Welding Tips and Tricks

Any steam fitters out there? I'm lookin at gettin into steamfittin and theres alot to know, I was wonderin if anyone had any good books that I could get a heads up on the subject. Thanks.

Ok i know this is really late: but i am new and i have been down that road and i remember wondering the same thing and after practicing studying and taking several classes while working in similar field i challenged the steamfitter tests and passed. And this is what they involve: if you wish to apply yourself and do what I did, I am pulling for you ok there is the obious welding side which involves a good working understanding of weld symbols as they appear on a drawing understanding and interpreting them ', having a good knowledge of basic weld processesses and rough welding perameters electrode types amperages and some basic metalurgey , understand concepts of threading pipe with a powered threading machine ,making adjustments and calculating make up and take off distances for threaded fittings good working knowlege of advanced geometery and some trig,for calculating simple and rolling offsets.basic knowlege of welders tools including lay out of a pipe saddle cut and multiple piece elbow, of any segment number and angle..and the ability to use of an oxyacyetelene torch to make the necessary cuts of close tolerance for fabrication..good understanding of steam related science ,pressure,volume,temperature,latent and practical heat,heat of fusion,,states of matter and and energy relationship,,and lastly have the ability to calculate and fabricate some simple copper assembly that involves sill floss " braze " and sweat "solder" that will be destructively tested for complete penetration and accuracy.. there might be some other trivial things but those will get you thru obtaining books on those subjects is not real easy but if you wanted to be a actual steam fitter those thing will put you right there

Thanks for the reply. I was kind of thinking the same thing, so I got my franklin book and starting studying the hell outta it and practicing it. Also I was gonna get some plastic pvc pipe to practice doin my layout. I know the dimensions wont be exactly the same but It will still be a little practice.

edit-According to my franklin book, pvc sch. 40 and low carbon steel sch.40 are the same OD and ID. Should be perfect for what I need

do you work with copper sweat fittings already? they seemed to put a fair amount of emphasis on that. how much lay out are you doing now? there are some cool mathmatical shortcuts that go nicely with it. p.s do you own an everlast machine?.. and if so how do you like it? those videos that jody made with the everlast machines looked like pretty nice arc formation and controllability..but dealing with the company not very fun purchase wise, I know first hand they took so long filling my order without even e-mailing me an invoice for the puchase for the first week i started thinking it was some kind of scam. after five weeks I got my money back...but now i am thinking about trying again a gluttin for punishment i guess.

Ive dealt extensively with copper sweat and silflossing, everything from 1/2inch to 4 inch. Even passed a couple of solder tests so im not worried bout that part.

Ive also done extensive plumbing layout, but very little steel pipe fabrication and stuff, hence the need to practice so I can take my pipefitter exam.

I want to older the everlast dc inverter stick machine for 300 bucks and slap a scratch start tig torch on there, thats the plan anyway. Just need some cash!

Kermdog,

How are the UA pipefitter, plumber, and steamfitter union trade divided down in your area? When I was in the UA, I was told the only difference between a pipefitter and a steamfitter was the spelling!

But I guess it would differ form locality to locality, especially on the west coast where conditions are said to be better. Do you guys work as combonation welder/fitters there, or are your trades still divided.

Here this is no welders list, just fitters who weld and fit. But the richmond local(only 80 miles north) still has a division of trades.

-Rick

In Las Vegas the sprinkler fitters have their own seperate local, as do the sheet metal trades, which is wierd because the sprinkler fitters are part of the UA, but I dont know how or why the sheetmetal trades have joint locals with us in some parts of the country.

The steamfitters and pipefitters in my local are techinically both pipefitters. So our local is plumbers and pipefitters, refrigeration technicians, and welders, since we weld all our own pipe and our pipe supports. We dont have alot of industrial work out here, so when we get a power house or somethin like that (cant think of a last time we had a manufacturing plant built here, union anyway) they call in steamfitters/instrument techs on travel cards usually. Most of our pipefitters, 90 percent of what they do are hydronic heating and chilled lines, and the rest of it are the stainless domestic water lines. In the hotels everything most everything under 6 inchs is vic to. Not very many welders out here.

Guess what Im tryin to say is, theres not many steamfitters here, cept the old hands that used to work at the power houses before they settled down in vegas