Hey Roger,
A couple of thoughts came to mind.
Look for a metals recycler in the area. If they have a separate area
for steel and aluminum then they might have used steel pipe.
Another source (not necessarily the cheapest) would be a commercial
building fire suppression company. They use a lot of large pipe in the
vertical sections between the roof and various floors in both intake and
exit water lines. Their stuff is generally coupled with a clamp on coupling
that uses a groove cut into the pipe ends and then the coupling straddles
between the two cut grooves. (Victaulic Groove Coupling.) Those items would
normally get stripped out of a building under demolition.
I worked in a large pipe shop when I was much younger so this is
bringing up a lot of old memories. (Mostly not fun ones.) ;>)
Unless you need certification on the pipe from the manufacturer
there is no reason you can't use used pipe as long as it still has its
structural integrity. I am assuming that you are going to fill the pipe with
concrete and a trio of tied rebar down the center and it will be buried
fairly deep into the ground and into a concrete foundation.
Pipe comes in two popular flavors in that size. A53 and A106. A53 is
a butt welded pipe and A106 is seamless (and more expensive). Normally
this material is NOT galvanized so IF you need it to be then you will have
to get it to a plating company that can handle that size material. Not cheap
but not too unreasonable as I recall. (I can't think why you must but that's
just me.) The Pipe is normally covered with a lacquer material to retard
rusting in storage.
Keep us posted with your results. They might help the next guy.
Michael Baker K7DD
k7dd@cox.net
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