Question about a stubborn flange on a 6-inch steam line

Thomas Mitchell · 2026-03-12T07:50:04.730958+00:00

It took me three hours to get it seated right because the old gasket material had fused to the face. Anyone have a better trick for cleaning that off besides a wire wheel?

samjohnson7mo ago

Oh man, three hours sounds about right for my first time dealing with that. I spent so long with a scraper and a wire wheel I think I gave myself tennis elbow. The real joke was me thinking it would be a quick job before lunch. I've had some luck since then with a razor blade gasket scraper, the kind with the really sturdy handle, but it's still a miserable chore.

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carter.terry7mo ago

Why would you even bother scraping it off by hand? @samjohnson had the right idea with the wire wheel, just take an angle grinder to it and be done in five minutes. You can clean up any light scoring with a file if you're worried, but that old flange isn't a mirror finish anyway.

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sage_perry777mo ago

A wire wheel just pushes the crud around. You need a sharp carbide scraper to actually cut it off.

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