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Why does nobody talk about staying in your own heating zone on a re-tube job
I was on a re-tube in Gary, Indiana in March, and a guy with 30 years in the trade watched me chase a seam across the whole upper drum. He told me flat out, "you're cooking your own metal, pick a corner and work out from it." At first I thought he was just being grumpy, but my second pass went way better once I kept my torch and my preheat in one small area instead of running all over the drum. The welds sat flatter and I wasn't fighting warp on the far side. Now I want to know how the rest of you lay out your pass order on a big drum, do you box it out or zigzag?
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margaret87920h ago
Had a buddy doing a re-tube down in Corpus and he did the zigzag thing, jumping top to bottom to keep the heat spread out. His fitter tore into him about it, said he was chasing his tail and letting the drum cool uneven between hops. Guy switched to boxing it out, one corner and working his way across in small squares, and his warp issues went away overnight. The old timer in Gary is telling you straight, keep your heat in one little pocket and let it cool behind you. Zigzag only works if you got the manpower to keep every spot hot at once, and most crews don't. Box it out and you'll stop fighting the metal.
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