The 40 year old weld that held better than the new one I put in last month

I was patching a feed hopper at the ethanol plant outside Des Moines and cut out a section that looked like it was from the 80s. That old bead had full penetration and not a single inclusion, I swear it looked machine done. My new arc weld on the same steel failed at the toes after just three days of runtime, which made zero sense to me. The difference I finally figured out was the electrode and the preheat, I skipped preheating because it was 90 degrees outside and that was a dumb move. Older guys used to swear by warming the plate even in summer and I always thought they were just set in their ways. Has anyone else had a repair fail that their grandpa's version would have outlasted, and what did you change about your process after?

1 comments

1 Comment

elizabethg189d ago

Preheat’s not about air temp, it’s about pulling moisture out of the steel.