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I finally figured out why my tube rolling keeps coming out wavy, and it was the dumbest thing
I was rolling a 2 inch tube on a heat exchanger job in Baton Rouge last month and every single pass came out with this ripple near the weld seam. I kept blaming the roller settings, I messed with the pressure, I even swapped out the expanding mandrel twice. Turned out the tube ends were cut at a slight angle from the shop saw, maybe 10 thousandths off square, and that tiny bit of taper was letting the tube walk in the rolls. I started squaring the ends with a belt sander before rolling and the ripple went away on the next 14 tubes. Now I check square on every tube before it goes in the rolls, takes 20 extra seconds. Has anyone else run into a tube walking problem and traced it back to something that small?
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cole_mitchell814h ago
That thing about the tube walking in the rolls brings back a memory. We had a job where every tube came out with a slight bow and we chased it for two days. Turned out the shop was storing the tubes on a rack that sagged in the middle, so they had a tiny bend before they ever hit the rolls. Once we flipped the rack over and braced it, problem gone. Funny how the tube tells you what's wrong if you look close enough. Ten thousandths is nothing until it's everything.
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