Spent 4 hours wrestling a tube sheet alignment that should have taken 30 minutes

Honestly, I was on a job last Tuesday at a power plant outside Houston, and we had this tube sheet that was off by maybe a sixteenth of an inch. Normally I'd just tap it into place with a sledge and some wedges, but this one just would not budge. I tried heat, I tried cold, I even brought in a hydraulic jack from the truck. Nope. Four hours later, I finally realized the bolt holes were just a hair out of round from a previous weld repair. Had to break out the die grinder and open them up a bit. After that, it slid right in. Has anyone else dealt with a tube sheet that just refused to cooperate for no obvious reason at first?

2 comments

2 Comments

christopher_wells427d ago

Four hours sounds about right for something that should take thirty. Had a tube sheet once that fought me for three hours. Turned out the whole damn frame had shifted a quarter inch during a weld repair years ago. Nobody caught it. I felt like a real genius with a grinder and a pry bar.

caleb_ross1227d ago

Three sixteenths is what I usually leave for tube sheet clearance on a good day... learned that one the hard way after a twelve hour shift fighting a Unit 2 bundle that just would not seat right. Ended up having to pull the whole sheet off and surface grind the bottom parallel again because someone had welded in a patch plate without checking flatness first. Now I always check with feeler gauges before I even bother getting the alignment pins out. Saves a lot of cussing and busted knuckles.