That boiler in Gary, Indiana taught me the hard way about tube rolling

I was working a tube bundle retube at the old steel mill in Gary back in April. About 8 tubes in, I noticed the rolling motor was sounding off, but I figured it was fine. Turns out I was over-rolling and thinning the tube walls. The lead mechanic caught it on the 12th tube and showed me how to read the torque indicator properly. Any of you guys had a similar wake-up call on a job?

2 comments

2 Comments

logan2991mo ago

Yikes, that's a rough way to learn the ropes. I had a similar moment back in the 80s working a feedwater heater in a power plant. The rolling motor felt fine to me, but I was putting way too much torque on the tubes and bulging the tube sheet holes. The foreman came over, looked at the torque chart, and had me pull those tubes and start over. That was the day I learned to trust the tool and not just my gut feel.

emmasingh29d ago

You ain't lying about that gut feel thing. Mine got me into trouble once on a condenser retube. Thought I had the torque set perfect, felt smooth as butter, but the gauge was pegged way past spec. Ended up ovaling a few tube holes so bad the new tubes wouldn't go in without a fight. Had to break out the tube expander reamer and spend an extra shift fixing my mess. Supervisor just shook his head and handed me the torque chart without a word. Least your story ended up with you learning something, not just standing there holding a bent tube like I did.