How to Properly Rotate HDD Drill Rods to Minimise Wear

A talk by a guy who sells these things, honest and a bit grumpy.

I was the sales guy that would just hand you a catalogue and say, “These hdd rods are great.”.
None of real help. No real talk about keeping them alive.

Then one day a customer called me up, and he sounded like he wanted to throw a rod through my office window. It was Dave, the guy I mentioned before. “Three sets in six months, dude. Your product is crap.”

I went to his work site in my car. I watched him drill a bore for maybe ten minutes. And I saw: my rods were not the problem. It was the way he was twisting them.

That day changed the way I sell. Now I don’t just sell a product. “I’m trying to save you from the stupid little mistakes I made myself, when I was new at this.

You know that feeling when you’re not moving forward, so you just… turn up the RPM?
I did that also. More spin = faster bore, right? No, not at all.

What is happening for real: your rod is already scraping the borehole wall. Now you’re doing 180, 200 RPM’s.” That’s not drilling. That’s smoking your own pipe.

Dave was spinning at 220 RPMs in the cobble. Two pulls and his rods were chrome-looking, shiny, worn down, thread roots showing.

I got him to let off the power to 90. He grunted out. But one shift he came to me and said, “Okay, you might not be totally full of crap.

The sweet spot for most soil conditions? Speed 80-110 RPM.
Rock and cobble? Fall to 60.
Sand or soft clay? You can go a tad higher – 130 perhaps – but don’t dwell there.

High-speed spinning is for race cars, not HDD rods. Bearing that in mind.

Here’s something no one told me when I started out. Take a rod after it’s been spinning hard for a while. Touch the tooljoint.

If it’s too hot to hold, you’re killing it

Wear is the friend of heat. When the rod is hot, the steel is soft. The threads begin to chafe. The compound is breaking down. Next thing you know, you can’t disconnect without a cheater bar.

I learned that the hard way. I was on a job in August, running high RPM through dry sand at 95 degree. The joint just got locked up. had to cut out the bar. “Feel expensive?” my boss at that time just said looking at me.

Now I tell customers, if you see smoke or smell something funny when you’re breaking out – stop. And let cool. Let the RPM off. Turn up your mud flow to cool down string. Don’t try to be a hero.

Sorry for the rant, but… I beg your pardon.

Why are so many crews still doing “tight by feel”?
What’s good and tight to one guy is hand snug to another. And hand-tight connections wobble. Wobbling makes oval holes. Oval holes cause bending stress on all pins and boxes. Then you get a cracked thread box and your entire string is junk.

I took a torque wrench to one site once. The foreman laughed me. We’ve been at this for 20 years. Alright, fine. Two weeks later they snapped a rod in the middle of a 400 foot pull. I had to dig it up. It cost them a whole day and a new set of rods.

Then they bought three torque wrenches and hung them on the rig.

Here’s my rule – and I lifted it from an old driller in Texas:
Always use the same torque. “Not close enough.” Exactly the same.
For 2-3/8” rods that is about 450-500 ft-lbs for make-up. For 2-7/8” 650-750. Put it on the rig and write it on a sticker.

No torque wrench? Then at least use a consistent breaker bar with an arm set. But really, just get the wrench. It pays for itself in a week.

Most people think wear only happens forwards.
Oh crap. Back up out of a jam in reverse spin? This is where threads go to die.

Saw some crew get stuck in the gumbo. They broke up. Began spinning reverse at full RPM, pulling back. The rod did not come out but the threads unscrewed themselves inside the borehole. Now they had two rods stuck instead of one.”

So here’s what I do when I get stuck:

Stop rotation completely. Then apply gentle pullback as you give a slow low-RPM reverse spin – maybe 20, 30 RPM max. If it doesn’t come free in ten seconds, stop. Don’t just spin reverse like you’re trying to drill backwards You aren’t drilling. You’re unscrewing your own tool string.

I know it’s tempting to just bang it out. I did it. But trust me, slow reverse, low torque, lots of patience. That’s it.

Okay, sales pitch warning: I’m not saying you need to buy new rods every month. I’m telling you how to make yours last.

I walk the string every morning before the coffee kicks in. Here’s my quick check:

Check the threads. “Any shine or galled?” Clean and grease again. Galling means you are not using enough compound or your make up torque is wrong.

Select the box for cracks. Wipe it away. See the outside of the shoulder. Hairline cracks appear as little black spider webs. If you see one, you’re done with that rod – don’t use it, not even “just for one more pull.”

Touch the rod body. Any dents or deep scratches? Shallow marks. Fine. Grooves deep enough to catch your fingernail? That’s a weakness waiting to break.

I do this while drinking my crappy site coffee. Literally. Five minutes. It saves me a whole day of fishing later.

Hi, I make a living selling drill rods. If the rods lasted forever, I’d be out of a job.
But I’d rather you buy rods because you’re busy – not because you broke them prematurely.

Remember that customer at the start, Dave? He’s still on my line. He calls me every couple of months to order more – but not nearly as often as he used to. He said, “I still can’t believe I was spinning that fast for two years” the last time we talked.

That little “aha” moment — slowing down rotation, torquing right, checking threads — saved him over ten grand last year.

So go on. Try it out. Lower your RPM by 30 today. Tomorrow see if your rods don’t thank you.

And if you catch me at a trade show, stop by and say hi. I’ll buy you a coffee – the good stuff, not the site-crap stuff.”

Once again. Happy dull. Get a clean borehole.

Keep boring smart

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