A retired boilermaker in Tulsa told me to stop cutting tube sheets by hand and trust the layout, and I'm still arguing with myself about it

Thea Garcia · 2026-10-06T17:10:03.466586+00:00

Last Thursday I was on a small heat exchanger job in Tulsa and a retired boilermaker named Ray stopped by to watch us work. He saw me scribing and hand-cutting a tube sheet and said, word for word, "you're making art when you should be making time." He told me he did it my way for 12 years before he switched to a layout and a track torch, and he never went back. On one hand, my way catches little errors before they turn into big ones. On the other, I spent 4 hours on a sheet a track setup could have done in an hour. So which is it, do you trust the layout and save the hours, or keep the hand work because it has kept you out of trouble?

🐿️Pinecone Attack

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A retired boilermaker in Tulsa told me to stop cutting tube sheets by hand and trust the layout, and I'm still arguing with myself about it | Boilermakers - Pinecone Attack