c/boilermakers

That talk with an old foreman changed how I look at my welds

I was chatting with a retired foreman at the union hall last week. He told me he could tell who skipped their preheat by how cracks formed in the weld toes. Said it was a dead giveaway every time. That hit different because I've been rushing preheat on small jobs thinking nobody would notice. Has anyone else had an old timer point out something simple that totally changed your approach?

1 comments

evan_burns95•1d ago

That one Thursday last May when everything just clicked

I was fitting a header box on a boiler at the old power plant in Gary, and the layout came out perfect on the first try. Got done three hours early and the foreman just nodded and said "good work" which is basically a medal in this trade. Has anyone else had a day where the steam lines just line up like they want to be there?

2 comments

aaronclark•2d ago

Rant: I think the push for all stainless steel boilers is overblown

I was up in Buffalo last week on a job where a customer insisted on ripping out a perfectly good carbon steel boiler to put in a new stainless one. The salesman told them it would last forever. Yeah, maybe, but the old one was 20 years old and still running fine. I've seen stainless crack from bad welding just as fast as carbon steel rusts from neglect. We get so caught up chasing the newest material that we forget proper maintenance matters way more than what the drum is made of. Any of you guys had to deal with a customer who got sold on stainless and regretted it?

c/boilermakers

That talk with an old foreman changed how I look at my welds

That one Thursday last May when everything just clicked

Rant: I think the push for all stainless steel boilers is overblown

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