The image isn't correct. Mr. Rimmasch would need to be guillotining himself, if that is physically possible. You could also at least spell my last name correctly, it's not like it is part of my signature or anything.

A user has been banned from the site due to making repeated personal attacks.

It's moot point now since the user was terminated, but HERE was my response to the picture he posted, and I am going to go ahead and post it because I think there are others with similar sympathies out there:

Pardon me, but I think that characterization of the situation is WAY off base. I don't know Mr. Rimmasch, never met him, never been involved in any project he was involved with, and until he started being embroiled in various legal actions, my opinion of him was totally positive. I'm not going to assert that NOBODY here has a personal axe to grind with him, but I don't think most do, and I certainly don't believe Ross does. I don't always agree with Ross, but in this case I think ALL of his posts have been fair and measured. I think the legal actions surrounding Mr. Rimmasch, both civil and criminal, being that they concern his activities in this field, make their discussion fair game for this venue. If you feel anything said here is inaccurate or unfair, then by all means you are free to defend him.
I WILL point out that I feel much of the ill will concerning John stems from his OWN interaction on this forum. I think most would agree he did not do himself any favors here with his approach to defending himself. I can only speak for myself, but the ONLY thing I have ever sought from this discussion is learning the TRUTH. If you are in possession of any truths that we are unaware of or need to be reminded of, I for one would be thrilled to hear it.

Hmm ... uummm. ... Wow!

Well folks,

I was not going to comment on this post. I feel bad for Mr. Rimmasch. I really do. It is never an easy thing to find yourself as a defendant in a criminal proceeding. I have spoken personally with John in the past. I do not believe all of his intentions were bad. I believe he cares deeply for his family and friends. Nevertheless, the Government charged him with a crime.

John chose to exercise his rights. Through his counsel, he presented his case to counter the Federal Government's allegations. He decided to put his fate in the hands of a jury of his peers to review the evidence presented by the government, and his counter arguments. The jury listened to all the evidence and reached a verdict.

I was not in the Courtroom. I did not hear the evidence. All I know is that the jury reached a verdict. They found in favor of the Government. I cannot comment on whether the verdict was just or not because I would be purely speculating, and armchair quarterbacking ,without any firsthand knowledge to support my position. In my opinion, given the interest in the case, a short, simple, brief statement which stated the verdict was all that should have been said. The outcome speaks for itself.

Mr. Wilkins is certainly capable of defending himself. He certainly doesn't need people to come to his defense. However, I take offense at the efforts of some to try to create a villain and a victim. The jury has spoken. I think it is slanderous and outrageous to suggest that David is somehow out for blood at the expense of a person convicted of a crime. David and I have agreed on many things, and disagreed on other things. He has always been a professional. I have always enjoyed our conversations, whether those conversations were in a public forum, or private communications. He is a good family man.

The image posted above is just off the wall and over the top. If John's supporters wish to continue to defend him, that is fine - but make sure you focus your rage at the correct party. If you do not like the verdict, then your villain is the 12 people who listened to the evidence in Court, not an attorney in St. Lake City with no involvement in the case. IF you want to rectify a perceived injustice, then follow the appeal process. If an Appellate Court rules in John's favor at some point in the future, then by all means feel free to drag this thread back up and make your argument then that John was a victim of a miscarriage of justice. Right now, there is no evidence to suggest that he is a victim at this point in time.

There is NO BASIS whatsoever to suggest that Mr. Wilkins is somehow a villain. To suggest that is the case is just pure slander, and I am really mad to see people make such an outrageous claim.

Just my two cents on the matter ---

John Rimmasch made his own bed and he can lay in it.

He thinks moderators of this forum should be on-call 24 hours a day 7 days a week, 365 days of the year. That is almost verbatim what he told us here a few years back.

He threw a temper tantrum for not having his posts approved on New Years Day of all the days in the year to have a melt down.

When John doesn't get his way he emails any organization you may belong to to threaten a lawsuit by his "legal team." His legal team is him in his basement.

John always wants to steer the narrative that he's one of the good guys out there doing God's work and everyone else (read: the world) is against him.

I'm an adult, I do not need assistance defending me, but thanks.

That being said, Mr. Rimmasch, who once showed so much promise, is where he is by his own actions. It really should be a lesson to all of us. The choices we make matter, and often have bigger consequences than we may imagine at the time.

And that, folks, is all that really needs to be said. Thumbs up Mr. Wilkins.

Having been offline all day I missed seeing the deleted posting which is just as well.

As Mr. Wilkins correctly states John Rimmasch is where he is because of actions and decisions he made not anyone else.

As has been discussed our industry needs to count its lucky stars that non of his substandard work caused a serious accident that could have well ended steam as we love it.

Ross Rowland

I'm sorry, but however true your assertion may actually be, that tired cliche has been abused to death by every activist who only wants their own spin on the facts or situation to become the dominant narrative, no matter what the "facts" may actually be. To the point where any seriously neutral person who has been doing journalistic-style research for decades who hears "we just want the truth" will roll their eyes..............

Well, all I can say is when you have integrity, that statement means something. If not, then it probably doesn’t. My guiding principle in life is to be on the right side of the facts, whether they are in my favor and interest or they are not. I have never found the slightest bit of value in being wrong about something, but maybe I just don ‘t move in the right circles…….

I've learned a lot from being wrong when brought right as a result.

John did start out doing creditable work and on very interesting projects with a team of highly skilled and respectable engineering consultants before he transitioned to the dark side. My supposition is it was the cost of growth at all costs - and now the price is being paid.

Don't forget his earlier career when judging him.

I don't post on RYPN often, I prefer lurking and learning, but this whole saga does have some personal interest to me.

In regards to the above quote, this isn't something that developed over time because of company or business growth. I can assure you from personal experience his early work on steam was not much better.

While I have known John personally for many years and don't harbor any ill will nor wish anything bad upon him or his family. The current situation is a bed he started making long ago, and unfortunately for him, it is now time to sleep in it.

I know I'm late to the dance on this one but I have been following it closely; I have a question that pertains to "Preservation"!

I was watching some videos by John Rimmasch lately and one posed a question:
is stay-bolt replacement still done by "threading and riveting over the ends" on the parallel sheets? He goes into an extensive explanation of that process.

I worked on boilers in the '70's and welding was the norm then, totally eliminating the reaming/threading step; good electric welding penetration being far superior than threads and riveting.

Thanks for Looking

Yes it is. At my former employer, we did testing on the strength of the various types of attaching staybolts to sheets, and found that full penetration welded in staybolts were:
1. The weakest method. When subjected to a straight-line tensile pull, the full penetration welded bolts consistently failed first.
2. The most time consuming to install. The countersinks end up being humungous (1-3/4 diameter for a 1" bolt), and take a lot of time to cut into the sheet, especially when working in place on the boiler, and require expensive and powerful tooling. Also, the code requires full penetration, i.e. no crevice at the the water side of the weld. This requirement makes the root pass critical and time consuming to weld in and inspect properly. I have seen circa 1970 era boilers with welded bolts that didn't have a single truly full penetration weld holding the staybolts to the sheets, just waiting for an enthusiastic inspector to condemn them.
3. The most difficult to replace. With the bolt and the boiler becoming one at the completion of the full penetration weld, accurately cutting out the old bolt to replace it becomes a matter of chance, while it is clearly defined with threaded or fillet welded bolts.

On the plus side, welded bolts don't require the boilermaker to maintain a stock of staybolt taps and air hammers, or the means of threading the replacement staybolts. If I recall, at our shop, we could tap a staybolt hole, thread and drill the staybolt, install it and hammer it over in an average of 30 man-minutes per bolt. Proper full penetration welding took considerably longer by the time that the countersinks were cut, the root passes made and inspected, and the filler passes put in.

Fillet welded bolts require the least amount of tooling to weld in, and are simple to cut out, but IIRC, were still weaker than a threaded bolt, and are controversial with regard to the crevice between the bolt and the hole.

Accordingly, barring unusual circumstances, the standard in my employer's shop was and I believe still is to use threaded bolts wherever possible.

Someone might make a list of the posts here over the years regarding the fillet-welded staybolts, and post it in a new thread. This one is certainly not the place to take up either the technology or John Rimmasch's advocacy of the idea.

The one additional reference I'll ask about here is whether anyone can post or link to a copy of the translation of the article on 'Rear Boiler Knowledge' that WRRC produced. It seems to have vanished utterly from all the locations on the Internet and on my hard drives, including the archived copy from the Yahoo Group steam_tech.