Showerthought: that chat with the old foreman made me rethink my weld prep

Was talking to a retired foreman at a union hall in Gary last weekend. He said I was burning too much time on bevels that didn't need to be perfect for the rod I was using. It hit different because he showed me a job he did in 2008 where he cut prep time in half and the welds still held for 10 years. Anyone else ever had an old timer point out something basic you were overdoing?

2 comments

2 Comments

christopher3851mo ago

Nah man, I gotta push back on this a little. I've seen too many guys take shortcuts on prep and then wonder why their beads look like crap or crack out later. I get what the old timer was saying about not being a perfectionist on every bevel, but I've had rods that were supposed to "self clean" leave slag inclusions because I got lazy with the grinder. Maybe he was running 7018 on a thick pipe where the slag just floats right out, but on thinner stuff or with harder wire, bad prep ALWAYS shows up in the x-ray or the 6 month inspection. Time saved on prep is just time you'll spend doing rework later, in my experience.

derek_dixon781mo ago

Is it really that serious though? I mean yeah prep matters but I've seen guys spend an hour on a bevel that looked like a mirror and then run a pass so bad it looked like a bird took a dump on it. Good prep helps but it won't fix bad hands. And the slag inclusions thing, half the time that's from running too cold or dragging the rod wrong, not from skipping a grind. I'm not saying be careless but a lot of this boils down to knowing what you're doing with the gun or stinger more than how pretty the edge looks. If you can't lay a decent bead on a rough bevel you probably can't lay one on a perfect one either.