Had an old-timer tell me I was burning my rod wrong.

I've been doing this for 8 years and figured I had my technique down. This guy Dave, probably 60 years old, watched me lay down a bead on a 1-inch plate at a job in Gary and said I was fighting the puddle instead of leading it. He showed me a 10 degree angle adjustment and it cut my cleanup time in half. Any of you guys ever have a simple fix like that totally change how you work?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenix_grant346d ago

and that's exactly how it goes with the old timers, man. I've been welding for about six years now, and I had a guy in his 70s named Walt at a job in South Bend tell me I was "pushing too hard" on the trigger. He showed me how to back off a hair and let the wire do the work. It was like night and day - my spatter dropped way down and I wasn't burning through thin stuff anymore. It's those little tweaks that make you feel like an idiot for not figuring it out sooner (but in a good way). Makes me wish I'd asked more questions earlier instead of just grinding away at bad habits.

paulmitchell6d ago

Walt's exactly the type of guy I'd buy a beer for. Six years in and you got lucky someone actually cared enough to fix your technique. Most old timers just let you keep grinding away at bad habits until you quit or figure it out yourself.

josepha326d ago

You ever notice how the guys who've been doing it longest are usually the ones who \won't\ just tell you what you're doing wrong? In my experience, you gotta earn that trust before they'll share their good tricks. Walt sounds like one of the good ones. That thing he told you about backing off the trigger a hair, that's a lesson I had to learn the hard way too after burning through way too many pieces of sheet metal. It's crazy how a tiny tweak like that can make your welds look totally different. If I could go back, I'd track down the grumpiest old-timer on site and just buy him coffee every day until he gave me a tip or two.

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