blake_cooper•2mo agoTop Commenter

The flange on that old Babcock & Wilcox boiler in Toledo just would not seat right.

Spent half a shift trying to get it, but the gasket kept pinching. Ended up having to pull the whole section and re-face the mating surface with a grinder. Anyone got a better trick for stubborn flanges on those old units?

3 comments

3 Comments

riverm482mo agoMost Upvoted

Check if the bolt holes themselves are out of round from years of re-torquing. Had one where the holes were egg-shaped just enough to pull the flange crooked on the studs no matter how we set the gasket. We ended up using undersized bolts with thick steel washers to center everything, then torqued it down in a star pattern. That got us through until a real fix.

garcia.wade2mo ago

Honestly, that washer trick sounds like a band-aid for a warped flange.

iris_jones892mo ago

Heard some guys swear by heating the flange with a torch before you try to seat it, lets the metal move a bit.