12
Old timer named Hank at the Local 74 hall gave me some welding advice I should have ignored
About 8 years ago at the union hall in Hammond, this retired boilermaker named Hank told me to always run my root pass hot and fast on tube sheets. Said it would save time and still pass inspection. Well, I tried it on a job at the BP refinery in Whiting and blew through three tubes before I realized I was creating porosity every time. Has anyone else had to unlearn advice from a veteran that just doesn't hold up with modern materials?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
zara5721mo agoMost Upvoted
...and I'm gonna push back a little here, because I think @riverreed and others are too quick to write off what Hank was saying. The guy spent 40 years burning rod and probably passed more x-ray inspections than most of us have had hot dinners. Sure, tube sheet alloys are different now, but the core idea of running hot and fast isn't about ignoring modern material specs, it's about understanding how heat input affects your puddle control and travel speed. If you're blowing through tubes on a root pass, that's not Hank's advice being wrong, that's you not adjusting your technique to match the alloy's properties or your machine settings. The old timers learned by feel and failure, not by a book, and that "crank the heat and send it" mentality still works if you've got the hands to compensate for the material differences. I'd rather take advice from a guy who learned on dirty pipe and cracked code than from someone who's only ever used brand new filler and perfect fit-up. Sometimes the problem isn't the advice, it's how we apply it.
9
riverreed2mo ago
Man, that hurts to read. I get where the old guy was coming from with the speed thing but those tube sheet materials are way different now, especially with the alloys they use in refineries. Ive had to unlearn the "crank the heat and send it" approach too after blowing out a couple welds on stainless tube sheets at a chemical plant. Its tough because you want to respect the old timers but sometimes their tricks just dont translate to modern code or materials.
1