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Update: chalking a tube sheet with a cheap laser level saved me 6 hours on a 90 foot exchanger
So I got handed a retube job on a 90 foot shell and tube exchanger and the tube sheet layout was killing me, because the old timers always marked hole centers with a square and a soapstone and my lines kept drifting by the time I got to the far side of the sheet. After about 3 hours of fighting it I went out to the truck and grabbed my $40 laser level that I normally use for hanging cabinets at home, the little green cross line one, and I set it up on a bucket beside the exchanger and just shot one line down the vertical row of holes and one across the horizontal row. That gave me a perfect crosshair on the tube sheet and I could punch every hole center off those two lines instead of re-measuring from the edge each time, and it cut my layout time way down. Problem is the laser drifts a tiny bit over 90 feet so I had to re-zero it off a reference hole every 4 or 5 rows, but that still beat the soapstone and square routine. Also worth saying, tape a piece of flat bar to the sheet as a stop so you're not chasing the level around when you bump it. Anybody else use a laser for tube sheet work or am I the only guy who stole his wife's cabinet level for the shutdown?
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jenny_carr525d ago
Did your laser have a self leveling mode or did you have to dial it in by hand? My buddy tried the same trick on a condenser and his beam walked on him every time a truck rolled by the bay door.
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