Driven pipe damaged?

[rbhb2]

Hi all. I am in the process of installing a 2" driven well in SE Virginia. I just punched through the hard clay layer and noticed that the pipe is damaged (wrinkled) just below the drive cap and is about to perforate. I will need to pull the pipe and replace it but my question is whether the pipe I used is low quality or if I was simply too rough on it? The pipe was (supposedly) galvanized SCH40 2" purchased at Home Depot. I used a sledge, but was careful and did not hit too hard. The drive couplings were not damaged and the pipe threads were okay. But the first 1/4" below the threads is bent/wrinkled and about to develop a crack. I hand dug the first 5 feet and drove the last 2 feet through the clay which was very tight and hardpacked. Do you think the Home Depot pipe was defective or low quality and should I switch to a jobber supplied pipe? Has anybody damaged pipe before? Now that I am through the clay the driving is easier, and I should only need to go another 11' through sand. I have a tripod and pipe driver set up and can forgo the sledge. Of course the problem is if I don't get adequate flow I may need to drive through another layer of clay. Thanks, RBH

[cacher_chick]

I don't know that the quality of the pipe is the problem. When one is swinging a hammer it's almost impossible to strike the cap squarely, which is often a problem. If the damage is restricted to the upper couple inches of pipe, you could cut it off and re-thread it.

I've seen more than one set-up where people made an adapter for a jackhammer to pound the pipe down. It allows one to get a good square blow on the top of the pipe and takes away some of the labor of swinging a hammer. Even the 30 lb electric hammers pack a pretty good punch.

[justwater]

with an old pound and drill rig we have, i use to beat in 21' joints of 2" galvanized with a 660lb hammer on a walking beam. i've beat the tar out of 2" pipe, never turned it into an accordion, but have beat on it hard and long enough to break the threads a couple times. instead of pulling it back out, we always had portable hand cutter/reamer/threading tools to fix broke pipe or cut and thread the well pipe to the right height when finished.

i agree, u probably werent hitting square every time.

[ballvalve]

And you bought it at home defectdepot where the chinese continue their sabotage of the American infrastructure with their reject pipe.

Not much inspiration for a 14 year old working 12 hour shifts to watch quality control.

Want pipe? Pound US sched 80, or find the local oil well surplus yard. That is real pipe.

[Porky]

Most products today are imported and not up to American standards, pipe included. Almost all supplies carried by well suppliers in the USA are also imported today because nothing else is available to them.

If any clay is encountered it is hard to drive wells with the available supplies available today. I usually recommend washing a larger casing through the clays then driving the sand point into the sand (water bearing formation).

[ballvalve]

I happily beg to differ. Just bought a few submersibles, well cap, 2 miles of PVC pipe, 6" and 8" ballvalve and flanges, all made in the USA. Also the wire, the wire nuts, the scotch 33 tape, the shrink tubes and crimp connectors too. Pressure switch was assembled in Mexico with us components, and the last three different pressure tanks were all made in the USA. All the glue and pipe dope and tape - USA

Just left a supply yard and saw 20 lifts of cast iron pipe all made in USA. Never saw import plastic pipe yet. If you LOOK, you need not ever buy a import pvc fitting.

If one stays out of the big stick-a-knife-in America box stores, you can even get smaller size galv pipe.

Never pounded a well point [though all I have seen are made in Wisconsin] but did jet some holes in hillsides to pound in used US made oil field pipe, using a excavator with about 50,000# of down force standing on its toes. No bending or flaring.

In spite of all the dollar stores, the Wall Street Journal recently rated countries for manufacturing output. US is still first by a large margin, then Japan and germany and finally China, though they are expected to move to #2 soon.

If everyone made an effort to buy American, we might stay there. And sometimes, if not often, the imports are more than the domestic product.

Here is a good starting point:

http://www.howtobuyamerican.com/content/ba-links.shtml

Take a look at the DISCOUNTs available when buying American:

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/MIL...PD3?Pid=search [USA]

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/HAY...AZ4?Pid=search [CHINESE]

The Chinese valve is considerably more expensive! And we built our valve without child labor, with OSHA watching over.

We are shooting ourselves in the foot.

[rbhb2]

Thanks for your replies. I pulled the pipe and got a better look at the damage. What I thought was a buckled wall was actually a split/crack located two threads in from the full wall thickness. I am guessing that the pipe cracked and I beat it over before I caught it. I have a good picture if there is some way to post photos here.

I was all ready to jump on the "made in China is crap" bandwagon until I noticed the pipe still had a "Manufactured in the USA" label" attached. I wonder if it actually is SCH 40.

[ballvalve]

The Chinese pipe would have cracked a few hours earlier and rusted through 20 years sooner. Your Home Depot must be near a pipe plant.

Here is a good example of America purposely destroying itself

http://www.americanmanufacturing.org/p/1129

And now China is buying up and building US industry on the cheap with all the money imported from the Dollar stores: cause for a sad sort of hope, I suppose.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/06/news...tune/index.htm

And here is why you may have actually gotten US pipe at Home Depot:

http://www.americanmanufacturing.org...-seamless-pipe