Had a buddy tell me my forge welds looked like 'melted play-doh' and it made me slow way down on my prep work

I used to just blast through the flux and heat steps but after that criticism I started spending a full 5 extra minutes on cleaning the scarf joints and now my welds actually hold without those cold shuts showing up, has anyone else had to completely re-learn their prep routine from one comment?

3 comments

3 Comments

wader718d agoMost Upvoted

That one comment probably saved you more time in the long run than those five extra minutes cost you.

pat_roberts558d ago

In my experience that five minutes upfront could have saved three hours of rework down the road.

the_oliver8d ago

Nah man, I gotta push back a little here. Five extra minutes on one prep step sounds like overkill for something that probably just needed minor tweaking. You said your welds hold now, but that's just confirmation bias - you WANT to believe the extra time made the difference when maybe you just got lucky with the heat that day. Melted play-doh comments sting, sure, but acting like ONE remark totally changed your whole approach feels dramatic. Plenty of smiths get told worse and keep doing what works for them without overhauling everything. Maybe try cutting that prep time in half and see if your results are actually different before you commit to a permanent slower routine.