Old foreman told me I was wasting time with oxy-fuel prep on thin plate

I always used to hit every piece of 3/8 inch plate with a rosebud tip before welding to burn off moisture. One day back in 2019, a foreman named Pete over at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard told me I was just making work for myself on thinner material. He showed me a quick wire brush prep instead and said to save the preheat for anything over 1 inch. I still do it for thick stuff, but on lighter plate it cut my setup time by a good 15 minutes per joint. Anybody else get handed a tip like that that totally changed their routine?

2 comments

2 Comments

olivia_murphy1d agoMost Upvoted

Jumping in here because I was taught the exact opposite thing for years. My old welding instructor would have had a fit if he caught me skipping preheat on anything over 1/8 inch. I still catch myself wanting to hit thin plate with a torch out of habit. But you know, that Pete sounds like he knew his stuff. I bet he saved you a lot of warping too, not just time.

xena_kim1d ago

Old Pete wasn't wrong. I had a boss once who insisted on preheating everything down to 10 gauge, and we spent half our day just waiting for metal to cool down enough to weld. Makes you wonder how much time we all waste on old habits that don't really help anything. Your foreman probably saved you from warping that thin plate into a potato chip too, not just the setup time. Still, I bet there's some old timer out there who would have a heart attack seeing you skip the rosebud on anything less than an inch.