy you close to 3 or 4 times the production time before having to call the pulling unit again
This on can be pretty fast. Sometimes less than a year.
I learned a trick pouring babbit,, instead of tying wet rope around the bottom of the rope socket, squeeze in playdough around the bottom of socket, when you pour the babbit it stays in the rope socket with no dangerous popping an splatter..
Intersting. I might give that a try.
I've heard you can use plumbers putty for babbitt damning material. It's reusable too. Thanks for sharing these videos, very interesting! Do you have any videos on your horizontal mill? Looks like a converted line shaft machine.
Thanks. Its in one of the trailer videos in pretty good detail.
Hi Zack
My first time to watch your videos and Ive 3 watch so far.
Que:
Why is it worth maintaining a well that only pumps 1 or 2 barrels a day and it's not even the kind of oil that pays the top price?
Depending on a lot of thing a 1 bbl well can still have a pretty good profit margin.
Just a thought about turning the tubing - you would be better off spinning it more if possible. If the well has a good amount of spiral to it, you could get a full rotation of tubing at surface before it moves at all at 1000-1500' tvd. There's a lot of trapped Torque in there.
My experience is with drill pipe but the physics should be close to the same. We can put 3 full rotations into 5" drill pipe before there is any change in toolfaces at 9500'.
Glad I found your channel. I've been working directional for 12ish years now but have always been curious about completion and production side.
But the bottom of the string isn’t stuck/doesnt have weight on it, it’s just hanging from the wellhead slips, so there shouldn’t be anything down there holding the pipe to allow it to torque.
It would be very informative to know how the pump down the well works ?
Thanks. I plan on doing a video soon.
@@TheZachLife back in the day …. (Mid 70s) I worked for Dowell on cement and later on stimulation crews. I always though the frac/stimulation work was fascinating. I remember working on few wells in East Texas, Miss and Alabama that had work over rigs on them. I believe we were doing stimulation work to clear the crud in the production zone. Always very interesting what was going on at the bottom!
Guess there are no submersible pumps for that bore size. Probably needs 3-4 stages for that depth.
Im not sure. The few people that have tried the submersibles around here have given up.
I've done some sub pumps for 5.5" casing, $3-4k electricity a month, 40k to pull and run back, 3000 barrels total fluid a day, 1% oil.
It would be nice if I lived closer to you, I’d like to sit down and have a good long conversation about this stuff with you.
you need to show us that mill you have in your shop , also do you have a lathe ?
One of the trailer videos with the thumb nail of my lathe I go all over it.
@@TheZachLife Thanks
So what I see the rigging guys to for ferule ends is just stuff a couple small nails in the end of the rope, usually only one for a swaged block, but I could see one in each strand for a babbit end. be a little quicker maybe?
Intersting.
If the cable size & hole its in are closer in size, that'd work great. This is just a bigger version of motorcycle cables I did as a kid in the 60's. Also, a little soldering flux to make sure it really sticks? Also, also, heating red hot might lose the cables temper/hardening?
well, if the taper and the cable are correct for each other, there shouldn't be a whole lot of room, a couple of finishing nails would swell the end enough that it would be rather difficult to pull out on its own, let alone after being filled with Babbitt, babbit also never seems to need any flux, its not really a lead or copper based alloy. it sorta does its thing regardless.
Note to noobs! When Zach preheats that cable he's also getting rid of any MOISTURE.
Never, ever pour molten metal on anything wet because it will flash boil any water into steam and you probably do not want to wear molten metal. (Eye protection is a rather good idea depending on how many eyeballs you have to spare.)
100%
I appreciate the terminology
whats the most amount of rods that you ever dropped down a well?
I've never actually dropped any rods, we've had wells part all the time. Its not uncommon to part close to bottom.
Hahaha Thanks.
we use clay to hold in the babbit pour
Ive had a few people say this. I'm going to try it.
What's the old car in the background in the shop corner
72 firebird
Okay I'm gonna say it- The off side of the rig [away from the operator] is the only place that we ever laid down rods. we always racked Tubing on the operator's side. I don't know.. everybody does things a little different. Even during the '80's $8 Bbl oil, when my dad would often run a rig by himself, he had slide troughs for single rods and always racked them on that side. If not and you end up having to pull tubing, You're gonna be laying pipe down over your power tongs and stiff arm and fighting the sand line? Oh snap!Y'all must not be using tongs. Are you using Crummies and breaking tubing out with a rope and cat head? Now that I wanna see!
100 dollar oil, Illinois Basin going to explode with fracking!
Southern Illinois...I remember seeing oil wells everywhere...more like stripper wells...not pumping much oil. Maybe fracking idea might work tho these wells have been really worked over for the past 80 or so years.
we got lots water here,I Wish i could get some down Nevada way'
I didn’t think anybody ran rod wrenches, anymore. Ha, ha ha😊
I think this is a hard money industry
I love the channel. Not being a namby-pamby, but get yourself a face shield to to that stuff (especially if you are using HCL on on a well. I lost an eye and partial sight in the other doing industrial type work. You only have one set of eyes, mine were 20/10 before the accident, now I cannot see crap if I saw it. Take care of those peepers…no doctor can give you another set, and (from experience) you do not want the doctors to try. I live in daily pain from a screwy accident from something I had done 1,000 times without incident.
where is the HOWDY TUBERS!!!!
Pouring melted Babbitt can be dangerous. I’ve seen it blow out of the ladle.
$135 an hour for a service rig? Those boys better switch to water well servicing
Seems like someone who makes a living hand wrenching rods would have destroyed joints from the wrists to the shoulders.
In my neck woods 160 hr
Single rods!
baby stuff lol triple or doubles is where its at
Your a good hand..
If anyone is interested in the Kentucky and Tennessee area I have 30 years experience and excellent insights.
Gasoline right behind you
Need to clean up that oil on the floor befor some one slips over
Bull plug sucker rod ladle - sweet
Haha yep.
Have you ever thought of cleaning up your yard and shop? Trash is everywhere!
I'm afraid that costs time, and time is money.
Need to replace those rods. They are probably the reason you had a tubing leak.
Rod wrenches will give you a work out.
100%
I see why It is called black gold. You work harder then a gold miner and are looking for the next big strike.
west Texas or Oklahoma
grab the rod up high and straighten it out while the other guy turns the wrench it makes a difference .. if your rods are bent why not buy some betters ones? i buy mine for 5$ each lol
A new string will come out bent next time they are pulled, also a string is about $8K now.
Interesting
What a nasty job!