I watched a guy try to use a regular grinder wheel on a stainless weld yesterday

He was working on a 3 inch stainless pipe at the yard, and I saw him grab a standard carbon steel cutting wheel. I told him he needed a stainless specific one to avoid contamination, but he just shrugged and kept going. That's how you get rust spots and weld failure down the line, right? How do you guys make sure new helpers get this stuff before they start?

4 comments

4 Comments

viola_lopez302mo ago

I just keep the stainless wheels in a different color bin, like @the_thomas said.

the_thomas2mo ago

Yeah that's a classic way to ruin a stainless job lol. Seen it cause rust streaks and weak spots more times than I can count. Best thing is to just show them the right wheel and the wrong wheel side by side when they start. Tell them straight up that using the wrong one puts carbon into the stainless and wrecks it. If they keep doing it wrong after that, they shouldn't be touching stainless, period.

kaigibson2mo agoMost Upvoted

So what's the next step, do we just start hiding the steel wheels and pretending they don't exist? Like a shop-wide game of keep-away for grown adults who can't follow basic instructions?

gavin3651mo ago

A buddy of mine had this exact thing happen with a new guy at his shop. He caught him using a green wheel on stainless and explained the whole contamination thing, the rust later on, all of it. The guy seemed to get it, but the next day he was back on the same grinder with the wrong wheel again. So my buddy just walked over, took the grinder out of his hands, and handed him a new grinder with the right wheel already on it. Then he locked up all the carbon steel wheels in a cabinet with a padlock. Fixed the problem real quick because the kid had to actually ask for one if he wanted to use it, and he could explain it again every single time.