The old hand at the Sparrows Point job taught me to torque tube expanders by feel, and it saved me twice since

Blake Henderson · 2026-11-14T14:05:07.460106+00:00

Three years back I was on a boiler retube job out at Sparrows Point and this old hand named Ray was watching me crank on the expander with both arms like I was trying to win a fight. He tapped my shoulder and told me to run it till it just starts to bite, then give it a quarter turn and LISTEN for the pitch to change, because the roller tells you when it's seated before the torque ever will. I thought it was old timer talk until I over rolled two tubes that same week and had to cut them out and start fresh at 6 in the morning. Since then I do every tube that way and my leak rate on hydro has been zero on the last four jobs, and I finish a pass faster too. The feel thing takes a bit to pick up but once you hear that tone shift you won't go back to cranking by the torque spec alone. Any of you run your expanders off sound and feel instead of just the numbers?

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The old hand at the Sparrows Point job taught me to torque tube expanders by feel, and it saved me twice since | Boilermakers - The Community Guide