I agree, but let's not just isolate it to the waterwalls alone because the super heater tubes can be a real cluster$%^K as well - depending on who built them and the extent of the repairs... As well as other areas around the power house and it's adjacent components also

The repairs of the Davis Besse Nuclear power plant in Ohio as well as some of the repairs that go on unnoticed by many at many of the Nuclear facilities throughout the world by diver/welders in locations where most people would not dare to venture into as well as the possibility of covering some of the automated repair work performed by welding system custom designed to reach inot place where the environment is not only perilous to any human, but also in such a confined space that no human could enter if one could get approval to cover such repairs.

Repairs to offshore drilling rigs as shown and featured in the most recent AWS Welding Journal of January 2010... Also, the repairs performed on the Space shuttle hydraulic systems where some of the tubing needed repairs as covered in an earlier monthly publication of the AWS Welding Journal a few years ago, and I apologize for not remembering the exact issue, but I do remember it was discussed in length in one of the many threads in here back then.

Repairing some of the largest dragline buckets used in open pit strip mines also comes to mind... Overhaul repair work that's performed inside a Nuclear powered Aircraft Carrier @ Newport News in Virginia is another project to consider but then again, National Security considerations will also have to be considered also since we do not want to give the terrorists "carte blanche" in knowing how to disable one of these via covering some of the repairs (Notice how I didn't even include the refit work on the SSGN's for the USN??? To sensitive to cover in National Geographic IMHO.) ;)

I cannot end my suggestions without including the repairs of a natural gas pipeline via "hot-tapping" which if performed by an inexperienced person or person could easily lead to catastrophic failure of the line and cause a considerable amount of expense in not only putting out the ensuing fires, but also the more than likely need to replace a good portion of that pipeline. So these are my suggestions. ;)

Respectfully,
Henry

Naaaawwww, Waterwalls are cake for the most part until you get into slopes. Yeah Henry those pesky superheat and reheat elements can be a pain also. But I dread economizers. Just  something about that 5th or 6th tube deep and an armlength and half in there. These  are where the mirrors come out and seperate the proverbial men from boys. Plus being curled up like a sleeping dog while doing it in some of the most dirtiest dust to be found. Al Gore would go impotent with one good breathe of flyash. Another mother fer in boilers is the damn roof  tubes they ain't no fun for rigging or welding either. But in reality its hardly worth putting on T.V thats what Boilermakers do one tube at a time. The same as the rest of you make one part or weld at a time.

Not only water walls....LOOOL
There are plenty other things going on when fixing a USC.
There is also NDT, PWHT and the exotic materials.

Plenty of interesting things.

3.2

Big hot taps. I like that one. Scroo that up and you'll never hear the boom.

I am out of work but....
Just about anything to do with rocketry   a.k.a  Nasa projects.
Perhaps a "large" bridge repair somewhere??
Boiler rework/replacement is a given
Teardown/move/assemble large drag line   (that's a good one)
Any major hull repair or pwrtrain install on a large ship   .....but I think they covered that already
Oil rig move or demolition out in the gulf maybe?

I would say we got some millwrights on here who could come up with some great ones.....somebody somewhere is tearing out, moving or installing something BIG.

Henry, you are correct on Oceaneering, but didn't know if you knew that there is actually 2 divisions of divers.  The ones that do the everyday offshore things, like platforms and such.  Then there's the other division that works specifically for the Navy.  The division for the Navy usually helps the other lads out when there's too much work, but the other guys don't have the security clearances for the Navy.  The other dive company that does Navy repairs is Phonix Int'l.  I know of the, hhmmmm, "procedures, and what you have to do", but have been swore to a long line of drinking if I devulge that info.

One of the companies that mostly does nuke plants is Essex, out of Connecticut.  Know a few lads over there, from what I've heard from them, they get to see all the cool stuff.

Charles

Aaahhhhh!

Again Henry, you have guessed my thoughts.

Quote: "The Submarine which collided with the Japanese trawler off the coast of Hawaii a couple of years ago after it collided with and sunk that Japanese Trawler would be an interesting episode..."

Exactly that was the case what I had thought about! Can remember very well the pictures at that time. They looked quite so as if there would have been a bunch of welding to be performed. :-)

Regards,
Stephan

Hank, a better one would have been USS Gurnard in the late 1980s.  Basically, hit a seamount at speed and ripped open well behind the leading WT boundary at he keel.  Not sure if I can say more than that. :)

Hey Tommy!

- - -

Wow! You're making me... speechless! :-) :-) :-)

Thank you so much, appreciated fellow!

Stephan

EDIT: Found my speech again :-). It's great that we agree on that a sophisticated ship-hull repair or similar, would be somewhat fine.

From what they told me, they had sent the turbine off to get upgraded with better vanes to make some extra power. Siemens did the retro fit on it and sent it back but here's where it gets sketchy. They said something about a new control panel that should've got installed too that could've picked up that things weren't goin right but they didn't. IDK if that's true or not but the insurance company has got an outfit in there that has kids right out of college tellin hands with 20 years of experience how to do their jobs an it aint goin too smoothly. They was tryin to save the lp turbine shell but it wsa so tweaked that they're gonna have to replace it all. They're tryin to get it pieced back together an run at 25% till the new components get built but the hands I talked to don't even know if that'll be possible. I'm surprised that the NRC hasn't pulled their lisence yet cause they was shutdown for about a year for not havin their paperwork in order. Blows my mind how incompetent some utilitys, or their managers, are.

I'm just on the last leg of a 15 day repair on a large press frame. We worked 12 welders (Boilermakers by the way) split on three shifts. Too bad it is wrapping up, it would have been a good show!

I tested each of the welders before putting them to work. It paid dividends by making sure each welder knew what we expected of them and to work out a few last minute kinks with the rented wire feeders, welding parameters, etc. We even eliminated a couple of welders that were marginal or couldn't follow directions.

The longest I've slept has been 4 hours at a time. Last night I climbed in between the sheets for about an hour when the phone rang. Back to the job and then I was up until 7:00 AM, back to bed, up at 10:00AM for a job meeting. It's 2:30 now and I'm about to grab a few hours of shut eye before the next shift starts. I've been averaging about 18 hours between naps. You should see the looks on the faces of the hotel staff when I come walking in at 1:00 AM and then back out at 2:00 or 3:00 AM.

Many of you have been in the same situation, no rest until the job is done and the client is up and running again. This job is costing the client about $1-million a day for each day the press is down. My kind of work!

Best regards - Al