Old timer told me to stop grinding out every bad weld and start using a cold chisel more...

He said I was creating more stress in the metal than fixing it, so I tried it on a job in Gary last week and it actually cut my repair time by about 20 minutes, anybody else had advice that sounded crazy at first but turned out to be gold?

3 comments

3 Comments

alex_johnson13d ago

Hold up, I gotta push back a LITTLE here. Yeah, a cold chisel has its place for sure, but people act like a grinder is a crime against metal. I've seen guys spend 20 minutes hammering away at a spot with a chisel that a grinder would have cleaned up in 30 seconds flat. It's all about the situation and the metal you're on, not some universal rule. If you're on thin sheet or something already stressed, fine, but on heavy structural stuff, a grinder isn't going to trash the grain any more than smacking it with a chisel repeatedly will.

seanlee14d ago

Read an article once from some old Lincoln welding forum where a guy talked about the same thing. Said most guys are too quick with the grinder and end up work-hardening the metal something fierce, especially on thick stuff. Cold chisel just knocks the bad part clean off without messing with the grain structure underneath. Tried it myself on a trailer hitch repair and it was night and day, no more chasing that hard spot with the welder.

jenniferw8214d ago

Tbh I've been that guy with the grinder, and my old arms are still paying for it. @seanlee you're spot on about the work-hardening thing, I learned that the hard way when I tried to smooth out a weld on a tractor bucket and ended up making it worse. My foreman at the time just laughed and handed me a cold chisel, said "stop being a hero with the angle grinder." That chisel trick saved me so much time, I swear I bent the metal on a gate repair once because I kept chasing the hard spots. Now I feel like a fool every time I catch myself reaching for the grinder first when a chisel would do the job cleaner. Ngl, old welding forums are a goldmine for stuff like this, way more useful than most YouTube tutorials.