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My old foreman caught me using a grinder wheel for cutting stainless
I was out in the field in Houston last Tuesday when my foreman walked over and asked why my welds looked rough on the stainless pipe. I told him I was using the same cutoff wheel I always used for carbon steel. He just shook his head and told me I was contaminating the stainless with carbon steel particles from the wheel. He gave me a dedicated stainless grinding wheel and the difference was night and day after I switched. Has anyone else made that mistake or found other ways stainless work goes wrong if you're not careful?
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charlies3719h ago
the contamination thing is real, you can actually see the rust spots start forming after a few weeks" - that part right there is what finally made me take it serious. I used to think guys were just being overly picky about which wheel you use, like it was some kind of old timer superstition. Then I saw it with my own eyes on a gate I built, little orange freckles popping up everywhere after two months. Made me feel like an idiot for arguing with the guys who told me to switch. Now I keep a separate grinder just for stainless with a purple wheel on it so I can't mess it up.
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theas281d ago
...and there I was thinking I was being smart by saving the company money on wheels. I did the same thing with a flap disc once, ruined a whole section of handrail before someone told me what I was doing wrong. The contamination thing is real, you can actually see the rust spots start forming after a few weeks if you don't catch it. Kinda embarrassing when the client points it out and you have to explain you were just being cheap. Now I keep separate color coded bins in my truck so I don't mix them up again.
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Oh man, the flap disc thing hits close to home. I did that exact same mistake and spent a whole weekend grinding out my "cost saving" work.
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