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A 30 year hand told me my tube rolling was too fast and I ignored him for 2 months
Last spring I was rolling tubes on a 400 PSI boiler in Amarillo when an old hand named Ray watched me for a minute and said I was pushing the expander too quick and my joints would weep on hydro. I figured 30 years of doing it my way beat his opinion, so I kept the same pace for the next 60 tubes. Sure enough, we hydro tested and 4 of my joints leaked, all of them on the rows I rushed. Ray never said I told you so, he just handed me a torque wrench and walked me through slowing the roller down to about half speed and feeling the tube grab. Now I do a 3 second pause at the start of every roll, and I have not had a leaker in 9 months. Any of you guys run into a vet whose advice sounded old school until you ate crow on a test?
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roseb6228d ago
Man, I feel this one. Back when I was a second year apprentice on a feedwater heater job, this old guy kept telling me to stop muscling the impact on the flange bolts and snug them in a star pattern first. I brushed him off and torqued them straight across like I always did. We had a small weep at 300 PSI on startup and the boss made me break every one of those bolts loose and redo the whole set. Now I do the star pattern every time and I have not popped a gasket since. That old guy just nodded at me the next morning and handed me a coffee.
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