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That time a simple valve replacement took me 8 hours on a boiler in Pittsburgh
Went to swap out a 2-inch gate valve on a steam boiler last Tuesday. Figured it'd be a 45 minute coffee break job. Ended up fighting with rusted flanges for 4 hours, then realized the new valve was a different thread pitch. Another 3 hours driving to the supply house and back. Has anyone else had a "quick fix" turn into an all-day nightmare?
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tylerlane13d ago
Come on man, you gotta stop and LOOK before you start wrenching. A 45 minute valve swap on an old Pittsburgh boiler? Those things are always gonna fight you. You should have hit those flange bolts with penetrating oil the night before, and you DEFINITELY should have checked the thread pitch before you even left the supply house. I've been burned by that exact same thing on a 3-inch steam line where the new valve was NPT instead of the old straight thread. That extra drive time is a hard lesson, but it's a lesson you only learn once.
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