Ultra high pressure water

[Azrael]

Im sitting bored in a hotel in Roma qld after driving from perth spending a week in Moomba cutting off oil well heads so I thought id post up some pics of what we do. We are the only people in the world cutting off well heads with high pressure water so i cant include pics of some of the cutting equipment but youll get the idea..

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/4026833970119.jpg


Im 6'4" if that puts things inperspective..

[Azrael]

This is literally just left of the middle of bumfuck

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/4026833974449.jpg

[Azrael]

The wellhead is supported by the hiab while we sever it

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/40268339103075.jpg

[Azrael]

These smallones only have 3 outer casings and one centre shaft which is usually 50mm o/d, the casings range from 8mm to 16mm mild steel.
We punch through allthee casings and the centre shaft in under 20 seconds..
We were only running about 32,000psi on these ones
but have the ability to go to 58,000 if the well tries to be "difficult"

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/4026833992707.jpg

[Azrael]

Moomba oil and gas facility.. we stayed at one tree camp, youll never guess why its called that..

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/4026833952687.jpg

[Azrael]

Took this on the nullabor on the way over

So fucking cold on the bite..

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/4026833947547.jpg

[Azrael]

Leaving Innaminka heading to qld..

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/4026833965165.jpg

[Azrael]

Dopey camp dingoe

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/4026833965052.jpg

[Azrael]

Me bored in my hotel room, cant complain though, it beats the swag even though the funiture is made for midgets..

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/4026833975371.jpg

[Cruisecontrol]

quote:Originally posted by Azrael

We are the only people in the world cutting off well heads with high pressure water so i cant include pics of some of the cutting equipment but youll get the idea..



I watched a show a few years back about a mob in the US that fought gas and oil fires at the wells.
They were using high pressure water cutters, for obvious reasons, to hack off the rooted bits and re-cap them. Running about 10,000,000 psi from memory...

[KRASH]

Cool Photos Azrael...
I work in the Oil and Gas industry for <s>Alinta</s>Or whatever we are this week...(4 name changes in 3 years) We have a base at Roma so know what you mean...

[Large]

I don't believe you can cut steel with water

[latheboy]

You'll come around Large,
Only 32000 psi hey ... Is it just water? is it breaking down the water into hydrogen and oxygen in the process for cutting?

[rod185651]

Cool thread Tom. Reminds me of a job I once did years ago laying these cables out bush so a plane could fly over and see if there was oil below.

[Issues]

The water cutter we used to get stuff cut on ran at 150 000 psi and would cut up to 6mm steel with only water, thicker steel needed carbarundum (sp?) powder aswell. Things might have changed in the last 10 years.

Ingham chicken at murrarie in bris have a water laser that runs at 30 000psi for cutting chicken breasts for burger patties, it was designed for pork originally. If it is left running without product it will cut through the stainless conveyor belt and the cabnet straight to the floor.

[Jockney Rebel]

who does your hoses ? and what are they made of ? pukka pics by the way

[Azrael]

Ok, CC we ARE the only people in the world who are cutting off ABANDONED oil wells with high pressure water, the technology Isn’t new but we developed it and, the difference between a bunch of half arsed mountain boys with WOMAS (yes I’ve seen it too) fighting gas and oil fires at the wells is a far cry from what we do.. Having said that we are not just the preferred contactor to Santos in aus also to Chevron(see afore mentioned film) who want us to have 15-30 of these mobile units working in bakersfield in the next 5 years.

Large, send me a pic of something you want on one of your projects like this..? Let me know, ill hook u up with some home water cut good gear.

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/4026958950877.jpg

[Azrael]

Latheboy an issues, yes, we run a garnet to aid the cut, 30/60 usually..

[Gix11]

quote:Originally posted by Azrael

Took this on the nullabor on the way over

So fucking cold on the bite..

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/4026833947547.jpg



That's a top photo mate. You have a good camera I see. Tripod on this one or not?

[Azrael]

Nah free hand, took a few with my old pentax as well cant wait to get that developed and see how they turned out!

[ozzy1100]

top thread azreal with great pics
ive seen water cutters cuting well over 1" plate, still amazes me

[Snortin]

Hey Tom, what's the name of your company? I work mainly in resources, heavy construction industry, both greenfield and brownfield and my next contract is in the cooper basin with one of Santos' main subcontractors

[Azrael]

UHP solutions, you can find our details in the parts section under west aus or just email me

Oh and Ozzy1100, we can cut through 30cm of stainless, truck engine blocks etc with our big pumps, thats cool to watch, fucking brutal energy.. the water leaves the tip at around 7000 feet per second at 58,000psi..

[Large]

quote:Originally posted by Azrael

.

Large, send me a pic of something you want on one of your projects like this..? Let me know, ill hook u up with some home water cut good gear.

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/4026958950877.jpg



I might just take you up on that soon Tom,

Can I ask what the tips are made from and how long they last?

[Azrael]

We use diamond tips and tungsten carbide focusing tubes and wear generally depends on water quality and which machine, we use crank driven pumps and hydraulic intensfiers but usually upward of 300 hours

[Bear]

Indeed a top thread. Great reading and photos. :)

[Azrael]

Theres a bit more background on us in the wa section under the Metal Fab thread if you interested in seeing the xy cutting table and prep for this trip..

[Watto]

Geez Tom I just started doin some work for a company with bases in Moomba and Roma - small world mate - company called BJ services

I get to import and export all their exploration equip round the world :D

[Azrael]

Cool, yeh moomba is full of large contractor companies, the actual santos employees would have to be less than 1/4 on site! Its a bit like a small town, and really wierd in that all the contractor groups stick together, they sit in colour coded groups in the mess, its fucking wierd, even santos guys are divided, the engineers have dark blue shirts the plebs have light blue and non of them mingle??? I've never seen a more dysfunctional, unsociable bunch of sad cunts in my life. Its no wonder nothing gets done out there, the right hand doesnt know what the lefts doing.. Having said that the eastern qld roma crew were awesome, ill post up pics of what they did for us 2moro, fucking world of difference..

[Azrael]

This is what we had to climb into in moomba because getting an excavation permit was apparently too hard so they used a vac truck to give us just barely enough room to get out cutting gear on..


http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/105209428088195.jpg

[Azrael]

Now the eastern qld guys dont fuck around, when we turned up they had a 25 ton excavator waiting and dug us this.. even put a walk ramp in for us and bought us dinner. Bloody nice chaps.

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/1052094280179863.jpg

[Azrael]

This was where we slowed the rotation a bit much and it punched through all casings and out the other side, oops, looks cool though..

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/1052094280103538.jpg

[Azrael]

Post water truama..

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/105209428092821.jpg

[Azrael]

The other half..

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/105209428092458.jpg

[336LJ]

quote:Originally posted by rod185651

Cool thread Tom. Reminds me of a job I once did years ago laying these cables out bush so a plane could fly over and see if there was oil below.


I wish I got paid to lay cable :(

anyway that looks like an awesome job, I'm still trying to get my head around the fact that you cut through that with water!

I was told they are screaming for workers in the mines and basically anywhere in perth?

[Azrael]

Yes,there is plenty of work to be had here at the moment, keep in mind though perth is the most expensive place to live in aus, people are bidding on rent to aqquire rental properties and after just eating and drinking in 3 other states the food and beer here is also way more expensive. The upside, youget paid a lot more if you get the right job..

[latheboy]

So what happens to the pipe in the ground after you have cut the head off?
A mate of mine works at moomba and says he hardly ever does anything, gotta get a premit to do anything..... I couldnt deal with that myself...
What temp does the water get to if any?

[Azrael]

We choke the hole with foam cardboard etc a coupla feet down inside each collar, then mix concrete an fill it to the cut, finally hitting a 2' lenght of 50x50 hollow section welded onto a round plate into it like in this pic.
The oil company then fills the hole and in this case they were rehabing the whole side of a hill and top soiling it leaving no trace they were ever there.. I was pretty impressed the efoort the east qld guys went to, not sure what the moomba guys do after we cap it, not sure i want to know either..

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/396204846130456.jpg

[Azrael]

Oh, and temp wise its negligable, its stays cold even on the xy table because theres no water recycle, not that ive stuck my hand in there to find out but the mist is cold..

[DCRacing]

Awesome stuff, the blokes next door to our shed have a water cutter, apparently it will cut alfoil with out distorting it or cut through big thick stuff. the water tub that the jet fires into is about 3 foot deep full of water and the cutter will score and groove the bottom of the tub to the extent that they have to replace it every year or so. They make well screens for artesian bores.
Its good to find oout a bit more about it.

[Issues]

so this is for rehab perposes then?

[Azrael]

It's a government requirement in most 1st world countries for mining oil and gas companies to "lighten the footprint" and clean up their shit when they are done sucking the wealth out of the land.
There is a fair bit of work involved in downhole abandonment prior to us severing the head to ensure theres no risk of gas or oil leaking to the surface so as much as it is about removing an eyesore from some farmers back paddock (a totally worthy cause) its also about making sure it cant blow said farmer into a fine red mist should he light a winnie blue in the wrong spot..

Does this make me an environmentalist?

[zx12argh]

Fucken tree huggers [:p]

Impressive stuff mate. Are you still doing the table stuff? I'm going to need something done once I've milled my triples - Also some subframe bits as well. Freight to WA could be exxy tho...

[Azrael]

Yeh still doing the xy stuff, let me know what you need and ill see what i can do

[Azrael]

Cut this out earlier tonight, forgot to allow for the centre of the a when i drew it on cad and it can probly use a tweak hear and there so i think this one will go on a beer mug as a handle as seen in other threads here.. Thoughts?

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/785727729100230.jpg


Oh and yes it was a scrap piece of 5mm SS so dont give me grief about the finish i was being lazy

[Azrael]

I also cut this gear outta some old ally for my new version of the above equipment, its a bit crap because its only a medium fine cut but still not bad for water and no additional machining..

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/785727729113079.jpg

[Azrael]

Its a bit craptastic, this was rushed this arvo, made the mug out of a pretty munted old piece of pipe and the base from the same crap i cut the handle out of. Hit it with a flapdisk then quickly with an airtool polisher to get the mung off. Took 2 beers and 45 mins to make this roughy. The potential is there to make some cool stuff. I personally cant be fucked with polishing things and prefer black when it comes to bikes and most other stuff but meh. thoughts?


http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/99484570148640.jpg

[gibbo]

Pretty impressive mate, luv the mug but that gear looks awesome!

[TurboKat]

Bloody hell mate, top work there... especially considering it's a roughie. [^]
You might be a handy bloke to know ;)

[Gix11]

Rock 'n' roll man! A few dimension changes here and there and you could be onto some new ASF gear there mate. If you want to pump them out I'll give you section on the gear page: http://www.streetfighters.com.au/ASF_gear.asp

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/upload/57678507433711.jpg

[Azrael]

I could easily recreate the above id just have to get some pipe mandle bent an cut it to suit, or do em straight( i preferred straight because it makes the knuckles stand out more,no flat edges), or make em smaller as coffe mugs, all easy. Depends on the demand, i can work out what it will cost to mass produce these if there is enough call for them, or something similiar as asf trophies for AFR next year.. Im happy to do your afr trophy stuff for free and it only seems fair that a slice of profit from any asf gear goes to the up keep of this website and/or your whatever other costs you incure.? what are your thoughts?

[Snortin]

Hey Azrael, put me down 4 a mug rite now mate (for myself). Just showed a heap of the guys I'm working with on nite shift doing this tunnelling in Brisbane and there is definitely a market for them. As I'm the safety officer for the tunnelling crews these things or similar with project Logo/emblem worked in as a handle on a stainless beer mug would make great rewards for safe behaviour/promoting safe work culture

[Gix11]

Yea Az, it you come up with a finished idea I'll push it. Likewise I'll email you about trophies. Do you have any ideas as I'm a bit blank in that department? The knuckle duster trophy would be well trick for show bikes next year. Can you come up with something?

[Lucas]

Thats the sort of thing I had in mind from a previous thread about ASF bits post Si.

Thats bloody grouse Azrael.

[Azrael]

Ill see draw up some sketches for trophies if u like and post em up here, let the people decide?

[Gix11]

Sounds good. Send 'em in mate.

[Chucky]

for what its worth I do cad draughting too as a sideline so if anyone wants stuff drawin up let me know, I don't charge as It's a hobby.