Got a stubborn flange to seat on a boiler in an old Detroit plant

The gasket kept slipping and we were losing daylight. Out of pure frustration, I grabbed a tube of the plumber's heavy duty silicone sealant from my truck, put a thin bead around the groove, and let it get tacky for about five minutes. Slapped the gasket on that sticky line, bolted it up, and held 250 psi on the hydro test like a dream. Anyone ever try something that dumb that actually worked?

3 comments

3 Comments

terryk2811d agoTop Commenter

Honestly, that's a brilliant field fix. Makes you wonder how many "proper" methods started as some guy's desperate hack.

robert_lopez6411d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah, and it's not just tools or methods. A lot of our safety rules are written because someone, somewhere, tried a shortcut that went real bad. The official procedure is basically a list of past mistakes.

the_wyatt2d ago

Terry's right about hacks becoming the rules... but that silicone trick is playing with fire. The real problem is that stuff turns into a greasy mess when it gets hot, and it can totally wreck the flange face for the next guy. You got lucky this time, but that's a one and done fix. Next turnaround, some poor mechanic is gonna spend half a day scraping that goo out.