Did you have to fight your foreman on it at all or was he the one pushing for it? Back when I was running tube sheets on a big recovery boiler I would've told you stick was the only way, mostly because that's what the old guys taught me and nobody wanted to slow down long enough to try something new. But watching a guy on the next crew TIG his way through a nasty section with barely any grind time really made me rethink it. The speed thing gets thrown around a lot but when you add up all the grinding and rework, stick wasn't actually faster at all, it just felt faster because you were always moving. On tube sheets especially, being able to see the puddle around the tubes is huge and you can't do that when you're dragging slag along with you. I'll still grab the stinger for a lot of stuff but for tight work like that, I get why the switch worked out for you.

Hold on, you had a sliding door open in Boise in February and the smoke was still that bad? That is wild to me. February in Idaho is freezing and you're standing there fanning smoke out like it's no big deal. The foil boat thing makes total sense though, the rolled up edges catch the grease and the holes let it drain down so it's not sitting in a puddle. I usually just throw a piece of foil in the bottom and call it good but now I'm wondering if I've been getting lucky this whole time. That neighbor was a real one for not even saying I told you so.