The Pipe Fitters Blue Book is a reference book for pipe fitters, published by Graves Publishing Company and written by W.V.
"Duffy" Graves — a pipe fitter who retired after 25 years from Shell Chemical as a pipe fitter foreman and then taught pipe fitting at Lee College in Baytown, Texas.
This page covers what we could verify about the book, what its publisher claims about NCCER testing, and how to judge other references, books and apps.
What is the Pipe Fitters Blue Book?
The Pipe Fitters Blue Book is published by Graves Publishing Company.
Its author, W.V.
"Duffy" Graves, "retired after 25 years from Shell Chemical as a pipe fitter foreman" and then taught pipe fitting at Lee College in Baytown, Texas — that background comes from the publisher's own site.
That provenance is the part of the book's story our research could verify.
What our research does not have is the current edition: the edition number is not confirmed on the publisher's site, so we will not print one.
If a training program or employer tells you to bring a specific edition, confirm which one with them or with the publisher before you order.
If you are new to the trade and wondering whether you need this book at all yet, start with our pipefitter career guide — it covers the role, the work and the entry routes before you spend money on references.
What's inside the Blue Book
Straight answer: we cannot inventory it for you.
Our research did not capture a table of contents for the book, so we will not list chapters, formulas or tables we have not seen.
A contents list written to fill space is exactly the kind of detail that sends a buyer wrong.
Looking for a pipefitter blue book pdf?
We do not link unauthorized PDF copies.
If you need the book, check the publisher's site, pipefitterbluebook.com, and confirm the edition with your program or employer first if one sent you.
The same rule applies to any contents list you find elsewhere online, forum posts included: it may match some edition, but nothing in it tells you which one.
The publisher and your program can answer the question in one message; a scan of unknown provenance cannot.
Skip the scan
Other reference books fitters run into
The one other book set we can point to from verified research is not a competitor — it is the training curriculum.
NCCER's Pipefitting curriculum is organized in four levels, Level 1 through Level 4 — and our pipefitter levels guide explains the ladder those numbers sit on.
We did not verify publishers, edition histories or marketing claims for any competing pipefitter or steamfitter book title, so this page does not rank "best pipefitter books" lists or name runners-up — a ranking we cannot source is noise, not advice.
What you can do is judge any reference book the way this page judges the Blue Book: who publishes it, which edition you are actually buying, and whether your program, employer or local uses and expects it.
Ask those three before you spend anything.
Pipefitter apps and calculators
Apps get the same honesty: our research did not verify any pipefitter-specific app or calculator, so this page names none.
An app-store rating is not a source we can check.
What you can check before you trust one with real work: who publishes and maintains it, whether it says where its formulas and tables come from, and whether its answers agree with what the journeymen around you get for the same layout.
If the app and a journeyman disagree, the app loses until you have confirmed why.
A calculator app and a reference book are also not interchangeable.
The book is the record a program or examiner may expect you to work from; the app is a convenience on top of it.
Treat the book as the source of record until whoever runs your work says otherwise.
Which ones help with pipefitter tests
The claim to handle carefully: Graves Publishing's own marketing says the Pipe Fitters Blue Book "is the ONLY book used with NCCER testing."
That sentence is the publisher's marketing copy.
Our research did not verify it, and we do not state it as fact — if an NCCER-based program is testing you, the people who run your program and NCCER itself are the ones to ask.
What is verifiable about NCCER sits elsewhere.
Its Pipefitting curriculum runs four levels, Level 1 through Level 4, and its craft certification comes from passing both a written assessment and a performance verification.
What the pipefitter assessment itself involves — format, questions, prep — is its own topic, and our NCCER pipefitter test guide covers it in depth.
The safe move for every test, NCCER or otherwise, is the same: ask whoever runs it which reference materials may be on your desk before you buy, highlight or tab anything — the answer takes one message and beats every forum thread on the subject.
Ask before you mark up a book