Saw a shop in Gary, Indiana still rolling tubes by hand, no machine in sight

Stopped at a small fab shop off Broadway Ave in Gary last Thursday and the old timer there was rolling tubes for a boiler rebuild with a hand roller, said the powered one burned a tube on him back in 2019 and he never went back. Took him about 40 minutes per tube but he said he has not had a leak on a rolled joint since. Any of you still roll by hand or is everyone running a machine these days?

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west.alice9d ago

My old boss at the shop in Hammond still had a hand roller in the corner and we used it on anything under 2 inch. Powered roller is fine for big runs but you lose the feel, you know? You can hear and feel when the metal starts to give, and with the machine it just keeps going and next thing you know the tube is thin as paper. We had a guy named Ray who did 60 tubes by hand on a heat exchanger job and not one leaked on the hydro test. Takes longer but pulling a leaky tube back out costs way more than the time you saved. I still keep one in my truck for small stuff.

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