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?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_jason17d 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.

jamiew8317d 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.