Old timer told me to stop using steel brushes on hot tie-ins, now I use a grinder with a flap disc

I was doing a pipeline repair near Port Fourchon and a diver with 30 years in said I was embedding debris into the weld by brushing too hard. Switched to a flap disc and my last three NDT reports came back clean. Any of you guys had to unlearn a tool habit like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

lucashenderson18d ago

Man I feel that. Switched from a torch to a plasma cutter last year and felt like a caveman learning fire. Shoulda listened to the old salts sooner.

parker_webb18d ago

Honestly, do you really think a torch is that much harder to learn than plasma? Ngl, I went the opposite way and stuck with my torch because I got tired of fighting with consumables and dealing with the air compressor noise. @lucashenderson, torches just have that raw feel to them that plasma can't match, you know? Plus, for anything thicker than half an inch, the torch still wins out in my book without me worrying about dragging a cable around. Tbh, I think the old salts kept using torches for a reason, and it ain't just stubbornness. They're simpler to fix and don't leave you stranded when the power goes out.

kim_mason5518d ago

Just about choked on my coffee reading this. @parker_webb I mean, you really went back to a torch after getting used to plasma? That's like going back to a flip phone after having a smartphone, idk how you do it. I respect the reasoning though, especially the part about not being stranded when the power goes out. Had a job in the middle of nowhere once where the generator died and I was kicking myself for not having a simple torch setup. But man, the mess and the gas bottles, I don't miss that at all.