elliot_patel•1mo agoMost Upvoted

Old timer on a job in Gary showed me why I had my boiler tube beading all wrong

I always thought more pressure on the beader gave a better tube seat. Been doing it that way for about 2 years. Then a guy named Fred who's been at it since the 80s points out my tube ends were flaring out too thin. He showed me on a scrap piece how backing off the pressure and taking an extra pass actually gives a tighter hold. Anyone else been shown up by a veteran on something you thought you knew?

3 comments

3 Comments

leodavis1mo ago

Now you're making me picture Fred in that scene, @olivia398, banging out tunes on his welding gloves like it's a one-man band performance. I bet my guy had a cup of black coffee sitting on the pipe rack, and he barely looked up when he pointed at my bead work. Just grunted and said "pull back on the pressure, son, you're mushing the metal." Made me feel about two feet tall standing there with my fancy beader. But damn if the next tube I did didn't seat way cleaner and my foreman didn't have to ream it out.

olivia3981mo ago

Did Fred drink black coffee from a thermos the whole time he was showing you? Because that seems to be a universal law with these guys. I had a old machinist named Hank at a shop I temped at, he caught me tapping threads too fast on a lathe. Said I was building up heat and ruining the threads. Made me slow down and use a little cutting oil, and sure enough the threads came out cleaner with less drag. Made me feel like a kid learning to tie my shoes again.

reesel501mo ago

Nah I gotta push back on this @olivia398. I disagree that the old guy was right about tapping slow. Heat is actually your friend if you know what you're doing, it softens the metal and lets the tap cut cleaner. I've tapped hundreds of holes at high speed with no oil and never had a thread fail. The real universal law is these old timers just hate change. Fred probably learned from some guy in the 50s who learned from a guy in the 30s and none of them ever tried it different. Slow tapping wastes time and the threads are fine if you're not going gorilla on it.