That talk with an old pipefitter made me rethink my whole approach

Honestly, I was setting up a hydrotest on a feedwater heater last week in Baton Rouge, and this retired pipefitter, guy must be 70, just walked up and watched me for a minute. He didn't say anything about my prep work or my weld prep, he just pointed at the flange bolts and said 'you're torquing those like they're all the same, but they aren't.' At first I thought he was talking about thread wear or something, but then he explained how the bolt holes on older vessels can be out of round from years of hammering, so you gotta feel each one as you go. I've been doing this for 11 years and never once thought about that. He showed me a trick where you dry-fit the bolt and spin it backwards before you even start, just to check for burrs, and it saves you a stripped thread headache later. It hit me different because it wasn't a book thing or a YouTube thing, it was just a guy who'd been there. Anyone else had an old timer drop some simple knowledge that made you feel like a rookie again?

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