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A welder buddy made me rethink my wet welding approach
Was down in Norfolk last week having coffee with an old welder friend named Chuck, someone I've known since we worked on the same salvage job back in 2010. He asked me about my wet welding technique and I told him how I usually run hot and fast with 6013 rods. He just shook his head and showed me a photo of a weld he did underwater that looked like it came from a shop floor. Said the key was slowing down my travel speed by about 30% and paying more attention to my arc length instead of just blasting through. I tried his method on a repair job for a barge dock near the Elizabeth River and the bead lay down so much cleaner I barely had to grind. Now I'm wondering if there are other little adjustments like this that could save me time underwater. Has anyone else had a mentor who made you change a habit you thought was fine?
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skyler_adams3mo ago
Man, that's good stuff right there! That arc length thing really is huge. I had an old pipefitter named Red back when I was doing maintenance work on a chemical plant pier who drilled it into my head that people focus too much on rod angle and not enough on just keeping that arc consistent. He'd make me practice running beads on a piece of scrap while he'd stand there and tap my hood if my hand twitched too much. It drove me crazy at first but now I catch myself doing that same attention to arc length even when I'm topside on regular steel. Funny how the old guys always seem to have these little tricks that end up making the biggest difference once you actually try them. Your buddy Chuck sounds like he knows his stuff for sure.
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wyatt_shah853mo ago
Yeah that thing about Red tapping his hood if his hand twitched is wild but I gotta gently push back on one thing. You said people focus too much on rod angle but idk man, rod angle is still pretty important underwater especially with wet welding where the gas bubble can mess with your puddle if you're tilted wrong. Maybe it's just me but I think it's more about how all three things work together not just one over the other. That said your buddy Red sounds like a real character those old guys definitely have their ways.
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