Took me 3 years to realize I was grinding my tungsten wrong

Been a boilermaker for about 8 years now. I always ground my tungsten straight across like I saw some guys do. Then last month a veteran inspector on a job in Gary pointed out my welds had this weird arc wandering issue. He asked to see my tungsten and just laughed. Showed me how to grind lengthwise with the grain and my beads came out way cleaner. I had been fighting porosity and bad starts for years for no reason. How long did it take you to figure out basic stuff like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

margareto261mo ago

That bit about the guy just laughing when he saw your tungsten really got me... how did you not want to crawl under the table right there? I've been there with a different trade thing and it stings. Did that inspector show you the trick where you can tell by looking at the grind marks if it's right or did you have to just take his word for it?

quinna891mo ago

Haha yeah I wanted to teleport out of existence right then.

hill.margaret1mo ago

Oh man, did that inspector really just laugh out loud in front of everyone? That's brutal. I bet your face went totally red and you wanted the floor to swallow you whole. I had a similar thing happen when a plumber showed me I'd installed a whole pipe setup completely backward, he didn't even try to hide his grin. The worst part is you can't even argue because they're right, you just have to stand there and take it.

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