I used to weld everything hot and fast until a cracked tube taught me a lesson

For my first 8 years in the trade I thought you had to crank the heat up on tubing and just blast through it. Figured that was the only way to get good penetration, especially on thin wall stuff like 2 inch schedule 40. Then I got called out to a job at a chemical plant near Baton Rouge where a header I welded cracked right at the root pass. The old foreman walked over, looked at it for maybe 10 seconds, and said "You're cooking the metal instead of feeding it." He showed me how to drop the amperage by 30 amps and slow the travel speed way down. Now I run a lower heat, build a puddle, and let the metal tell me when it's ready. Has anyone else had to unlearn bad habits from early in their career?

2 comments

2 Comments

jesse842d ago

Hang on, you said the foreman looked at it for only 10 seconds? That's insane, some guys will stare at a weld for five minutes and still not know what's wrong.

hugo_jones21d ago

five minutes and still not know what's wrong" - that used to be me all the way, lol. I'd stare at stuff forever second guessing myself. But honestly if you know what you're looking for, 10 seconds is plenty. Changed my whole approach to inspections after watching a guy like that.