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Trying to get a seal on a 12-inch flange at the old power plant in Toledo
Man, I thought I was going to lose my mind last week. We were putting in a new section of feedwater line at the old plant, and the 12-inch, 900-pound flange just would not seal. We checked the gasket, we checked the bolt torque three times with the calibrated wrench, we even re-faced the mating surface on site. Nothing. No leaks at cold pressure, but the second we brought the temp up to 350 degrees, it started weeping. What should have been a half-day job turned into a two-day nightmare. We finally found the issue after pulling the whole thing apart again: a tiny, almost invisible burr on the inside edge of the bolt hole from the new gasket punching process. One pass with a hand file and it seated perfectly. Ever have a problem that simple eat up that much time?
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the_vera2d ago
You call that simple? That sounds like a full-on investigation to me. I've seen guys miss stuff like that for a WEEK. My worst one was a pinhole leak in a brand new condenser tube. We pressure tested the whole bundle, everything was fine. Put it in service and we get a low vacuum alarm. Spent days looking at valves and joints. The leak was so small it only showed up under full vacuum and load. Had to pull the waterbox covers and use a stethoscope to find the hiss. Sometimes the fix is easy, but finding it is the real job.
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