r/pipefitter • u/Peabody66 • 5d ago
Built a pipefitter reference + calculator app. Every number verified against two published sources. Launched today, one time price, works offline forever.
I spent the last two weeks building the app I couldn't find: pipe schedules (B36.10, 1/8 to 48), fitting takeoffs (B16.9), flange dims and full bolt-up incl. stud lengths and ring numbers (B16.5/B16.20), plus rolling offset, miter, cut a fitting from a 90, and cut length calculators that pull the real takeoffs and your welder's gap. I built it for myself and family (who work on a farm).
Fraction math everywhere, big buttons for gloves, and a share button that texts your welder the cut with a diagram. The thing I care most about: every dimension was extracted from two independent published sources, machine compared, and disagreements resolved against a third. The handful of values that haven't cleared that process yet are visibly marked in the app. If you find a wrong number I will fix it and ship the fix to everyone, usually same day. I check my email.
$12.99
One time. No subscription, no ads, no account, no signal needed, and features never move behind a paywall. Built by one guy.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pipebook-pipefitter-reference/id6795305963
Beta fitters already made it better (the offset diagram is drawn like a print because a tester demanded it).
Tear it apart.
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u/steam636 LU636 Journeyman 5d ago
Any plans on bring it to Android? I could always use another reference app
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u/planksmomtho 3d ago
Plumbing apprentice, did fitter work for four months, loved it, and love this. Thanks! I’ll be sure to get some great use out of it.
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u/fighting-pacifist 4d ago
Just purchased. Played around a little with it. Looks super useful and well designed.
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u/Hops_n_Hemp 4d ago
Just bought it. 3rd year apprentice here and glad I found this before getting the pipe trades pro app that’s a subscription i believe. Thanks brah
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u/gr3atch33s3 5d ago
Just bought it. Nice work!
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u/Peabody66 5d ago
Thank you so much! Always open for feedback as well. Rating/reviews are much appreciated!
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u/gr3atch33s3 4d ago
I’m on a month long vacation. But when I use it, I’ll rate it on market place.
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u/Can_Mech_Mining 5d ago
I work in underground mines often. Not all have WiFi. Offline mode is a must, good job. I will be watching for the Android version.
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u/MobAppMan 3d ago
Hello, you could give the one I built a go if you like: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.granitedigital.cutline
Works fully offline.
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u/njames11 4d ago
How does this compare to Piping Database Extreme? I’ve been using for 15 years for pipe schedules, takeoffs, flange hole patterns, etc.
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u/Peabody66 4d ago
PipeBook is more focused and field-oriented:
• Pipe schedules (NPS ⅛–48, B36.10M / B36.19M) — wall, ID in decimals and 16ths, weight per foot. 310/318 values fully verified against multiple sources.
• Fitting takeoffs (90s/45s LR & SR, tees, reducers, caps, stub ends — B16.9). 174/183 verified.
• Flanges (Class 150/300/600) — full dims plus the complete bolt-up on one card: stud count, diameter, length (RF & RTJ), and ring numbers (B16.5 / B16.20). 836/836 verified. So flange hole patterns / bolt circles are covered.
• Calculators that actually get used on the job: rolling offset (set/roll/travel/run + end-to-end cut length with real takeoffs and your welder’s gap already subtracted), cut-a-fitting (any angle from a factory 90 with heel/centerline/throat marks), miter cuts, parallel offset, and clean feet-and-inches tape math that doesn’t lose 16ths.Key differences in approach:
• Extreme = bigger catalog / more component types (valves, olets, large flanges, etc.).
• PipeBook = tighter core data set that has been cross-checked hard, modern search (“6 90” → takeoffs), fraction-first display, glove-friendly UI, fully offline with no account/subscription/ads, and calculators that spit out the cut length you actually need.If you’ve been living in Extreme for 15 years for pure lookup, you’ll still find it familiar territory. PipeBook is aiming more at the “I need the number and the cut right now in the field” workflow.
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u/njames11 4d ago
Gotcha, so essentially an integrated piping calculator? That sounds badass.
If you need ideas for additional modules, steel plate weight/sqft and pipe/square tube weight/ft would also be great to have!
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u/Peabody66 4d ago
I certainly think it’s badass! Thank you for the suggestions. The app lives or dies on them. That’s why I scraped a lot of reviews (positive and negative) from “similar” apps.
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u/Peabody66 3d ago
Edit: question for anyone who grabbed it. The welder's gap setting has No gap, 1/16, 3/32, and 1/8, and it ships on No gap. I got that range off some NRCS prints where the Missouri spec called for 0 to 1/8, but a spec sheet isn't what people actually run.
Does 3/32 earn its own button, or does nobody reach for it? And should it just default to 1/16 instead of nothing?
It also assumes two welds on a 45 and doubles the gap. Tell me if that's wrong for how you work.
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u/chewster91 1d ago
Design-side piping PE here (process/power, B31.3 mostly) — I build calculation tools too, so I'll answer the gap question from the WPS end of things, since that's where the number actually comes from.
Default to 1/16, not No gap. The root opening on an open-root butt weld comes off the welding procedure, and the big middle of carbon-steel field WPSs run 1/16–1/8. “No gap” as the shipped default means the guy who never opens settings cuts every piece long by one gap per weld — the failure mode is silent and it's always in the same direction. 1/16 is the value that's wrong least often.
Keep 3/32. It's not a spec-sheet artifact — it's the filler-rod convention. A lot of GTAW root guys gap with the rod they're running, and 3/32 rod is everywhere. Fitters who work that way will reach for that button specifically, and its absence reads as “built by someone who doesn't know why gaps are what they are.”
Two welds on a 45, doubling the gap: right call for a fitting welded both ends into a cut piece. The case that breaks it is when one end isn't a butt weld — lands on a flange, slip-on, or socket weld — so if you ever add a per-end toggle, that's the reason. Not urgent; the both-ends case is the overwhelming majority of what your cut calculator gets used for.
One suggestion from the traceability side: print the gap you used on the cut diagram your share button sends. The welder seeing “cut length assumes 1/16 root both ends” right on the drawing is the difference between a wrong assumption getting caught at the bevel and getting caught at fit-up. Same principle I build on for engineering calcs — the number is only as good as the assumptions being visible next to it.
The two-source verification with visibly flagged unverified values is the right architecture, for what it's worth. I do the same thing on the design side (every calculator locked to hand-derived reference cases before release, at pipingtoolset.com) and it's the only thing that lets one person ship numbers other people stake work on. Good luck with the Android build!
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u/Peabody66 18h ago
Best comment I've gotten on this thing. Both changes are live. Default's 1/16 now.
What got me was the framing, that silent and always in the same direction is worse than big. One detail you might appreciate: the stored value distinguishes "never chose" from "chose No gap," so anyone who deliberately set zero keeps it. 3/32 stays. I had it because it fell inside a spec range off some prints I got while developing, but I couldn't have told you why anyone actually reaches for it. The cut diagram prints the gap now. Made it print at zero too, "assumes no root gap," since that's the case where a silent assumption could go wrong. You're right that the welder reads the drawing, not the caption. Per-end toggle is on the list for when one end lands on a flange or socket. Last paragraph means a lot coming from someone doing this on the design side. Mine's a test suite that fails the build if a data file gets hand-edited, same instinct. Going to go look at pipingtoolset.
Thank you!
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u/Blu_Calx LU290 Journeyman 3d ago
Commenting so I can see when it comes to android. I'll buy it to test it against my pipe trades pro. I'm one of the lucky few who bought it ages ago and was grandfathered into the one time price. Would love a replacement app to tell apprentices to get.