An old foreman told me I was wasting time grinding every single weld smooth, so I stopped doing it on non-critical joints and cut my day by 2 hours.

He said 'nobody sees the inside of a tank but God and the rats' and now I only grind for fit-up or inspection, has anyone else gotten a similar reality check that saved them time?

2 comments

2 Comments

craig.parker21d ago

That foreman's saying is one of those little pieces of wisdom that sticks with you. Grinding everything smooth is a habit a lot of guys pick up early because they want it to look right, but there's a big difference between a pretty surface and a sound weld. On the inside of a tank or any hidden structural stuff, the only thing that matters is that the weld is solid and passes inspection, not how it shines. It took me a while to really get that, but once I did I started thinking about every single pass through the grinder as either a necessary step or just a waste of time and money. You don't save two hours a day by accident, that's a real chunk of your life back. Once you start seeing the difference between cosmetic work and functional work, you can't really unsee it.

aarons3621d ago

But how do you figure out which kind of welder is just chasing shiny beads versus one that actually knows what they're doing? It seems like a lot of guys can lay a pretty bead but cant make a proper root pass to save their life. That's the real test right, seeing if they can weld something that has to hold pressure instead of just sit there and look good.