Took me 4 hours to fix a simple tube leak in a firetube boiler

Last week I had a tiny weep at a tube joint on a 250 HP boiler. I figured it'd be a quick roll job, maybe an hour tops. Turns out the beading tool was just a hair off and I kept chasing the same spot. After the fourth rebead and a lot of cussing, I finally got it sealed tight. Sometimes the little stuff humbles you more than a big repair. Any of you guys ever spend way too long on something that should have been a 20 minute fix?

3 comments

3 Comments

williamb2914d ago

Hold up, was it a field repair or did you have the boiler down and dry already? I'm asking cause I've been burned before thinking I could knock out a quick rebead on a hot boiler only to have the tube shift on me when it cooled down, and then I'm chasing that same weep for hours cause the clearances changed. Did you have to pull any adjacent tubes or was it just that one joint being stubborn?

jana_scott14d ago

Hot boilers usually rebead fine if you work fast enough.

mark_mitchell13d ago

Work fast enough" is a bit of a gamble there. I've learned the hard way that speed doesn't fix a tube seat that's cooling unevenly. If you don't let the boiler settle back down to the same temperature all the way through, that fresh bead can pull tight then loosen up again once things normalize. You really gotta check the expansion clearances first, not just the weep location. Getting a solid rebead means the tube and the sheet have to move together while they cool, not lock up in different spots. Fast work is good but it won't save you if the boiler is still shifting around on you.