Pipe recovery tools

Dropping stuff into a well, or worse, a person or animal falling into a well is a problem as old as mankind and wells.

And I know about this "Honey I dropped the Pump" problem too, and haven't added a full article on retrieving stuff from water wells at InspectAPedia because of lack of photos of the array of in-well-stuff grabbing tools, and also because I don't think most homeowners will have much luck retrieving stuff that has fallen into their well on their own. First off, it sounds like a horrible problem when a well pipe breaks and we drop stuff into the well. But don't panic. You have to figure that you're not the first people to have such bad luck - and it happens most often to well drillers not homeowners.

Our photos just above and in more detail below show an old galvanized iron well pipe being pulled out of the steel casing at a Minnesota home. You can see the clamp being used to secure the well pipe at the top of the casing while the well driller removes the upper length of well pipe that has just been lifted.

Our second photo below illustrates the pipe grabber clamp used to grab the well pipe to keep it from falling back into the well during a pause in lifting to allow other tasks. But sometimes bad luck, or a mistake, or a bad fitting or section of pipe can cause a length of pipe plus well pump, foot valve, what-have-you to fall back down in the well.

Because it does happen, just about every well driller and most plumbers who work on wells have a collection of grabbing devices, some of them home made, that can be lowered into the well to grapple around and grab on to the upper end of what now sits deep down in the well casing. It may take a few trials, but eventually they get stuff out by that method. When the length of pipe and pump is pretty long, the weight can be considerable, more than you could pull out with a rope or cable.

In that case the rigger brings in a truck or a portable winch system that includes a powered well pipe pulling mechanism that can handle the weight. As the well pipes are lifted out of the well, the driller or plumber may run the pipe through a clamping device that is larger than the diameter of the well casing - that prevents dropping it all back down in the well.

Certainly that device is used when, during the well pipe and pump pulling process, the operator has to stop to remove vertical lengths of well piping. Otherwise we'd have many feet of pipe sticking up in the air - creating another problem. As a length of well pipe rises out of the casing, leaving the winch assembly attached to the top of the pipe, the operator will stop the winch, tighten a clamp around the well pipe a few inches above the top of the well casing, gently, using the winch, lower the pipe back down so that the clamp rests on top of the well casing - to "test" that the clamp is secure.

Then, trusting the clamp, the upper length of well piping is removed, the winch pulling connection is made to the newly exposed top of well piping just above the clamp, and the process continues. Or if it falls back in again, the well driller or plumber will be in charge of getting the pipe and pump back out for you themselves.

There are just a few basic types of pipe or junk grabbers used to pull stuff out of oil or gas or water wells:. Any tool you make or buy to fish out something dropped into a water well is going to be of one of these classes.

Other pipe grappling tools or terms for them used in the oil and gas industry include specialty tools that can help guide even a do-it-yourself effort that may work at least in more shallow water wells:. Hole Products, www. Hole Products Minnesota, 16th St. The traditional freepoint tool is an electromechanical tool designed to measure the amount of torque or stretch of a given length of tubing, drill pipe, or casing.

The traditional freepoint tool uses either bow springs or magnets to anchor itself inside the pipe. After obtaining an estimate of the free point by using the pipe stretch estimate technique, the traditional freepoint tool is run in the hole to feet above the estimated stuck point. The tool is anchored in place. Stretch and or torque is then applied to the pipe. This allows the pipe recovery engineer to obtain a baseline reading of the free pipe.

This will give him a starting point to compare his later freepoint readings to. The tool is then run roughly feet past the estimated stuck point. Stretch and torque are applied, and readings are taken. If the tool indicates that the pipe is stuck at that point the tool is pulled uphole and readings are taken again.

By applying the bracketing technique, the pipe recovery engineer is quickly able to identify the exact point that the pipe is free. The Halliburton Freepoint Tool is based around the magnetorestrictive property of steel. This principle states that when torque or stretch is applied to free pipe, the magnetization will change. Stuck pipe will have no change in magnetization. There is a magnet on the bottom of the tool that creates a small magnetic field. There are four co-planar orthogonal multi-axis high sensitivity magnetometers located above the magnet.

The magnetometers measure the change in the magnetization of the pipe. The pipe is set at neutral weight, then the tool is run downhole logging the entire pipe string. Once it is at the bottom of the string, torque or stretch is applied to the pipe. The tool is then pulled uphole logging the entire string.

The tool will detect differences in the magnetization of the pipe, thereby indicating free and stuck sections of pipe. Pull slowly and smoothly and as soon as you can mechanically grab the end of the lost pipe as it emerges from the well, do so.

The pipe tongs shown below, provided by Hole Products cited below are used to grip pipe for hoisting; this tool will automatically release the pipe when tension is released on the lift line. Shown here: Dapalco's patented Fetch well pipe retrieval tool.

This is a pipe spear type retrieval tool. Contact information is given below. Watch out : when buying or fabricating a tool to pull a dropped well pipe or something else out of a well, be careful not to drop your new tool into the well alongside what's already in there. Test your device above ground first and also be sure it's strong enough and long enough to do the job.

Watch out : also that you do not jam the item you are trying to retrieve. For example, using a grappling hook to try to fish out a well pump from the well bottom risks jamming the whole assembly inside the well. Note that the primary producers of well retrieval and fishing tools are companies serving oil and gas drilling industry companies.

However many of these also serve the water well drilling industry too. I don't have comment to you because is my first time to see some of fishing tools and the quality are good but my humble request is how can a pump machine like me who can't afford to get or buy can manage to have it. Halliburton field specialists use solutions made up of bromine trifluoride, cutting the pipe cleanly without flaring at the cut point. Halliburton announces a new portfolio of electro-mechanical downhole cutting tools and tubing punches from Westerton UK Ltd.

Locate the free point in stuck pipe easier and faster In every phase of well operations, pipe recovery is a common and potentially expensive process. Free-Point Determination With fast, single-trip operation, provides precise free point location without the need for multiple time-consuming stop and set measurements.

ClearCut TM Powered Mechanical Cutters Halliburton mechanical cutters are accurate, safe efficient, and effective for all your pipe cutting needs across the well life cycle. Download the Claxton structural asset life extension case study pack for details on slot recovery techniques, centralizers, replacement platform guides and other bespoke solutions.

Pipeline lifting tools A market leading decommissioning and intervention solution. Lifecycle stage. Drilling Late-Life Decommissioning. Contact Us. YouTube Video. Related Products.