Spent 3 years grinding welds wrong before a foreman showed me the trick

I was on a job in Baton Rouge last summer, working on a feedwater heater. Been doing this 8 years, thought I had my welding down pretty good. But this old foreman, Bob, kept looking at my beads and shaking his head. Finally he walked over and said I was grinding perpendicular to the weld instead of following the same direction. I had been making micro-cracks this whole time and never knew it. Soon as I switched to grinding parallel, my passes started passing x-ray every time. Felt like an idiot for not figuring that out sooner. Anybody else have a basic thing they did wrong for years without realizing it?

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the_jason5mo ago

Bro that's rough but honestly same boat here. I spent like 4 years doing the same exact thing on pipe welds for a power plant job. Old guy named Hank finally pulled me aside and was like "you're fighting the metal not working with it." Soon as I started grinding in line with the weld direction my x-ray pass rate went from like 60% to 95%. Felt like such a fool but hey at least we learned eventually right? It's wild how one tiny thing can mess up everything and nobody thinks to mention it cause they assume you know.

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jamiew835mo ago

Man I had a buddy who spent 2 years grinding stainless with a dirty wheel before someone told him you gotta use a dedicated one. He was basically rubbing carbon into every weld he did.

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