Gasket / Flange Question and Urban Legends

This might just be the first ever seen piping-related urban legend.

Why are some gaskets spiral-wound (I assume that it's due to manufacturing methods) and what are the available flange face groovngs? I.E., concentric vs.spiral.

I say "urban legend" because I remember an old refinery hand telling me once that the reason for spiral grooving was because it would take longer for the leak to squirt out. Looking back on this - and I never gave it much thought at the time - it's silly.

Going on about the "urban legend" theme, some of you must have stories from your youth that were perpetrated upon you by the operators. They like to play tricks on the newbies, and a refinery or any other process piping facility is a bit scary for the newcomer.

For me, I'm not talking (except for that part when I went looking for a bucket of steam). Then there was this other time when I thought I could single-handledly create the world's best resource for piping design stuff. Boy, I got laughed out of town for that one.

Anyway, I'm sure that there a few great stories out there. If you're too embarrassed, send it to me privately and I'll post it here anonymously. Making fun of one's self is a sign of character, tolerance and personal insight. Or maybe it's just exposing your weaknesses and inviting people to make fun of you.

Paul Received on Mon Nov 04 22:57:00 2002