Old timer told me to always double-check the fit-up before burning in

Guy named Hank, been a boilermaker since the 70s, told me that on my first big tank job at the Marathon refinery in Gary. I skipped that step on a 3/8 plate joint and had to grind out 4 feet of weld after it warped. Has anyone else learned a lesson the hard way from ignoring the old hands?

3 comments

3 Comments

grace_white12d ago

Makes you wonder how many shortcuts the old timers themselves took back when nobody was checking their work and it all just got buried under concrete lol.

king.andrew12d ago

Man, that's a good point... but you really think the old timers were getting away with bad work back then, or were they just doing it the way it had always been done before all the fancy inspection rules came along? I guess I wonder if a lot of those shortcuts from back then actually held up fine under concrete or if we're just lucky none of them ever failed.

rubyschmidt12d ago

My uncle taught me the same lesson on a sulfur tank in Whiting back in '08, told me to tap test every root pass before tying it in. I thought he was being extra 'cause he was from the old school, but after I skipped it on a nozzle fit-up and the thing pulled a quarter inch, I spent two whole shifts chasing it with a torch. @king.andrew I hear you on the shortcuts, but some of those old tricks were just about speed, not quality. I've seen dudes from the 80s lay in welds that looked like dog crap but held up fine, mostly cause they had a lot more freedom with preheat and post-heat than we do now. Grace is onto something too, way too much stuff got buried back then without anyone ever knowing if it was good or not.