A journeyman in Houston changed how I think about preheating

Old school guy told me I was overthinking my preheat temps on some 2 inch wall tube. Said he just watches the color of the steel instead of chasing exact numbers with a temp stick. I still use the gauge but I pay more attention now, and my passes are coming out cleaner. Anyone else ever ditch the textbook for something that just works?

2 comments

2 Comments

spencer_johnson221mo ago

My first few months I kept a temp stick in my pocket like it was a security blanket, probably checked it ten times per joint before I struck an arc. Then this old timer I worked with in Odessa told me I was "marrying the numbers instead of dating the steel" which sounds ridiculous but honestly stuck with me. I still glance at the gauge out of habit but watching the color actually saved my tail on some heavy wall pipe last month when my thermometer was reading way off. Makes you wonder how these guys ever got anything done before we had all this fancy gear, right?

michaelnguyen1mo ago

See I gotta push back a little on that. Knowing the numbers is what separates good welds from lucky ones especially when you're working to code. That old timer's advice works fine for stick welding in a shop but out in the field with X ray and bend tests riding on every joint you bet I'm checking my preheat temps. Had a job last year on some heavy wall chrome where my color was telling me 400 degrees but the contact thermometer said 550 and guess which one was right. Trusting the tool over my eyeball saved me from getting popped on a pressure test.