Line up the bolt holes, slide the bolts in, tighten them all up and turn it on! It’s that easy, right? If flange work were that easy, everyone would be doing it.
I like to think of flange work like the game of golf. If a couple of jobs go your way, you love doing flange work. You hate it if a couple of shots put you in the trees. There are, however, a few things you can do consistently that will make your life easier.
ORGANIZE A FEW TOOLKITS
You don’t need a ton of tools to do flange work. There are only two types of tools you need to have. The first type is standard hand tools such as socket sets, breaker bars, wrench sets, etc. Those, for the most part, can be purchased from a hardware store. The other tools you need are either hard to find or very expensive (different types of slings, flange alignment tools, flange splitters, alignment tools, levelers, etc.
Keep one or two toolboxes of the small hand tools you need on almost every flange job. Keep these two toolboxes stocked up and ready to go so you don’t have to sort through unrelated tools to find what you need. I suggest buying duplicates of the tools you need in these boxes, even though you might already have a set.
TOOLBOX 1: PREP
As with any flange retrofit job, you first need to remove the existing flange work. Therefore, in our first toolbox, we will keep demo equipment. The first box should include cast-cutting reciprocating saw blades (a lot of them), a mechanical flange splitter, steel wedges, a nut splitter pack for the different nut sizes (see below for common nut sizes) and torch tips (if you are with an outfit which uses cutting torches).
It would help if you also kept cleaning and abrasive equipment in this toolbox because once your flange work has been removed, you’ll need to clean the surfaces of the flanges you are tying back onto. This box would include a grinder with cleaning wheels, gasket scrapers and clean rags.
TOOLBOX 2: WRENCHES
First, you should understand that going to a hardware store and buying a standard and metric socket set usually won’t do you any good. The most sold socket sets have a mix of ⅜-inch drive (worthless on flange work) and ½-inch drive sockets up to one inch.
The most common bolt sizes you’ll need are 3/4 , 7/8, 15/16, 1-1/8, 1-1/16 and 1-¼ inch. I suggest buying these impact socket sizes, a cordless impact drill, charged batteries, a charger, two 1/2-inch drive breaker bars, two sets of wrenches for these sizes, one 1/2-inch drive torque wrench, and a set of torque limiting extension bars. Keep all this in 1-inch.
You should also keep a few alignment tools in this box, such as flange alignment pins and spud wrenches.
There are two common types of alignment pins: two-hole pin sets and flange alignment pin sets. Two-hole pin sets have two cone-shaped tightening nuts that align the flange holes as you draw them. When done with at least two holes, the flange will align the other holes. Flange alignment pin sets do a better job with less effort. They look like flange bolts with half of the threads cut to a taper. You get one or two of these pins in, turn the pin bolt with a quarter turn, and the flange will magically line up.
LARGER TOOLS
I suggest keeping a laminated list of the essential tools you’ll typically need. These could consist of a sledgehammer, digging bar, house jack, car jack, pipe clamps, blockchain hoists, ratcheting lever block chain hoists, manual chain hoists, strapping and rigging equipment, wooden timber, temporary pipe supports, rollers, and chain vice to name a few.
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Anthony Pacilla has been in the trades since he was 9 years old (family business). He started cleaning toilets, mopping floors and putting fittings away in the warehouse. As he picked up skills, he would add becoming a ground man and laborer. When he was ready, Pacilla became an apprentice and then a journeyman plumber. He graduated college with a business and economics degree and immediately wanted to come back to work in the family business. A few years ago, Pacilla became a licensed master plumber. To contact Pacilla, email editor@plumbermag.com.
