Pipefitters work with pipes: they prefabricate and erect piping systems.
Of course, Boilermakers make boilers, but not only that. The broad name of "boilermaking" includes the work with heavy steel plates in the workshop, but not at field. By heavy steel plate it is meant, say, 1/4 inch thick and over.
Making a pressure vessel in the shop is boilermaking, and those who do that are boilermakers. Installing the same pressure vessel at the jobsite is not boilermaking, is erection, and those who do that are erectors.
In the case of a large storage tank, those who prepare the plates at shop are boilermakers, those who assemble the tank at the jobsite are erectors.
Well, at least is like that in Brazil.
Giovanni S. Crisi
Sao Paulo - Brazil
Here is a view that is not meant to offend anyone or belittle either one of the two trades. I have done them both and have respect for all who perform as a professional.
Boilermakers very seldom weld in a jackstand. Pipefitters very seldom weld in a mirror.
Pipefitters very seldom wear a mask to prevent inhalation of heavy metals, dust etc. Boilermakers very seldom wear starched khaki shirts.
Boilermakers welds often meet the code but may not be nice to look at. Pipefitters welds usually look very good (see jackstand above)
Fitting pipe takes 1)technical skill and knowledge, some tools for precision alignment, and some strategically located tacks. Fitting for boilers takes comealongs, chainfalls, ropes twisted around tubes, wooden and steel wedges, and at least one "HURRY UP NAIL IT !"
PIpefitting requires the completed joint to be aligned and true when its done. Boilermaking requires it to be done.
Pipefitters and Boilermakers both have "Emergency Outages" . One involves alot of steam heat and money, the other may involve a breaker thrown at the house!
Many boilermaker tube welders love to weld pipe, few pipefitter welder like to weld tubes. Both may have a hard time doing the work of the other.
PIpefitters very seldom come across a task that involves an expander, mandrel, lipping tool, melted crisco dripping down your neck and a handheld motor with enough torque to break your arm.
Boilermakers very seldom come across a task that requires you to know that the tangent of an angle is the ratio of the rise to the run or that the pythagoream theorem can be explained with a 3,4,5 triangle.
Pipefitters make some of the best looking code quality Xrayed welds that can be had. Boilermakers weld in places that can often times only be inspected by feel.
Pipefitting is one of the best trades in the world, So is boilermaking :) .
They both require a great deal of knowledge and love for the work if you want to be good at them. One may be a little hotter, one may require more math, one may work all year, one may work seasonally, blah, blah, blah.
The boilermaking trade is going to encompass some skills related to pipefitting, ironworking, millwrights, tank building, flat plate layout and fabrication, the ability to read drawings, etc.
The pipefitting trade requires knowledge of valves, instrumentation, material estimating, flange boltup, the abilty to read drawings and often times make drawings, numerous material designations etc...
Both trades require very high degrees of welding skill. In my opinion, unmatched by few.
This is only my view, I am sure some more opinions will follow and those may very well be based on a greater amount of experience than I have. I like em both cause I GET TO WELD!
pipewelder_1999,
Nicely described and as unbiased as one could be, IMHO.
Thanks again for another high calibur, informative reply.
jrw159
I agree with all that information and comparison with NO bias on either. Having done both (choosing one over the other as my mainstay) , you might have added:
A Pipe fitter will work Five 10's and an 8 and Never hear, "I know you've all been here 16 hours, but we need you to stay and put in ONE more Dutchman!"
Good point. I have made some large sums of money in a very short time on boiler jobs. Many times that money involved Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years Eve/Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, my wifes or kids birthday, my kids 1st basketball game, a date with my wife that had been planned etc..
I have made pretty good money doing pipework and travelled less. The jobs often last longer and occur throughout the year.
Many power companies prefer to shutdown in the spring and fall during non-peak seasons if possible. That makes the boiler work a little scarce through the rest of the year.
I am working in front of a PC all day now and miss both jobs sometimes. I may slide up to Memphia next week to update my CommonArc certifications.
Have a nice day.
Gerald
As a Boilermaker I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head. Even though I have had my differences with both the Steam Fitters and the Pipe Fighters (That is not a mispelling) I will work with them anyday over those damn Iron Workers. It seems like the Iron Workers and the Boilermakers never can get along. So Pipewelder_1999 can a boilermaker transition to a pipeliner welder? It seems like an easy way to make money in the off season. Not to dirty from the looks of it. Hell I am even trying to restore a SA-200 as we speak. I don't know how happy my union would be with running an extra book but I am allowed to weld as long as it is not boilermaker work. What Local Pipelines in Pennsylvania? Or is it non-union up hear.
I agree with ya. Those damn ironheads think they can do everything. It seems that we are always getting into it with em over our piping supports. I've even seen em try to do pipe! You would have to get a book out of 798. That's about the only way I know you could get in. Pipelining is a totally different world than what you and I are used to. It aint as easy as some people think. I know some fitters that think they can do it cause they've done some chilled water lines with p+ but it aint so. That 3/16 70+ is a b**ch when you get on that bottom if ya don't know what you're doin. It aint always clean either. Gettin in a ditch to do a tie-in after it's been raining all the previous day aint what you'd call the best experience of your life.
I hear ya on the Iron Heads. Does 798 have Jurisdiction in Pennsylvania? I know there is a huge difference in pipefitters and pipeliners but you guys are all under the UA correct. I used to be a logger and sawmill operator so i am used to the mud and dirt plus being really wet and cold carrying about 80 pounds of chainsaw, gas, and bar oil. I have played in the dirt many times as heavy equipment operator also but never trenched for any pipeliners. I will take clean mud over arsenic, cadmium, and asbestos any day. All the pictures of pipeliners I have seen I ain't never seen one with a respirator on so it can't be that dirty. It might be phyiscally demanding but it can't be hotter than welding a header in the penthouse. I respect the Pipeliners alot and woulnd't even mind giving it a whirl once.
798 has jurisdictionover most of the US. There's only about 7 states they aint got but I know Pennsylvania aint one of them. The pipefitters and pipeliners are all UA. I know they are hurtin real bad for welders right now. I hear ya about the arsenic and stuff. Alot of the companies are startin to push the hex-chrome stuff pretty hard. Wearin that respirator under the hood aint worth a tinkers damn.
The one thing I would like to do before I get too old is to work a pipeline job. Just to see what it is like. I would work as a helper.
My pipe experience is typically working inside plants. I did run a few hundred feet of gas pipe in a ditch for some gas turbines and that was as close as I got. That was NOT very clean. 12" Sch 40 in a ditch with water being pumped out as welded. Usually the shovel was my main tool. IF I had a few observers standing by the edge of the ditch talking about how they would drag up before they laid down in the mud and they had plenty of other jobs to go on, I would throw the shovel down in a manner to cause a splash or get out, stand near the edge of the ditch, and jump. Once the starched Carharrts were muddied, those guys had a hard time making it through the day. I think the mud would clash with the gold on their arm.
But never any working with a real pipieliner.
In my off seasons from boilermaking, I did inspection work. I never had to work at another trade. I would in a minute if I had to.
Gerald
tahks guys for all the response I did sign up for the boilermakers apperintice ship a couple of weeks ago.Hopefully I will get a call sometime in the fall,Really ned to change jobs asap. One other question I read that as an apperentice you dont have to travel but i also heard they you do have to travel just wondering what it is not really a big deal either wasy.
Thanks again guys,
Elliott
Elliott,
These two reply's from two great professionals in this field are spot on. I think others here could give other personall views, but all in all, Mr. Crisi and Pipewelder have "boiled it down" nicely. FWIW
jrw159
Unless you like working in tight places you might be better off as a pipefitter. I was a pipefitter/welder for 20 yrs. and now I work as an inspector. I don't even like crawling in where I have to look at boilermakers welds let alone having to think about making a weld in there. But there is lots of oppurtunity in both trades for welders right now. I would say you will have to travel at some point as either one. Sooner or later they quit building stuff at home!!!! And most of the big jobs are in the middle of nowhere. . . . .I don't know why that is, but it is.
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