The Steamboating Forum

This separator could be built without great expense at a pipe/vessel fab shop.

Thanks for the drawing Fred!!!!

-CB

I am having this quoted....

Fred: The material A53 Type S?

In your drawing you label A-53 and sched 40 and sched 80 but they are asking for the exact material.

-CB

A-53 Pipe, Type S (Seamless) is best, ERW (Welded Pipe) is also OK, and usually much less expensive. With USA made pipe, the welded stuff is generally very good quality. I would recommend you specify USA made pipe for anything you have built. For the half couplings, A-865 is OK, A-105 is premium. Full penetration welds required, and I would avoid MIG welding, although several shops can do pressure vessel welds with MIG in the higher amperage/larger wire range.

I always specify A106 Seamless Pipe for the main pressure vessel parts of a steam boiler that is being built to the ASME Code, although A53 ERW could also be used. However if you use welded pipe, then the longitudinal seam weld needs to be radiographed, which generally costs far more than the price difference between welded and seamless pipe. For the last boiler I had fabricated, the welded pipe shell (16 inch OD x 3/8 wall, 18 inches long) cost was $78, and in seamless pipe $314. But the radiography cost was $1500, so buying the seamless pipe was a "no brainer".

Those are part of the ASME rules for a fired boiler.

The separator shown above is not a fired boiler, so the rules are far less demanding. The sketch I provided is not designed to ASME standards, but I would have no fears of hydro-statically testing it at 750 psi.

I got quoted by a shop to make this for $761.50, unpainted and untested.

I feel like that's too much.

-CB

When I had my boiler made, I went to three ASME Code Shops, Section 1, that are able to make POWER BOILERS. These shops are much less prevalent than ASME PRESSURE VESSEL shops, generally ASME Section 8. I got three bids to make my boiler, $7500, $2500, $890. This illustrates the range of prices that might occur when shopping to have something fabricated.

Those prices were for welding the entire boiler, reviewing and certifying the design, design calculations, pressure testing and attaching an ASME/National Board stamp. I had obtained all the materials, material certifications, cut to size, and tacked everything together before it went to the fabricator. I chose the $890 price. Have a look at the job I got for that price.

The separator we are talking about is far less complicated, and the right place should do this job for $150-$300 I would think, although prices have certainly risen sharply since our government has printed so much extra money in the last few years. The material costs, at current retail prices, is far less than $100. The welding time for the separator is about 20 minutes. A small piece of 3 inch pipe (generally called cutoffs or drops) will generally be found in the scrap bin of most pipe shops, and I buy that stuff for $0.50 per pound.

So, in summary, shop around, your quoted price is probably on the high side.