Old timer told me to stop grinding flush, I argued for 20 minutes

Ran into a retired fitter named Walt down at the union hall in Gary last Tuesday. He watched me dressing a butt weld and said my grinder work was the reason my caps kept cracking. I told him I've been doing it this way since 2016 and never had a callback. He said that's the problem, you're making it too pretty, leave 1/16th of crown and let the metal breathe. I tested his way on a 12 inch header yesterday and the ultrasonic reading came back cleaner than any weld I've done in 8 years. Anyone else get told to stop being so clean and actually had the old guy be right?

2 comments

2 Comments

jamie_taylor25d ago

Old timers been right about everything I ever argued.

joelp8125d ago

My buddy Dave used to argue with his grandpa about fixing old cars. Told him you don't need to warm up the engine or gap spark plugs by hand, that all that stuff was outdated. Last winter his truck died on the highway in single digit temps and the tow bill was over 400 bucks. When he got it home, his grandpa just looked at it, adjusted the choke, and it fired right up.