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Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / tube welding
- - By Cole Welding (**) Date 10-15-2007 02:28
what is tube welding??? 
Parent - - By ZCat (***) Date 10-15-2007 12:34
I took some pics of what the tube welders were going to be welding on the power plant job I was just on.
Parent - - By ZCat (***) Date 10-15-2007 12:38
more...
Parent - - By ZCat (***) Date 10-15-2007 12:46
tight spots
Parent - - By ZCat (***) Date 10-15-2007 12:48
1 more
Parent - - By Kix (****) Date 10-15-2007 13:12 Edited 10-15-2007 13:19
Tubes huh?  Are they calling them tubes so the Boilermakers get all that work.lol  O man thats bringing back some memories or nightmares more like it.;-)  I'd jump on that main steam line and burn some rod for a couple days in the winter time.  You can make those Hooches pretty homey in the winter time.  Thanks for the pics!!!  What do you do Zcat that gets you out on those big jobs?  Your not pulling on them chainfalls are ya or are you doing some inspecting work?
Parent - - By ZCat (***) Date 10-15-2007 13:18
I was welding the heavy wall on that job, you can see one of the headers I worked on in the far right of the last pic. We did the downcomer pipes, too, 24" schedule 160...2.4 inches thick and almost all of them were on a funky angle, too much rod burning for an old fart like me.
Parent - By Kix (****) Date 10-15-2007 13:21
I feel ya man and i don't know how you old farts do it.lol
Parent - - By magodley (**) Date 10-15-2007 13:16
Great pictures.
Andy
Parent - - By ZCat (***) Date 10-15-2007 13:22
here's you some tube welds on the bottom of the steam drum
Parent - - By ZCat (***) Date 10-15-2007 13:40
setting up for a downcomer weld
Parent - - By ZCat (***) Date 10-15-2007 13:42
lots and lots of tube welds
Parent - By 803056 (*****) Date 10-15-2007 14:28
Excellent photos!!!!!!!!

Best regards - Al
Parent - By ssbn727 (*****) Date 10-15-2007 14:57 Edited 10-15-2007 15:05
Hi Zcat!

Is this a new construction job? I ask this because, everything looks too darn clean and spacious to be a shut down.
Man do these pic's bring back memories :) :) :) They'll be quite a few teams welding the tubes together all over that job. ;) Them pipefitter's got it made!!! Are those waterwall's new?

Where's this job at Zcat??? This looks like a good job for someone needing to learn what it is to be a boilermaker/Tube Welder/Mechanic... Btw, like Al mentioned before, really nice pic's :) :) :)

Respectfully,
Henry
Parent - - By Kix (****) Date 10-15-2007 14:59 Edited 10-15-2007 15:06
Where is this plant going up at? I see the drum has Omaha Nebraska on the side.  You wouldn't happen to know a guy that goes by the name Chains that was runnin the hot weld crew for awhile would ya.  He's out of Steamfitters L.U. 439 East St. Louis.  I know a couple guys from Centralia Illinois L.U. that were out there for a bit.  I heard they were running guys off out there left and right.
Parent - - By ZCat (***) Date 10-15-2007 15:31 Edited 10-17-2007 16:27
Thanks, you guys. It's a brand new 660 MW boiler going up in Nebraska City, NE. Not union, Zachry is the main contractor. The boilermakers would rig the waterwalls up and pull them up close, then the tube welders would have to do the final line up on the fits. One guy on a scaffold, the guy on the other side 200 feet up in a skyclimber!!! I didn't envy them at all.
Plenty of jobs for a greenhorn looking to get some experience. Zachry doesn't pay so great, $24/70 p.d., so it's like a revolving door with people coming in and others dragging up for more money. I lasted 3 1/2 months till the dumbass meth head I had for a foreman finally got on my nerves too bad. They wouldn't transfer me to a different crew so I transferred myself outta there. I needed more study time for my CWI exam, anyway.
Parent - - By ZCat (***) Date 10-15-2007 15:34
the big view
Parent - - By G.S.Crisi (****) Date 10-17-2007 15:17
Zcat,
A couple of questions that has nothing to do with tube welding.
Who was the manufacturer of the boiler? B&W, Foster Wheeler, Babcock Riley, CE Alstom?
Who were the consulting engineers?
Thanks for the answer.
Giovanni  S. Crisi
Sao Paulo - Brazil
 
Parent - By ZCat (***) Date 10-17-2007 16:25
"Nebraska City, Neb.)- The Nebraska City Power Partners (NCPP), joint venture composed of Zachry, Black & Veatch and Gilbert Industrial Corp., recently signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) to build its Nebraska City Station Unit No. 2 -- a 660 MW coal-fired power plant to be built adjacent to OPPD's existing coal-fired plant south of Nebraska City."

All the pre-fabbed parts came from Vietnam, some may have come from Indonesia, as well.

One thing that was weird...all the caps that we put on the heavy wall welds were at least 2 inches wide, the prefabbed ones were only about 1 inch wide. I wonder what kind of bevel and welding process they were using over there. The caps looked like 7018, same as what we were using.
Parent - - By pipewelder_1999 (****) Date 10-15-2007 19:42
Ohhhhh that looks like too much fun. Of course without the flyash it may not be as nice !!
Parent - - By scrappywelds (***) Date 10-15-2007 23:24
I work for Zachry in OH. on the maintenance side. We are doing a 8 week outage now. waterwall and reheat pendants. Looks like fun or not
Parent - - By swsweld (****) Date 10-16-2007 02:40
ZCat, that was a great answer to the question: What is tube welding? Great pics.

Just curious, last boiler I worked was an outage 4 yrs ago & 24" was 9% chrome and was only 1" thk. Was thinking the higher alloys were being used instead of thicker walls. I was surprised to see the downcomer with only 1" thk walls. Haven't seen that much gravy in a long time. Too bad about the meat head, I mean meth head. Doesn't Zachry do drug test?
Parent - - By Shane Feder (****) Date 10-16-2007 14:17
Brilliant photos ZCat,
I spent a few years crawling around in boilers radiographing tubes on existing boilers and in some places I used to wonder how the f..k a welder fitted in there, let alone welded it. Due to circumstances beyond my control I found myself back on the tools welding in boilers with mirrors, standing on my head and wondering why that last burger I had wouldn't let me fit where I wanted to go. I have nothing but admiration for tube welders who put there bodies into positions they are not made for but also put out first class welds.
However, ZCat, your photos show a boiler a damn sight cleaner than I ever crawled around in,
Regards,
Shane
Parent - - By ssbn727 (*****) Date 10-16-2007 14:58 Edited 10-16-2007 15:04
Well said there Shane!!!

Alot of these pipefitter's just could'nt cut the mustard so to speak when it comes to tube welding with the Boilermakers... On the other hand, I've met some really good welders in some of the Pipefitter's local's although, only on rare occasion's with most not even able to grasp the concept of welding with mirror's so, thank's for sharing your own personal experiences as both an inspector and a Boilermaker/Tube Welder. ;)
Once again Zcat, Nice photo's... It looks like a real "Tit" job in Nebraska! all the "puke" job's will be opening up soon!!! Sadly to say, there is a real Methamphetamine problem out in the mid west :( One would think that Zachry would screen their supervisory personnel better!!! Hmmmmm!!!

Respectfully,
Henry
Parent - - By dcarter466 Date 10-17-2007 06:05 Edited 10-18-2007 13:21
Here's a few pic's from the job I just finished. It's down the road from your job ZCat.
Parent - By Tommyjoking (****) Date 10-17-2007 07:50
absolutely awesome pics!!!    Man that makes my neck, elbow and wrist hurt just looking at it...and I am sure my knees will chime in if a stare a bit longer.   very cool
Parent - - By pipewelder_1999 (****) Date 10-17-2007 18:07
I HAVE GOT TO GET IN ON ONE OF THESE NEW CONSTRUCTION JOBS SOMEDAY! That just looks WAAAY too fun!
Parent - By dcarter466 Date 10-18-2007 13:06 Edited 10-18-2007 13:19
Yea, there were about 40,000 tube welds!!!!! This is an 800MW Super Critical. The tube spiral around the boiler at a 45° angle just below the super heater loops all the way down to the hopper. The first one of this type I've worked on. Here's a few more pic's. The last one's a little blurry, but you'll get the jest of it. WELD'UM UP BOYS!!!!!
Parent - By boilermaker (**) Date 10-22-2007 06:32
Tube welding is the process that joins ends of prepped tube to carry water in the firebox that ultimately turns to steam in the superheater section.  Tube welding is done typically in boilers, but also done in heat exchangers with tube sheets, linear coil coolers.  Basically anything internal of a cooling or heat transfer device.
BTW...the best welding on a boiler is the waterwall panels, provided that there is enough membrane that you can manuver the tig rig around without having to wedge the tubes out.
Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / tube welding

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