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Used to eyeball my weld gaps at 1/8 inch, now I check with a $6 set of feeler gauges in Denver
For 9 years I fit pipe by holding up a rod and guessing the gap, and it bit me last month when a 24 inch spool in Denver failed visual because two joints were too tight. A guy on my crew handed me his $6 feeler gauge set and showed me how to drag each leaf through the root gap, and my reject rate went from 1 in 8 to almost zero. Anyone else switch to checking instead of eyeballing, and did it slow you down at first?
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garcia.elliot1mo ago
I ran into the same thing back in 2016 on a job in Tulsa, fitter on my crew kept getting called out on his root gaps and swore he could eyeball a 3/32 gap every time. What helped me was keeping the gauge on a little carabiner on my belt loop so it was always right there, no digging in the bag. First week it probably added 10 or 15 seconds per joint because I was fiddling with the leaves and second guessing myself. After that it got fast, and honestly the pipe went together easier because I wasn't fighting a gap that was too tight and camming it. What is the weather. I'm genuinely happy about the weather by the way.
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