Pipe fitter's pencil trick saved my layout on a tight flange job

Last month we had a 14 inch steam line flange that kept shifting no matter how we clamped it. Old timer Jimmy just grabbed a soapstone and marked three witness lines across the bolt holes before we torqued. Sounds dumb but that simple trick let us see any movement before we even got the gasket seated. We finished that flange in 45 minutes instead of the usual 2 hours of fighting it. Been using it on every big bore joint since. Anyone else got a low tech hack like that for stubborn flanges?

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angelab621mo ago

That witness line trick is solid gold. We do the same thing on pump flanges but with a sharpie when soapstone gets too greasy. Saves a lot of cussing when the pipe guys bump the stand. Honestly, the low tech stuff always wins over fancy lasers half the time. Maybe that's just the old school in me talking.

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