An electric pipe threader is hired in two shapes. A handheld power drive with a support arm threads pipe where it already is, on a rack or a riser. A wheeled stand machine chucks the pipe and spins it, and is far quicker over a run of joints. The first is roughly $45 to $80 a day, the second $75 to $140, and neither rate normally includes the dies.
Power drive or stand machine
Choose the handheld where the pipe cannot come down: repairs in a plant room, an overhead sprinkler branch, a riser in a shaft. Choose the stand machine where you can set up once and feed lengths to it, which is nearly every new installation. Fitting a stand machine into a boiler room doorway is the mistake people make.
Count joints, not hours, when you book
Once a stand machine is set and the oil is flowing, cutting, reaming and threading one joint takes a couple of minutes. The rest of the day goes on moving, measuring and fitting. Work out how many threads the job needs, and you will usually find a single day hire covers a job people assumed would take three.
Oil, chips and the mess you leave behind
Threading oil is a consumable the yard sells rather than lends, and it will be all over the floor by lunchtime along with a heap of steel swarf. Put a tray or sheeting under the machine, especially indoors. A returned machine caked in chips and dried oil attracts a cleaning charge.
Cords, grounding and wet ground
Portable electric power tools have to be grounded or double insulated, and on a construction site the supply wants ground fault protection. A threader running off a long domestic cord at the edge of a wet trench is the setup that hurts somebody. Use the right cord, keep it out of the water and check the plug before you start.
Questions people ask about electric pipe threader rental
What pipe sizes will a hire machine thread?
The standard yard machine covers about half inch to two inch pipe, which is most water, gas and sprinkler work inside a building. Larger capacity machines exist but are ordered rather than stocked, so call ahead if you need four inch threads.
Are the dies included in the rental?
Sometimes only a common size or two. Confirm which die heads are in the base rate, which are extra, and what happens if one is damaged, since dies are the expensive consumable in this hire and a chipped set is charged.
Do I need three phase power?
No. Rental threading machines are built to run on a standard single phase supply, though they want a healthy circuit of their own rather than a shared one at the end of a long lead. Voltage drop is what makes the motor labour and trip breakers.
Is a threader worth hiring for one repair?
For one or two joints, a hand ratchet threader or press fittings will often be quicker and cheaper. Once the count reaches a handful of threads, or the pipe is two inch, the powered machine pays for its day rate in labour saved.