Shoutout to the older welder who told me I was using too much rod

Last month I was working on a boiler tube repair in Gary, Indiana and this guy with 40 years in the trade walks over. He said I was laying down rod like I was getting paid by the pound, not by the quality of the weld. I argued at first but then he showed me his stringer bead on a piece of scrap and it was way cleaner than mine. Has anyone else had an old timer call them out on a bad habit that actually made them better?

3 comments

3 Comments

patricialee8d ago

Yeah but is it really that deep though? I mean sure the guy had a cleaner bead but sometimes you just gotta get the job done quick. Not every weld needs to be a show piece. I work in a shop where speed matters more than perfection. Some of these old timers act like every weld has to pass xray when half the time its just holding a fence post. If the weld holds and passes inspection then who cares if you used a little extra rod. Plus wasting time making it pretty just means less money in your pocket at the end of the day.

the_thea7d ago

Wait, are you saying my precious "stack of dimes" welds are actually just me being inefficient and costing the shop money? (Because honestly, that's a valid point I've never considered.) I spend so much time making my beads look like a food blog photo that I'm probably burning through two extra rods per joint just to get that perfect ripple. Meanwhile Bob over there is launching 7018 like he's trying to start a campfire and his stuff holds just fine, plus he's out the door 20 minutes before me.

jamie7708d ago

That 8 rod per weld really adds up though, how much extra weight are you actually burning on a typical day? If you're running 40 or 50 joints per shift, a half inch of extra rod on each one means you're wasting a whole stick or two by the end of the week. I get speed matters, but that extra material cost comes out of somebody's pocket, and it ain't usually the shop owner's.