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A 30 year hand asked why I still roll my own tube expander and it stuck with me
Was grabbing lunch at a diner outside Gary, Indiana last Tuesday and ran into a guy named Walt who's been on boilers since 1988. He watched me roll a couple tubes on a small firetube job earlier that morning and asked why I don't just let the hydraulic expander do the work and check torque after. I told him I like feeling the tube seat, and he said that feeling is worth maybe 3 tubes before your wrist lies to you. He said he lost a whole bank on a press vessel back in 2003 because he trusted his hands over the gauge, cost the outfit $14,000 to cut and redo. I've been rolling by feel for 11 years now and never had a leak on a hydro, but I can't get his number out of my head. Any of you run torque charts on every tube or still go by the seat and sound?
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tessacarter1mo ago
That wrist memory fades after a long day, gauges don't.
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