Guys at the hall keep grinding welds before the root passes cool and it drives me nuts

Holly Lane · 2026-10-01T23:35:04.757595+00:00

I have been on the tools 22 years and I still see this on almost every shutdown job. New hands finish a root pass on a 6 inch boiler tube and right away they grab the grinder. The tube is still hot enough to move. Metal shrinks when it cools, that is just how it goes. You grind now and you cut into the root you just laid down, then you wonder why you get a low spot or porosity at the toe. I watched a kid in Gary, Indiana do this on 14 tubes in a row and every single one failed visual. The inspector did not even bother with the camera. Let the pass cool to the touch first, then wire brush it, then look at it. Takes maybe 10 extra minutes a tube. That is nothing against a rework ticket and a foreman breathing down your neck. So what do you all do, do you time your cooling or just feel it with a gloved hand?

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Guys at the hall keep grinding welds before the root passes cool and it drives me nuts | Boilermakers - Chatter Central