Old timer's grinding tip cut my weld cleanup time in half

A 30 year boilermaker watched me fighting a slag hammer for 20 minutes on a vertical seam last month at the Evansville plant. He finally walked over and said 'you're grinding the weld, not the metal around it' and showed me how he angles the disc at 10 degrees instead of flat. I switched to that angle and a smaller grit wheel, and my cleanup went from 45 minutes a joint down to about 22. The difference was I was burning up the parent metal and creating more work for myself. Now I check my disc angle every time I start and it feels automatic. Anyone else pick up a basic habit like that from watching someone older work?

2 comments

2 Comments

grace_allen28d ago

My buddy Mike picked this up from an old pipefitter he used to work with in the gulf. He'd always come back from lunch and watch this dude touch up a root pass with just a few quick swipes, meanwhile Mike was out there for an hour with a flap disc wearing down the bevel. One day the guy just laughed and said 'you're polishing the pipe, not cleaning the weld' and showed him how the angle changes the bite. Mike said it clicked so hard he felt stupid. He went from blowing through grinding wheels every other day to getting a week out of one. Now he's the one telling young guys to tilt the machine and let the edge do the work.

adamgreen28d ago

Three grinders in a month before that old timer took pity on me, and yeah, I felt like a complete idiot when he showed me the same 10 degree trick on a horizontal fillet. @grace_allen your buddy Mike and I must have the same guardian angel, except mine just shook his head and walked away without saying a word. The real kicker was when I realized I'd been buying coarser discs thinking they'd cut faster, but the angle was doing all the work the whole time. Now I just stare at my grinder for five seconds before I start, like it's gonna confess its sins to me.