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A old boilermaker in Baton Rouge told me to stop grinding my welds flush and it took me 5 years to get why
I was doing a small vessel repair job in Baton Rouge back in 2019 and this old timer named Ray was watching me dress a cap weld down to nothing with a 4 inch grinder. He didn't say much, just kind of shook his head and asked me why I was grinding off all my evidence. I didn't get it then, I just figured flush welds looked cleaner and the inspector would like it. About 5 years later I'm on a shutdown and an engineer is walking the vessel with a UT tech and he points at a smooth flush weld and says they can't shoot it right because there's no crown to read. Ray's words hit me like a brick. The crown is the proof the weld is built up right and the heat went in where it should, and I was grinding my own proof right off. I still knock the slag and clean the toes, but I stopped chasing mirror finishes on pressure work. Anybody else have an old hand drop a line on them that didn't land for years?
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cameron6842h ago
My old foreman Gus told me back in 2012 that a grinder has cost more good welds than a bad rod ever did, and I nodded along like I understood. Saw a post on a welding forum a while back where a guy showed before and after pics of caps he ground flat on a boiler job, and half the replies lit him up for it. Turns out the crown is what lets the inspector read your heat input and tie-in, and once it is gone all they can do is guess. I was the same way for years, thought pretty meant good, but pretty just means you hid the work. Now I wire brush and knock the toes smooth and leave the cap alone. That old timer gave you free money and it only took five years to cash it.
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