kimw57•5d ago

Old foreman told me to stop using soapstone on stainless and I brushed him off

At the refinery in Baton Rouge about 5 years ago, a 60 year old foreman named Dave told me my soapstone marks would cause corrosion over time. I thought he was just being fussy, but last month I saw a weld joint fail right along a line I had marked. Has anyone else seen this happen with soapstone on stainless?

3 comments

3 Comments

felixhenderson5d ago

@abby_morgan18 right on the money with that one. Dave was spitting facts, not just being old school. I switched to a stainless-specific marker after seeing a crack start right along a soapstone line on a pressure vessel weld. The carbon in soapstone can mess with the chromium oxide layer on stainless, and in wet or acidic environments it speeds up pitting corrosion. Cheap lesson to learn though, a $3 marker beats a $500 repair any day.

evan5435d ago

Man, talk about learning the hard way. I did the exact same thing on a job a few years back. Used soapstone on some stainless steel handrails I was helping a buddy with, and wouldn't you know it, a little pinhole leak showed up right where I marked it six months later. Felt like a real genius standing there with a $50 marker in my pocket that I was too cheap to buy. Now I keep a permanent marker in my glove box and just grab that. My shop mates still give me grief about it, but at least I'm not the guy who has to redo a whole weld.

abby_morgan185d ago

Wait, you actually saw a weld fail right on that line? That's wild... Dave might have known what he was talking about after all. I knew soapstone could leave a residue but never thought it would cause actual corrosion like that. Guess the old timers really do pick up on stuff we overlook, even if it sounds crazy at first. Kinda makes me wonder what else I've been brushing off that could come back to bite me later.