A retired boilermaker at the hardware store gave me a tip I still use

I was picking up some 6010 rods at the supply house in Spokane last fall, and an older guy saw me looking at the selection. He asked if I was working on a boiler, then told me to always run a quick pass with 7018 over my root pass on thick wall pipe, even if the spec doesn't call for it. He said it 'seals the deal' and he'd never had a leak in forty years doing it that way. Has anyone else heard of this trick for extra insurance on pressure welds?

4 comments

4 Comments

holly_sanchez7523h ago

Isn't it funny how the best advice often comes from someone who's just been doing the thing forever? I see this with my mechanic too, he has little rituals for every job that aren't in the manual. That extra pass sounds like one of those bits of hard-won, practical wisdom that just makes things last.

abbyg1418h ago

Yeah, that "quiet extra step" is what separates the good from the great.

quinn_wood20h ago

Remember that old guys in supply houses are walking libraries of good sense. Holly_sanchez75 is right about those rituals, and I've used a similar trick with a back-step pass on downhill pipe runs for the same reason. It's that kind of quiet extra step that builds a career without a single callback.

mark_lane4218h ago

Forget the old guys, the real trick is watching how they listen. They're not just talking, they're picking up on what the new kid isn't saying. That's the real library.