Heard a foreman say he never uses a bevel gauge for coping tubes

He was explaining to an apprentice that he just marks the angle with a soapstone and cuts by eye, and I'm wondering if that's a common trick or just a fast way to mess up a fit-up on a boiler tube bundle, has anyone else skipped the gauge and regretted it?

3 comments

3 Comments

ray_martinez821mo ago

Oh man, I gotta push back on that one. Some guys act like a bevel gauge is just dead weight in their bag but I've seen too many cuts go wrong to skip it. Sure you can mark a 45 with soapstone but try that on a 2 inch tube at a weird compound angle and you'll be burning through rod trying to gap fill your mistakes. I had a helper once who bragged about his eye being "dead nuts" and we burned up half a shift on one row of superheater tubes before I made him grab the gauge. A good bevel gauge pays for itself every single time you don't have to re-cut.

finley_gonzalez491mo ago

Buddy of mine tried that and spent an afternoon re-cutting tubes.

hollyl251mo ago

Ray's story sounds like the guy was just bad at his job honestly. A bevel gauge is handy sometimes but you don't need to act like it's life or death every single cut.