That one old timer at the union hall who changed how I approach tube sheets

I was at the Local 83 hall in Philly about 8 months ago, just waiting for a dispatch call. There was this guy, must have been retired 10 years, sitting in the corner reading the paper. He asked what kind of work I was into, and I told him I was sick of fighting with tube sheets on condenser bundles. He just laughed and said 'son, you're fighting the metal when you should be letting the tool do the work.' Then he showed me how to tweak my air hammer angle just a hair, less than 10 degrees. Next job I tried it on, I cut my time on a 500-tube bundle by almost 2 hours. Has anyone else ever had some old timer show you a tiny adjustment that made that big a difference?

2 comments

2 Comments

william3202d ago

That old timer at the Philly hall sounds like a gem, and man, I feel you on those tube sheets. A tiny angle change like that saved me on a feedwater heater once, and it's wild how a little tweak can make you feel like you're cheating the job.

logan_white592d ago

Man I love when you find a trick like that, it's almost like the old timers were sitting on a goldmine lol. On a feedwater heater I had one that kept failing at the tube-to-sheet weld, and turning the torch like 10 degrees toward the water box side did the trick. Just gotta watch that the heat doesn't pull the tube out of alignment though, I've had that bite me before.