My old foreman told me to stop leaning on my cheater bar and use my body weight instead

Been welding for about 6 years now and I always used a cheater bar to break tough nuts loose on boiler tube supports. This older guy walked over and said 'you're wasting time, just put your shoulder into it and shift your hips.' I laughed it off at first but tried it on the next stuck bolt and it popped right off. Now I only grab the bar if I absolutely need it and my arms don't get as tired by lunch. Has anyone else gotten a tip that made you feel dumb for not thinking of it sooner?

2 comments

2 Comments

clark.alex8d ago

Spent way too long feeling like a genius with my cheater bar, probably looked like I was trying to arm-wrestle a bear. Turns out I was just wasting my arm strength for no good reason. That old foreman basically gave me the same lesson I learned in high school shop class except this time it actually stuck. I still grab the bar when my back is acting up or the bolt is extra stubborn but yeah it feels pretty silly now. Just goes to show sometimes the simple stuff is what we overthink the most.

taylor.hayden8d ago

Nah man, I gotta disagree a little bit. A cheater bar isn't just about raw strength, it's about leverage and saving your joints over the long haul. Like yeah, maybe you could muscle that one bolt off with a normal ratchet, but doing that 50 times in a day will trash your elbows and wrists way faster than just using a little extra reach. I've seen guys blow out their rotator cuffs trying to be macho with a short handle when a 3 foot pipe would have done the job clean. The foreman had a point about overcomplicating stuff, but sometimes reaching for the pipe is just being smart, not showing off.