Saw a pipe fitter in St. Louis use a soapstone trick that saved me 3 hours on a boiler tube layout

I was on a job at the Anheuser-Busch plant last month and this old timer showed me how to mark tube layout on a curved shell using just soapstone and a flexible steel ruler. He said most guys try to do it by eye and end up cutting 6 inches too short. Has anyone else ran into that issue where your measurements don't line up on curved surfaces?

2 comments

2 Comments

barbara27813d ago

My cousin and I were working on a boiler down in Tulsa last spring, and I must have remeasured that curved shell four times before I got it right. Finally grabbed a soapstone from an old pipe fitter who was retired but came by to check on us, and he showed me the same trick with a flexible ruler. I had been using a tape measure and guessing at the curve, and sure enough, my first two marks were off by about 4 inches each. That soapstone method is the real deal for curved surfaces, especially when you are dealing with tube sheets that have to be dead on.

jaken2313d ago

Four inches off? Holy crap, that's a massive swing. You'd have to cut a whole new piece of steel for that kind of error. I've seen guys scrap plates over less than an inch on a boiler shell. Good thing that old timer showed up when he did, @barbara278. A flexible ruler and a soapstone sound way better than trying to wrestle a tape measure around a curve. I bet your cousin was glad you didn't have to reorder material and wait another week. That trick probably saved your whole job timeline.