Rant: Took me 5 years to stop welding everything in a single pass

I always thought the faster I burned through a joint, the better. That was until a foreman on a job down in Baton Rouge pulled me aside last spring. He pointed out all the microscopic cracks in my bead from rushing it with too much heat. I kept saying it passed visual inspection, but he made me run a dye test on a test plate. Sure enough, there were hairline fractures I missed. Now I slow down, run stringer beads, and layer them. My weld time doubled but my rework rate dropped to almost zero. Has anyone else been humbled by a simple test like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

claire_butler11mo ago

Oh MAN, I gotta say this hit hard. I was the same way for YEARS, thinking single passes showed how tough I was. But then a pipe job in Texas, a QC guy made me do a bend test on a vert-up I was proud of. It snapped clean in half right at those internal cracks I never saw. I was HUMBLED real quick. Now I always stack beads and never rush the interpass temp. It took my pride a beating but my welds actually hold now instead of just looking pretty.

evan2951mo agoMost Upvoted

Yeah I used to think single passes were the mark of a real welder too, figured anybody who stacked beads was just slow. But seeing that bend test snap clean like that changes your whole mindset real quick. At the end of the day it's about what holds under pressure, not what looks tough while you're doing it.

adam_nguyen71mo ago

Yeah, that bend test humbling someone is a classic. @claire_butler1 I've seen that exact thing with pipe welders who think they're hot stuff. The internal cracks are invisible until you put pressure on them. Stacking beads takes longer but your weld actually does its job.