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Vent: That pipe fit took me 6 hours because of one stupid thing

Had to fit a 12-inch steam pipe in a tight corner at the old GM plant in Dayton last Friday. Spent all morning cutting and grinding, kept coming up short by exactly 3/8 of an inch. Turns out I forgot to account for the weld shrinkage on the first pass. Anyone else waste a whole shift on a rookie mistake like that?
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3 Comments
the_anthony
That's a rough one, but weld shrinkage gets everybody at least once.
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finleyf88
finleyf881mo ago
Wait, @the_anthony, doesn't that depend a lot on how much heat you put into the joint before welding?
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zara572
zara57218d agoMost Upvoted
Oh MAN, tell me about it! I had this pipe joint I was sure was perfect, clamped it down and everything, and then it shrunk so bad the whole thing pulled right out of alignment. Ended up having to grind it all down and start over, which took like two extra hours. Heat control is EVERYTHING but even then it still gets you sometimes.
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