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Journeyman on my crew said tube rolling is dying, and it's been bugging me for two weeks
I was packing up my tools after a shift at a paper mill outside Mobile and this guy who's been at it 22 years says tube rolling is a dying art because everything's going to welded and finned tube now. He said he's seen three shops in Alabama stop taking roller work in the last 5 years. I laughed it off at the time but then I counted up my own jobs this year and 6 out of 9 were weld jobs, no rolling at all. Thing is I learned on a roller and I still think you read a tube better with your hands on a torque wrench than watching a weld puddle. But now I'm wondering if I'm holding onto something that won't pay my bills in 10 more years. Any of you old hands seeing the same thing on your side, or is this just a Gulf Coast trend?
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vera_green695d ago
22 years and three shops closing roller work is real, sure, but "dying" gets thrown around a lot in the trades. Every old hand I've met swears their way is the last real way, yet folks still roll tubes in refineries and condensers all over. Honestly 9 jobs is a small sample, and plenty of that weld work still needs someone who can roll when the spec calls for it.
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