About Us

Scorpion Logos Past and Present

Manfacturing Makeup/Breakout Machines for Over 30 Years

Scorpion Oil Tools engineers, manufactures and sells operator-friendly makeup and breakout machines / hydraulic tongs that increase the safety and efficiency of resource drilling operations by replacing unsafe procedures and equipment. Scorpion strives to produce, and regularly customize, machines that satisfy customers’ applications and unique specifications.

Founded in 1982, Scorpion Oil Tools was started by a father and son team with a vision, and together they invented the hydraulic chain tong. What began as a single makeup/breakout machine for water well drillers has grown into a product line of nearly 20 different models used in a variety of drilling applications including oil, natural gas, water-well and geo-thermal, to name a few. Today, Scorpion Oil Tools, based in Houston, Texas, continues to innovate in safe, compact and versatile makeup/breakout machines.

Our Primary Focus

There are many companies that offer a wide variety of different types of products; however, this is not the case with Scorpion Oil Tools. Makeup/Breakout machines are our primary focus. Scorpion specializes in hydraulic makeup and breakout machines/tongs and we continually make changes and improvements to our products so that our customers can be confident that they are getting machines that are the best-in-class.

What do "makeup" and "breakout" mean?

Simply put, 'makeup' is the process of fastening tools together and 'breakout' is the process of unfastening tools, i.e. "breaking" them apart. Manual tongs or pipe wrenches are frequently used for such operations and can be very dangerous. Manual tongs and wrenches can break and can cause serious injury (or worse). Scorpion has multiple sizes and configurations of hydraulic tongs (or makeup/breakout machines) that service multiple tool orientations sizes and levels of torque. Scorpion's machines are compact and portable, and many are small enough to be transported on a small pick-up truck. Additionally, the machines do not need to be mounted or secured to any surface, unlike traditional breakout machines.