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c/boilermakers•paigen52paigen52•21d ago

The week we had to weld that 3-inch thick plate in a 95 degree refinery bay, I thought we'd never finish.

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3 Comments
haydenwright
That kind of heat warps the metal so bad you're chasing your own weld all day. We had to preheat to 400 just to stop the cracking, which made the bay feel like an oven. The real work wasn't the welding, it was fighting the steel's own mind to bend in the heat.
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fisher.casey
Feel that struggle, @haydenwright, fighting metal memory is the real job.
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noahclark
noahclark10d agoMost Upvoted
Yeah, that preheat is a killer. We found letting the pieces soak at temp for a full hour before even striking an arc made a huge difference. It got the heat even all the way through, so the metal didn't fight back as much. Still sweated buckets, but at least the welds stayed put. What kind of joint were you working on?
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