Wasted a whole day on a bad weld prep job

Didn't clean the base metal well enough on a carbon steel pipe spool last week, just a quick wire brush. Had to cut out and redo a 12-inch seam after the x-ray showed inclusions. Anyone else get burned by rushing the prep step?

3 comments

3 Comments

finleyw991mo ago

Seems like a universal shortcut that never works. People skip the boring steps to save five minutes, then lose the whole afternoon fixing it. The real prep work is almost always the part you want to rush.

lopez.karen1mo ago

Rushing prep is a sure way to waste more time later. A wire brush on carbon steel often just polishes the rust. You need to grind down to bright, clean metal or you're just trapping junk in the weld. That rework time adds up way more than doing it right the first pass.

ben_nguyen28d ago

Learned that lesson on a stainless job last month, ground it down proper after that.