Old timer at the hall told me to stop grinding my tube welds flush, and I owe him a beer

Sandra Anderson · 2026-09-25T07:30:05.906915+00:00

So about 8 months back I was doing a repair on a 60 inch vessel and this guy named Dale, been in the trade 34 years, watched me take a grinder to every single cap weld. He told me plain: leave the reinforcement, the inspector wants the throat thickness, not a pretty seam. I blew him off honestly, figured he was just old school and wanted everything looking rough. Fast forward to last month, I had an AI come through and he flagged 6 welds on a different job where I'd dressed them down past the min thickness, wanted a repair plan and everything. Cost me two extra shifts and a headache I did not need. Dale just grinned at me across the bay and didn't say a word, which was worse than if he'd rubbed it in. I've been leaving my caps alone since then and the fit up guys haven't complained once. Any of you run into an inspector who actually cares about reinforcement height or is it just the guy we get stuck with here in Gary?

The Design Community Hub

Loading…

Old timer at the hall told me to stop grinding my tube welds flush, and I owe him a beer | Boilermakers - The Design Community Hub