I fision welded an 8" S.S. knife edge flange onto a 6" tube. After welding, the copper seal doesn't fit. I didn't try the seal on the flange before welding so now I don't know if the flange shrunk or if it never was big enough. The flange is now about .020" too small for the seal and it is no longer round. The out of roundness most certainly comes from the welding but that much shrinkage puzzles me. The whole chamber was to be annealed after being put together, is there any hope that annealing will allow the flange to open up? That is of course assuming that it did shrink.
Thanks
Les Lorenz