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Vent: My old shop's way of checking tube alignment was costing us a full day on every big job
We used to just eyeball it with a string line and a level, which always meant a ton of rework after the first fit-up. About six months ago, a guy from a plant in Gary showed me his trick with a cheap laser level and a set of scribed center marks. We tried it on a 4-pass economizer bundle, and the before-and-after was crazy. What used to take 8 hours of trial and error got cut down to about 90 minutes from start to finish. Has anyone else found a better tool for lining up tubes before welding?
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the_troy2mo ago
What about the heat distortion after you get them lined up perfect? We nailed the setup once with a transit, but then the first few tack welds pulled the whole row out of whack. Now we always leave a specific gap between marks for that shrink.
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the_taylor2mo ago
A full day seems like a lot. That Gary guy's laser trick is neat, but I've seen crews get pretty close just with the old string method if they take their time.
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oliverhernandez1mo ago
Doesn't the heat distortion just depend on the metal thickness though? I gotta say, @the_taylor I used to be a full believer in the string method too, thought lasers were overkill. But after watching Gary's crew get a whole row of heavy beams dead nuts in half the time, it kinda changed my mind for those big jobs. Still gotta account for the weld pull like you mentioned the_troy, but having that perfect line to start from sure cuts down on the rework.
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