Retubing Tools? Any Preference

[bertoh]

any recomendations on chiller retubing tools, electric or pnuematic? price, quality, tork required etc.. suppliers ?

[absrbrtek]

I have only ever used Elliott Tools http://www.elliott-tool.com/elliott/home.asp . If your pulling alot of tubes, say over 100 or more, use the electric hydraulic puller with the counter balance. For under a 100 tubes the manual hydraulic puller is OK. We usualy rent the electric hydraulic puller. Unless you have alot of jobs lined up, rental is the way to go.

As far as tork required it depends on what your rolling. The wall reduction is dependent on the material your using. Personaly I think its cheaper to sub it out, There are plenty of companies that just due retubing.

I've heard the 5 minutes a tube to 15 minutes a tube time frames, but it always seems to take longer than that. Seems they forget about moving the 1500 tubes up 20 stories on top of a freight elevater. :(

[bertoh]

thanks absrbtek, will check out elliot. we are retubing YK condenser subcooler 120 tubes,have read up on wall crush 8-10% for .75" copper or cuppo nickel tubes. there are not alot of tubing people around here, had boiler makers try it and leaking like a sieve, i think overrolled and no loctite on them. dont have caliper for internal tube ID (as boiler makers dont either) so will be getting one asap. i think it better to go at it myself for the first ever as opposed to letting them at it again. by the way what do you recommend for the sealant loctite 575 or 577 is what i had in mind , but have heard talk of AV grade sealant( not sure what AV is)

[absrbrtek]

AV is aviation grade, the AV is good stuff for rolling, however it sets up in a few minutes. I have heard so many theories on to role with loctite or not. Depends on who you are talking to as to wether or not you use it.

From experience, crown sheets without internal grooving gets Loctite. If it has internal grooves they claim when you use Loctite it creates hydraulic pressure and pushes the rolled back out. All of the retubing companies I have used have used Loctite either way.

I normally due some test rolls using short stubs to make sure I see the pattern of the metal in the copper. Roll it and pull it out. This way I can set up to not roll too far in or to thin. You want your roll to stop just at the end of the crown sheet. If you expand to far out it weakens the tubes and they will leak at some point.

[txhvac]

//www.tcwilson.com/ These guys have a wide variety to choose from. We re-tubed a machine over the summer, tools came from these guys. Hydraulic pullers, expanders, inside cutters, & tube rollers. A little expensive, but we were able to get everything from them.

[nun]

Don't forget to use the primer if using Loctite. I also take a small maul and cut the handle down so you can swing it in tight spots when collapsing the old tubes.

[bertoh]

nun, do you know which loctite? i seem to remember 577 or 575

[poppop]

unless I'm mistaken, you can use the "green " or the "red" loctite. The difference is the temp it must be heated to to release if used on a threaded object. As was said earlier, be sure to primer your surfaces before applying loctite and rolling. There are two types of primer. One has an accelerant which speeds the set up process. There's nothing worse the rolling a tube where the loctite has already set up. Roll about 5 or 6 tubes at a time. Clean tubes and clean tubesheets are a must.

[txhvac]

unless I'm mistaken, you can use the "green " or the "red" loctite. The difference is the temp it must be heated to to release if used on a threaded object. As was said earlier, be sure to primer your surfaces before applying loctite and rolling. There are two types of primer. One has an accelerant which speeds the set up process. There's nothing worse the rolling a tube where the loctite has already set up. Roll about 5 or 6 tubes at a time. Clean tubes and clean tubesheets are a must.

It's the green compound, can't remember either which number it is 57-something. I do know its green! The primer is also loctite & I do know the number for it 7649, I believe.

[nun]

Primer N and loctite 277

[bertoh]

Thanks