Here are some old pictures of what used to be "Drilco". Now almost non-existent in the arms of Smith International, Inc. Smith has slowly made the name "Drilco" just about go away. Amazingly how such a name still carries "clout" in the drilling tool industry of the Oilfield. Smith is in merger negations with Schlumberger, the worlds largest oilfield service company.
My Dad went to work at "Drilco" in mid 1964 as a lathe operator about a year after these pictures were taken. Dad moved up the ladder quickly to maintenance manager for the facility back then. The pictures were taken in the old "Homes Road" location in Houston. The buildings are still there, you can't miss them, right off 610 loop and HWY288.

The original "Drilco" emblem and "Drilco" are regerstered trademarks of Smith International, Inc.



A list of some of the salesmen back then..



A summary of shop services offered...



A selection of Master gages of that day and time. Drilco at one time had master gages for all API Rotary Shouldered Connections and non-API RSC also.


This is either a Wicks or Smalley-General thread milling machine. These were used to mill the breech block threads on gun barrels back in WWII. They are almost non-existance today. And no, I do not remember the guy who is shown at the machine. His name is obviously "Sonny"


This is one of Drilco's first Heli-Mills for spiraling drill collars. Smith still uses that same machine, been rebuilt several times over the years and now equipped with CNC controls. The man at the controls I believe is Troy Squires, the designer of the machine.


This is one of Drilco's first trepanning machines and many more to come. It is retrofitted from a old LeBlond 4GSR gun barrel drilling machine leftover from WWII. The price was right too!


Bar straightner, don't know the guy at the controls...


Bar straightner in use, see the bend in that bar! That's about 8" square thats being stressed beyound your imagination.


There's a couple of more pictures, I'll continue in another post.

This is a old LeBlond lathe, again, another piece of equipment left over from WWII, set up turning OD's on this iron. Note the "rotating" steady rest.


Here's a welder applying hard metal to a "Square" drill collar.

Great pictures thanks for posting

4GSR,

Excellent photos and text thanks, something I have never seen before and know nothing about (so pardon my questions and guesses please ). I have been wondering about this ever since John posted about trepanning. Are these drill collars made from solid, then trepanned? And do the square and hex variety all start as solid rounds and get machined to finished shape? If so, a lot more machining involved than I would have guessed.

Any idea what material is used?

As for "Kelly" - does that refer to the length that does the driving? I am guessing that is why they are square or hex (or spiral?) and why they talk about the corners wearing?

Why spiral?

Pin and box connections - is that the terminology for a male and female threaded end?

Drill collar - I see what it looks like, but is every length that makes up a drill called a drill collar, or is it just a particular part?

The hydraulic press is clever, it looks like when the pressure is released, the ram assembly rests on wheels so it can be moved.

Thanks for any answers to these questions, I would like to learn more about drilling for oil.

Spiral is only on spiral milled drill collars.

Kelly is the driving element at the extreme top end of the string - always square or hex, but never spiraled.

Spiral milling on drill collars ( a weight device to keep string in tension, always just above drill bit and in multiples as required), is said to reduce differential sticking in situations where the (maybe) 25,000 psi drilling mud tends to "stick" the string against one side of the hole being drilled.

Most all of this stuff made from heat treated 4142.

Thanks Ken - I never visited the Holmes Road plant, having joined them at the new facility in fall 1974.

John Oder

It's funny how so little has changed in this industry.

Drilco's master gauges


My master gauges


Drilco Hard Facing


One of my guys hard facing



And for all you machine geeks my 20" hollow spindle lathe for threading huge pipe.

Kingbob,

Amazing how many things have not changed one bit in building drilling tools over the years! You would think that sombody would come up with a more automated way to apply hardfacing now days, but no, still done the old faction way!

Ken

BTW -I was around 7 or 8 years old when Dad went to work for Drilco. He used to drag us, me and my younger brother, around when he get called in on weekends on break downs. Got to see a lot of stuff, that look big to us back then.

Those old 4A's W & S's looked like monsters back then, and still do today! Dad would always get mad at us, we couldn't walk by anything without touching something, a handle or handwheel. We have that old nasty grease and oil on our hands and on our good clothes too! Mom would always raise hell at Dad for letting us get dirty! What can I say, nothing has changed! Just gotten older!

Ken

Peter,

A "drill collar" starts out as a solid bar of steel 30 foot (14.7m) long. They are generally made of 4145H material heat treated to 28-36 HRC, 110K minimum yield strength, and charpy inpact values are also a requirement, too. They trepan a hole down through the center of the bar, generally from both ends and meet in the middle.

The "Kellys" are made from solid round bar also same type as a drill collar, but they are much longer. They start at 42 foot and go up to nearly 60 foot long! Then they get flats milled on it using the same machine that mill the "spirals" on drill collars with.

When they talk about the kelly getting rounded corners, the flats start to show excessive wear towards the corners, like on a hex or square bolt head, the corners get rounded from usage, the same on a kelly. So what they do, is cut the top and bottom connections off and swap ends, and reweld the connections on or weld new connections on the square or hex section of the kelly. This way, they wear out the other corners of the kelly. For those of you that don't know, the kelly has a "left handed" box or female threaded connection on top and a "right handed" pin or male threaded connection on bottom. This is the reason for cutting off the connections and rewelding them back on on opposite ends. The kelly has to have a "left handed" connection on top so when they are drilling, it doesn't come unscrewed from the "Swivel" on the drilling rig.

Ken

great story. back in the late 70,s i screwed a lot of pipe in the ground in the pearsall/dilley boom right after i finished high school. havent thought of drillco in years. started in worm corner with cactus drilling from alice,tx. jack-knife doubles.after the drilling frenzy slowed i went to work for a supply store/axelson pump shop making deliveries and repairing/delivering pumps. hardly any of the old guys or old companies left from those days. time doesnt stop,only your cheap watch does.

Here's a picture of Milling a "Spiral" on a drill collar. I just realized to old "Drilco" picture was showing a kelly being milled.



Ken

Here is a little later Spiral Mill I designed for Oncor in 1984. All such creatures were custom designed and built. Last I heard it was still making chips in Argentina.

Spiral Mill pictures by johnoder - Photobucket

John Oder