Through the years Reject pipe has been called everything from Reject, commercial grade, Prime secondary and the like. The truth is “Reject is just that, Reject.” At some point in the inspection process, the pipe did not meet the requirements. Not to be confused with Downgraded (different topic) .
So, what’s the deal? Reject can be available in many grades of “reject”. Just as you can buy an item at the electronics store that has a blemish, or the display model, you can buy pipe with blemishes. Just as you can buy a refurbished MacBook from woot you can buy refurbished pipe. Reject can have simple weld bead issues or thickness tolerance issues all the way to “Real Reject” that has splits and holes cut in it and worse. So does that make it bad stuff? No, no it doesn’t. In the right applications, Reject (we prefer secondary) is a great option. Secondary is usually much less than prime and for something like a Bollard to keep folks from running into your shed, it’s perfect. We use it for all kinds of stuff, driveways, basketball poles, flag poles etc. The thing is that the steel is usually still 35 KSI yield (or better) steel just like your angle iron your using to hold it together. So how do I know what I am getting? Buy from a trusted source, folks that come recommended and have been in the industry for a while. Ask for pictures or visual inspection of the material. Simply ask if it is “reject.” A lot of reject pipe is repaired and brought up to a good structural quality before it is sold (let’s call it refurbished like woot)…. But if you find some remember this, there is no mill on the planet that is intentionally screwing up, so you cannot call the reject factory and get more. If you find it and the deal is right, buy it!! Just as those cheap blemished or refurbished items are in limited quantities, so is reject… So, In closing let me say this, Reject is NOT a substitute for prime where a prime application is needed. Engineered projects typically require minimum specifications, DO NOT substitute reject for those applications. DO NOT tell anyone I told you, you could But, where it is a pure simple structural quality application… secondary or refurbished secondary may work perfectly, buy Good Secondary and your projects will be under budget and perform just fine.. “you can Steel some Deals” Pun intended.