c/boilermakers

Welding lead got pinched on a job in Gary last month

I was working on a tank repair at a steel mill in Gary when some scaffolding dropped right on my lead and cut the liner. Has anyone else had a helper not watch where they were walking and cost you a whole afternoon?

TIL the hard way about welding rod storage on a barge job last month

Left a box of 7018 rods out overnight on a river barge near Paducah, and by morning they were soaked through. Had to toss the whole box - $80 down the drain. Anybody got a reliable dry rod oven they swear by for wet river work?

Worst Monday I have had on a job site in a long time

I showed up to a job over in Easton last week and the lift we rented was dead on arrival. Had to wait two hours for a replacement to come, which threw off the whole schedule. Then my wire feed welder started acting up halfway through the afternoon, just sputtering and jamming every few inches. I spent more time fixing the machine than actually burning rod. Ended up working until almost 10 pm just to get the tank patch done, and it was still sloppy. The foreman gave me some lip about the quality the next morning, like I had any choice in the matter. Has anyone else had a day where everything mechanical just decides to quit on you?

Tried a different rod angle on a vertical seam today...

Been running the same 7018 setup for years. Stuck with a 15 degree lead. Always worked fine. Today I tried 5 degrees straight vertical. First pass looked like garbage. Had to grind out 6 inches of slag inclusion. Second pass clicked though. Penetration was way better on the root. Went back and ran the whole thing at 5 degrees. Got it x-ray clean. Anyone else change up their basic technique after years of doing it the same way?

Why I finally stopped fighting the file card on stainless welds

I used to always skip reading the file card or any specs on stainless rod. Figured I knew enough and just wanted to get to welding. Then a few weeks ago I was doing a job at a food plant in Kansas City, and the foreman handed me a box of 308L and told me to check the amperage range on the box. Turned out I was running 20 amps too hot, which was causing all this sugaring on the back side. Once I dialed it in where the card said, the welds came out clean and I saved myself a lot of grinding. Has anyone else had a stubborn habit they finally broke after seeing the proof?

Had to choose between stick and flux core for a repair job on a grain bin yesterday

I was patching a crack in a grain bin at a farm outside Omaha and couldn't decide between 7018 stick or flux core wire. The wind was kicking up something fierce, maybe 15 mph gusts, so I grabbed the flux core setup because it handles drafty conditions way better. Took me about 2 hours to run the beads and grind them down smooth. The farmer came out and said it looked solid, which felt good. Anyone else have a go-to process for outdoor repairs when the weather fights you?

Split on safety harness inspections - do you trust the date or your eyes?

Was on a job at a refinery outside Baton Rouge last month and noticed a harness with a 2024 inspection tag that looked fine on paper. But the webbing had a weird fray near the D-ring that the tag totally missed. I called it out and the foreman argued it was still good for the shift, but I pulled it anyway. How do you guys handle it when the paperwork says one thing but your gut says another?

Took me 7 hours to figure out a boiler pressure issue that was just a clogged vent line

I was troubleshooting this low pressure problem on a Cleaver-Brooks unit last Thursday. Kept thinking it was a failed pump or a bad regulator. After swapping parts and chasing my tail for a full shift, I finally blew out the vent line with compressed air and it fired right up. Anyone else ever waste a day on something that simple?

Saw a steam drum repair on a 1950s boiler last week, still debating if welding was the right call

I was at a plant in Gary, Indiana last Thursday and watched a crew fix a steam drum on an old Keeler boiler from 1955. They opted to weld a patch over a crack instead of cutting out the whole section and replacing it. On one hand, the weld held during the hydro test at 150 PSI, and it saved the owner about 8 grand. But I keep thinking about stress risers over time and whether a full section replacement would have been safer. The lead guy said 'it'll outlast the rest of the boiler,' but I'm not sold. What do you all think, weld patch or full cut out for vintage drums?

Tried a plasma cutter on 1-inch plate with a 20 amp breaker. Not my brightest move.

Was working on a job up in Gary last month, had to cut some 1-inch plate for a chute repair. My boss's plasma cutter was all I had, and the only outlet was a 20 amp breaker. Fired it up, got maybe 6 inches into the cut before it tripped. Reset it, tried again, tripped again. Spent 20 minutes messing with it before I just grabbed a torch. Learned real quick you can't run a 50 amp machine on a 20 amp circuit no matter how much you want it to work. Any of you guys run into this on job sites with iffy power?

Changed my mind about the old style tube benders after a job at the refinery

Was always a fan of those hydraulic benders for big pipe, figured the old manual lever benders were obsolete. Then we were working a tight spot on Unit 4 at the Whiting refinery last month with no room for the hydraulic setup. The foreman grabbed a Ridgid manual bender and showed me how he could creep it around a 6 inch radius section tight to a wall. Saw him do a 90 degree bend in like 3 minutes with zero kinks. Now I keep one in my truck for tight spots, never thought I'd say that. Anyone else have a tool they swore was outdated until a real situation proved you wrong?

Had a 6-inch pipe wrench slip and bust my knuckles wide open last Thursday

That cheap torch from the hardware store cost me a full day of work

I thought I was being smart saving $30 on a basic propane torch from Ace instead of getting the Smith brand one my buddy recommended. After 20 minutes of trying to get it to hold a steady flame on a 6-inch pipe, the regulator started sputtering and then just died. I lost almost a full shift waiting for a replacement and had to borrow a rig from a guy two bays over. The money I saved upfront got eaten up by the lost time and the gas I wasted. Has anyone else had a cheap tool backfire like this on a tight deadline?

Vent: Picked a used Miller over a new Lincoln and kinda regret it

I had to choose between a used Miller Syncrowave 250 for 1200 bucks or a brand new Lincoln TIG 200 for 1800 at a shop in Cleveland last month. I figured the Miller would be a tank and last forever, plus I saved 600 bones. But man, the arc stability on this old Miller is all over the place, I think the capacitor bank is shot or something. My buddy got the Lincoln and his welds look perfect right out of the box, no drama. I spent two weekends already chasing electrical gremlins on this Miller and I'm behind on a stainless job for a local brewery. Has anyone else picked a used machine over new and gotten burned by hidden problems?

Old timer Joe showed me why I was burning through grinding wheels in just three hours

Last month at the Evansville job site, he pointed out I was leaning too hard instead of letting the wheel do the work... now one disc lasts me a full shift. Anyone else had a senior hand correct some bad habit you didn't even know you had?

That old welder who showed me how to lay a bead with a stick on a 6-inch pipe taught me more in 5 minutes than I learned in a whole year on my own

We were at a refinery job in Baton Rouge back in 2019 and he just handed me his rod, said 'stop fighting the arc and let it breathe,' then walked away, has anyone else had a random mentor moment like that on site?

Got talked into trying a $15 paint stripper from Home Depot instead of my usual $40 brand

I was working on a 3-foot steel water tank last Tuesday and needed to strip some old epoxy. Figured I'd try the cheap stuff since the guy at the counter swore by it, and it ate through three layers faster than my go-to brand. Has anyone else found an off-brand product that actually works better than the expensive stuff?

Overheard a foreman at the union hall say something that stuck with me

I was sitting in the union hall last Tuesday waiting for a dispatch, and this old foreman named Jerry was talking to a younger guy. He said, "A good boilermaker fixes the problem. A great one fixes it so nobody even knows there was a problem." That got me thinking about my own work, especially on a tube repair job I did in Gary last month where I spent extra time grinding down my weld to match the surrounding metal. It took me 20 more minutes, but the inspector didn't say a word. Has anyone else had a piece of advice from an old-timer that changed how you approach a job?

Caught a hairline crack in a steam drum just before pressure test

I was on a boiler retube job outside of Baton Rouge last spring. We were buttoning up the steam drum after a long week, and I noticed this thin little line running along a weld near the nozzle. It was maybe 2 inches long, barely visible unless the light hit it just right. I flagged the foreman and he called for a dye penetrant check. Turned out it was a subsurface crack that would have blown open at 400 psi. That shutdown cost us 2 extra days but saved the whole crew from a potential disaster. Any of you guys ever caught something like that right at the last minute?

Just found out the first ASME boiler code was written after a massive explosion in a shoe factory in Lynn, Massachusetts, back in 1905.

I was reading an old trade journal at the library and it said that single event killed 58 people and basically forced the industry to create real safety standards, which makes you think about how much we take those code books for granted now, doesn't it?

Tried using a 3-inch pipe cap as a temporary coffee mug on a cold morning in Duluth

I was on a tight deadline and my thermos broke, so I cleaned out a spare carbon steel cap and poured my coffee in. The heat transfer was so fast it burned my hand and the coffee went cold in about 90 seconds. What's the weirdest thing you've ever used in a pinch on site?

Overheard a guy at the supply house say 'if it ain't leaking, it ain't pressurized' and I had to laugh

Watched a veteran fitter at the Detroit plant use a different tack weld sequence

He started from the center of a big seam and worked outwards instead of my usual end-to-end method. It cut our warping issue on a 10-foot pressure vessel shell section by more than half. Anyone else have a go-to trick for keeping things flat during fit-up?

Warning: That new synthetic gasket material from the Milwaukee supply house failed after just 3 hours of steam pressure.

We had to shut down the whole line at the Green Bay plant yesterday because the seal blew out at 250 psi, so what's your go-to brand for high-temp applications now?

An old timer told me my weld prep was 'clean enough for a barn, not a boiler'

This was about eight years back on a job in Toledo. I was grinding a bevel and thought it looked fine, but a guy with forty years in the trade stopped me. He said, 'That's clean enough for a barn, not a boiler. You leave that scale, you're asking for a crack.' He made me redo the whole edge until it shone like new metal. I started using a dedicated stainless wire wheel just for prep after that, and my x-ray pass rate went way up. Anyone else have a piece of advice that stuck with you like that?