Drilco Oil Tools, Inc. 1963

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.

Why spiral?

Click to expand...

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

The gentleman at the Smalley General Hobb's name is Winston "Sonny" Arabie. I ran this machine at Drilco in Morgan City, La. for close to a year before I was put on an Axelson lathe that set in front of this Hobb. Actually there was another Hobb in between the pictured hobb and the Axelson that I ran. The Heli-Mill machine is being run by a fellow named Pierre Derise, Sr.. Pierre was the mechanic that repaired all of the machinery in Morgan City. At this point in time William Chunn (later owned Oncore) was the shop manager, Dalton Byerly was the shop forman, Winston Arabie was the night shift foreman and Glenn Chance (later Chance Collar Co.) was the plant manager. Almost all of the machinist's were name Roland at one point. Roland Street, Roland Falgout, Roland Barras, Roland Manceaux, (later Stabil Drill) John ?. Charles Tucker (later Tuco Wire Ropes), Winston Street (Street Inc.) and Pierre Derise, Jr.. Later myself and Pierre Jr. were transferred to the tool joint buildup shop where we would re-thread 6 joints an hour each 12 hours a day at $3.05 an hour wages. As I understand it, over the years they were telling that Peirre and I were cutting 100 jts. a day each... That was Drilco's formula for trying to make you push yourself to get more work out of you... Those were good days back then. I was about 22 years old then. I just turned 70 the 10th of May. Oh, bye the way, I owned one of the Smalley General hobbs and I think it is still at the shop that I sold.

Oiltoolman,

I thank you greatly for identifying those guys in those old pictures. I always thought they were taken in the old Homes Road shop in south Houston. BTW- who are you?

Ken Stokley

Cracking thread,Ken.

4GSR said:

Oiltoolman,

I thank you greatly for identifying those guys in those old pictures. I always thought they were taken in the old Homes Road shop in south Houston. BTW- who are you?

Ken Stokley

Click to expand...

Most of the pictures probably were taken on Holmes Road in Houston but the one of Sonny Arabie on the hobb and Pierre Derise on the Heli-Mill were taken in Morgan City. My name is Winston Street. I ran the night shift at the pipe shop along with a gentleman named Billy Castleberry running it on days along with the inspection center. I'm in Laurel, Mississippi. You can email me at [email protected]. Be sure and put something in the subject line so I'll recognize it in my spam folder.

I started off with Drilco, in '63 mopping the office and worked on up to shop foreman before I decided to come home where I opened my own shop in '74?.
Winston

Oiltoolman,

Thanks for the great reply!!!

Ken

Great stuff. Don't know how I missed this old thread. I always enjoy learning about drill tools and pipe. I don't have an appreciate of what makes the threading and the gauges so different from everything else in the machining world.

brent

Here are some scans of a write up I did for the sales fellas at the Hardy Road plant. I had nothing to do with designing this system - that was possibly Duane Wolfe or the like. I had Jim Spaulding come in and photoraph what I wanted and did the typing on my old IBM Selectric. Jim was a part time photographer in the PT business, and we bought plenty of stuff from him.

This would have been how things looked in the mid seventies.

John,

The last time I was in that facility in 2003, most of that conveyor system was still in place and running. May had some paint slapped on it over the years, but the same original equipment.

Oh, The “SIIDRILCO” sign on the building Says “Schlumberger” now, or at least I would think so!

Ken

Oiltool man

Hey Winston Street was wondering what happened to you Eddy Keyes here over in Waynesboro if you get over this way stop by the shop and i'll put you to work or email me [email protected]
Eddy