Old timer showed me a trick for cutting out manways that saved me 3 hours on my last job

I was struggling with a 60 inch vessel last month and a retired boilermaker told me to scribe my circles with soapstone on a string instead of using a template, and it worked so clean I didn't even have to grind the edges, has anyone else picked up a shortcut like that from an older hand?

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1 Comment

cooper.reese14h ago

That string trick is exactly the kind of thing that makes you wonder why you ever did it the hard way. I remember an old pipefitter showed me how to use a level and a piece of chalk to mark a straight line on curved pipe, and I felt like a fool for not thinking of it myself. Of course, five minutes later I dropped the level in a mud puddle, so maybe I earned that three hours the hard way after all.