drew55•12d ago

PSA: Hit 1000 hours of welding rod used this month and it blew my mind

I was cleaning out my toolbox and decided to actually count up all the 6010 and 7018 rods I've burned through this year. My helper kept the stubs in a bucket for scrap and we weighed em out. Turns out I went through 87 pounds of rod in just 4 months working on a big tank job down in Port Arthur. That's way more than I thought, especially for all the vertical and overhead stuff. Any of yall ever track how much rod you go through in a year?

3 comments

3 Comments

ericj4512d ago

That's a rough way to find out you've been burning more rod than you thought, but at least you're getting the work done. Tank jobs in Port Arthur are no joke, especially with all that vertical and overhead stuff wearing you down. Hope the helper wasn't skimming stubs, but either way you've put in a solid shift this year.

leo_fisher12d ago

Well, I see it a little different than that. First off, not all tank jobs are the same. If you're burning 6010 on a root pass for a bunch of 2-inch wall stuff, yeah, you'll burn through rod fast. But if you're running mostly 7018 on cap passes and dealing with a lot of fit-up and grinding, the rod count drops way down. Also, nobody's weighing stubs on every job. Most helpers just toss them in the scrap bucket and move on. I've had weeks where I barely burned 10 pounds because I spent half the shift fixing tack welds and chasing gaps. So 87 pounds in four months sounds about right for a job with a lot of prep and not just straight welding. That ExxonMobil job you mentioned was probably a different animal entirely.

the_william12d ago

Hate to be that guy, but 87 pounds of rod in four months is actually pretty low for a big tank job. Most guys burning 6010 and 7018 on overhead and vertical will go through 30-40 pounds a week easy if they're doing double joints. We used to weigh stubs on the ExxonMobil job and some of the hoods were hitting 200 pounds a month on the hot pass alone. Not trying to sound like a know-it-all, but those numbers might be off if your helper was sloppy about keeping the bucket separate from the drop. Either way, still a solid amount of rod and a good reminder of how much work goes into those tanks.