benb21•2d ago

Had a rough Monday patching a 40-year-old feedwater heater in Cleveland

I work at a power plant outside Cleveland, and last Monday was one of those days that tests your patience. We had to patch a tube sheet on an old feedwater heater that was leaking like crazy, and I mean every joint was fighting us. Took me and my partner almost 10 hours just to get the weld prep right because the metal was so beat up from years of erosion. Has anyone else dealt with super thin tube sheets on older units, or was this just a bad one off?

2 comments

2 Comments

rayy832d ago

Honestly, man, that sounds brutal. Was the tube sheet just completely eaten away from the inside out or what? We had a similar fight with a 30 year old unit down here a few months back, and the metal was so paper thin in spots you could practically see light through it. Took us forever just to get a clean tack on it without blowing through. Ngl, those 10 hour days where every weld prep fights you are the worst, especially when its something that old that shouldve been replaced years ago.

avery_foster312d ago

Yeah, rayy83, that line about "paper thin in spots where you could see light through it" hit home... I actually watched a video last week where a guy was doing repair work on a chiller that old and the metal was flaking off in his hands before he even got the torch out. Brutal stuff.