That old timer who told me I was grinding wrong at Local 74

Back in 2018, a 30-year journeyman named Dave stopped me on a job at the Marathon refinery in Detroit and said my bevel prep was creating stress risers that'd crack in 5 years - I argued with him for 20 minutes before I checked the manual and realized he was dead right. Has anyone else had a veteran call them out on something they thought they knew, and did you change your approach or stick to your guns?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_avery14d ago

Got a good one for you. After Dave saved your ass on that bevel, did you ever find yourself passing that same lesson down to some green kid on a jobsite, or did you just let him figure it out like you had to?

the_nina14d ago

That old timer who told me I was grinding wrong at Local 74" - man, that hits close to home. I had a buddy named Rick who used to weld on pipeline jobs out in West Texas. He told me a story about a 60 year old inspector named Hank who called him out on his bead placement one time. Rick was real cocky back then, thought he knew everything. Hank just shook his head and said "son, you're setting yourself up for a headache down the line." Rick figured he knew better and kept doing it his way. Well, about six months later that exact weld started showing hairline cracks under x-ray. He had to cut it out and redo the whole thing, cost him two days and a lot of pride. Now Rick tells every new guy he meets that same story, and he never argues with the old timers no more.