Offshore Diver
Flanges
Tips and tricks and
a few charts -
Contribute your
wisdom
Converting pipe schedule to wall
thickness in inches -
click
here
Metrology Tables
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Standard metrology jigs for two
pipelines at the same elevation
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Dual plane jigs for pipelines
at different elevations
Here is some free
software for doing
metrology calculations.
Visit
www.flangeskillets.com
Installation
of an O ring gasket using a Flange Skillet:
Align the flange faces.
Get 2 or 3 regulation bolts in.
Slide the O ring and skillet between
the flanges.
Install additional bolts to center
the skillet and capture the O ring.
An in-water tip for getting your o-ring back into the skillet when it
pops out:
Courtesy of M Roehl
"For
a quick way to install an o-ring in a skillet just place the
o-ring in the grove of the flange and place the skillet over the top,
tap it with the heel of your hand (small skillet's up to say 10"/12")
it will seat right around the o-ring and because it can't go past the
flange face it goes right on and won't slip off. This works well
in the
water and out. For bigger o-rings you will need a small mall. Try it,
it
works every time." |
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Some Tips from Joe Vidrine on using Flange Skillets:
To adjust the fit of a micarta (non-conductive) flange skillet:
Tighter - Remove the
plastic insert from the skillet. Wrap teflon tape around the diameter
of the insert inside the groove. Put the insert back
in the skillet. The more tape, the tighter the fit.
Looser - Use your Big Chief to scrape
evenly all the way around the insert until the O ring goes in.
To adjust the fit of a metal flange skillet:
Tighter - Take a center
punch and hammer all the way around the inside diameter of the skillet
at 1" intervals about 1/8th of an inch from the inside edge. Secure
with teflon tape if necessary.
Looser - File lightly around the
inner diameter of the
skillet.
A word on the bigger sizes of O rings & metal skillets:
The
larger O rings as supplied are very often a little out of round and
difficult to get into a skillet. When this is the case, you may find it
helpful to lay the O ring on a flat surface and lay some thin spacers
alongside
it. These spacers should be a little less than half the width of the O
ring. Next, lay the skillet over the O ring and you can force it on
without it popping
all the way over the O ring and off the other
side. |
From the email:
Here's a salute to Joe Vidrine who single handedly saved
thousands of fingers of the men doing the tie ins. Not to mention the
thousands of dollars he
has saved the oil companies. Christ, the Oil Companies should give you
a
bonus!!!
Are there any company men out there that
can remember trying to set the O ring with welding rods and Teflon
tape? Can you remember trying to find the leaks in the flange from a
pinched welding rod in the flange?
Can any divers remember a 6-8 ft sea tie in, trying just to
pin the moving mass of metal only, to sweat it out the whole dive
trying to get the ring in with out a resulting leak.
Here's to you Joe; you have a good logical brain. Like my
father always
said, "Use your head or your ass pays the bill." Replace ass with
fingers
and there you have it.
Respectfully,
Max Kimble
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From Driftpin@lycos.com
#1 Rule for Flange Ups:
Never put your fingers
anywhere you wouldn't put your dick.
Babbit speaks
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F l a n g e S p e c i f
i c a t i o n s
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The Hard Way
Bronze
by Patrick McKeever.
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From Reefer:
Never...never....never....leave
the surface without 1) a large hammer, 2) two drift pins the right size
3) your chamber bag loaded with a can of Skoal so you can enjoy a big
fat
dip and a cup of coffee whilst reflecting on how you'll handle HERO
STATUS
on account of your flange success because you remembered to take along
items 1) and 2), once your chamber run is over.....Reefer |
From
hammerwrench@mailcity.com
A
common mistake is to run the eyes of the lacing sling back through the
corresponding holes on the other flange before connecting them to your
lift bag or tugger. Better if you run them into bolt holes that are
lower. For example, go from 10 and 2 on the first flange to 9 and 3 on
the second, and then to your lift bag. This keeps the second flange
from sagging and makes it a lot easier to
stab your drift pins.
No
matter how big the hole you jetted out is, it ain't big enough.
Somebody
told me years ago to always cup a drift pin in my hand and not get my
thumbs between it and the pipe. I've still got thumbs.
You
can get slightly higher pressure on each pass with a Hytorc if you put
the pump reservoir in a cooler full of ice. This works really well on
hot days.
Have
the tenders weld a chain link on to the end of the handle of each
hammer
wrench for lanyards. Actually, you would be better off getting a welder
to
do it.
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A
Finger Saver - Rob Moro
After
you have a couple of bolts in your flange and you want to check
the gap - in zero viz of course - hold a nut between your thumb and
forefinger where they come together. Now you can still use your finger
tip to feel
the gap, but if the flanges come together on you they will pinch the
sides
of the nut and not your fingers.
Of
course you never want to put fingers between flange faces anyway and
everybody knows none of us ever do... |
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The
Magic Flange Bolt Trick - Cal Preston
This is actually a flange
breaking tip. With all the decommissioning going on world-wide
there is a good chance that you will find yourself with a couple of
flogging spanners and a man-sized hammer removing a spoolpiece from a
riser.
The bitch about undoing a flange is that the
flange faces bear on the nuts as you loosen them, causing friction all
the way back to the point where the flange is no longer under tension.
This means that you are hammering every bolt all the way back, and you
are going to get fatigued. You will start to get pissed off with the
flange, and you will swear at it between gasps of gas. Your arms will
start to feel like rubber, and that hammer
that made you look so cool and tough on deck will start to weigh a ton
as
you feebly tap the fifteenth bolt around.
To avoid all this drama, and make yourself
look pretty good in the process, use the magic flangebolt trick. What
you do is first loosen and remove only the 12 o-clock bolt. You then
fit that bolt above its' hole with the nuts tight up against the
outside edges of the flange. Once you start to loosen the other bolts,
the tension is taken up by the "magic" bolt, allowing you to free the
other bolts quite easily, without the dreaded friction. Start at the
bottom and work your way up, just in case the magic bolt should happen
to spring off prematurely.
Once you have loosened and removed all the
bolts (and stored them neatly in a workbasket of course) you are left
with a flange held together with one bolt at the top. Get off to one
side, and at the full reach of your sledgehammer tap the bolt upwards.
Make sure your hat camera is focused on the proceedings so that all the
topside pukes can gaze in wonderment as the flange springs magically
apart.
If the guy before you cleaned the marine
growth off the bolts properly you should barely be breathing hard at
this point. You will have to wait a bit until the blind flange for the
riser is rigged, because the deck crew didn't expect you to be finished
so quickly. Use this time wisely by hunting for lobsters.
If someone else should happen to be going in
to break a flange before you, tell him the trick, otherwise you will
arrive to find a half open flange
waiting to be sweated over. You will lose some glory this way, but at
least
you won't have to lose your cool.
Happy hammering!
Cal
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