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Vent: I used to skip the pre-heat step on thick plate welds
My foreman, Dave, kept telling me to always pre-heat anything over an inch thick, even if it slowed me down. I thought it was overkill on a job in Toledo last month until I saw a hairline crack form right after my first pass on a 1.5 inch pressure vessel head. He was right, and now I never skip it. Anyone have a good rule of thumb for pre-heat temps on different grades of steel?
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drew6901mo ago
Yeah, learned that the hard way on some A36 plate, now I just follow the WPS like gospel.
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the_pat27d ago
Man, tell me about it. @drew690, I spent a whole Saturday re-doing a brace of fillet welds because I thought I could skip a preheat step on some 3/4 inch plate. Never again. Those specs are written in blood and coffee.
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kevin_dixon1mo ago
Tell me about it, drew690. I once tried to get clever with some settings on a simple fillet weld, thought I knew better. Ended up with a bead that looked like a scared caterpillar. That was a long, grindy afternoon fixing my pride. Now if the WPS says to use a specific cup size, I don't even ask why, I just do it. Those papers exist because someone else already made all the mistakes for us.
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