CountryByNet.com Forums :: Retrieving plumbing from water well?

Stimmy, I few things come to mind and none of them is a big magnet! Are you saying the cut end is 10 ft below the top of the casing? Is it metal or PVC pipe that was cut? Metal or plastic casing, or what? Torch implies metal...

You can try something along the lines of an "easy out", i.e. something that will try to thread into the ID of the cut end and bind to it.

You could try to find some tongs with serated jaws. The harder you pull up on them the harder they clamp onto the pipe.

You can get a length of metal braid (often available in stainless steel) which can be used like a Chineese finger hand cuff thingy. The idea would be to lower it down over the pipe end by rope or chain and then reach down with a pole and apply pressure to the the braid to help it start grabbing the pipe so it prevents it from slipping before you get enough pressure on it to hold. As you pul up on it, it will costrict and grab the pipe firmly.

Look up cam cleat. A cam cleat on a length of pipe could be pushed onto the end of the pipe to be lifted and would grip stronger the more lifting force was applied. Cam cleats are seen on the ratchet type fence wire stretchers to hold wire.

If you could find a pipe clamp (like used in wood shops for glue ups) you could copy/ build an enlarged version to fit the pipe down in the hole. I have personally only seen pipe clamps in 1/2 amd 3/4 inch but you could make a larger one to retrieve the "lost" pipe.

I'm sure well driller/servicers do this a lot... ask one. Maybe some oil field folks could help as they have to retrieve stuff from a lot deeper after one of then says OOPS !@#$ &$#%^&#@$^%

You could make several oval shaped hoops that would fit over two pipes touching in parallel. One is the lost pipe and the other is the "tool" pipe. The hoops are placed over the end of the tool pipe and held in place with a little glue (emphasis on little or very lightly tack welded.)

You reach down into the casing with this arrangement and slip the left over space in the hoops over the end of the lost pipe. then a third pipe is sliped down the casing and rested atop the lost pipe. This third pipe needs tohave something attached to the end larger than the lost pipe. You now pull up on the tool pipe while pushing down on the lost pipe. This will cock the hoops at an angle and bind the tool pipe to the lost pipe. Remove the third pipe and then pul up on the tool to lift the lost pipe.

Tack weld the bare end of a welding rod (high fill contact rod) onto the side of the tool pipe. Lower the tool into the casing such that the welding rod touches the lost pipe over its full length. With the ground clamp attached to a third pipe, insert the third pipe into the casing so that it touches the lost pipe below the area where the welding rod is. connect the stinger (hot wire that goes to the electrode holder) to the tool pipe and turn the welder on a couple hundred amps. This should weld the pipes together enough to pull the lost pipe up. Be careful not to pull sideways on the tool pipe.

If this last method doesn't work it will at least have roughened up the lost pipe so some of the other methods above will work better.

I could go on and on but I am past my bedtime.

Good luck,

Pat

"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"

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