That time my fit-up error cost me 6 hours in Tulsa

I was fitting a pressure vessel shell in Tulsa last spring and insisted on skipping the run-out check because I was sure my layout was dead on. Turned out my scribe line was off by 3/16 of an inch, and we had to gouge out a full weld and re-roll the plate. Has anyone else learned this lesson the hard way or am I the only one who gets stubborn like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

hayden70925d ago

Man that Tulsa humidity makes everything worse too. I was on a job in Beaumont a few years back and skipped checking the level on a header I was setting because I had it perfectly marked from the blueprint. Wound up being off by a quarter inch and we had to cut out three flanges and re-weld them. My foreman walked up and just stared at me for like 30 seconds without saying anything. Kinda funny now but at the time I wanted to crawl under the truck. The worst part is I knew better but got cocky cause I'd been doing it for years. Still makes me cringe thinking about it.

norag6619d ago

Quarter inch on a header? That's not even a big deal to most folks. Sounds like your foreman was just giving you the silent treatment for show. @hayden709 you're beating yourself up over something that took maybe an hour to fix. Worst case you learn to double check. Nobody died. No pipe burst. Weld it up and move on.