Old timer told me to stop fighting the torch and let it do the work

I was struggling with bevels on 1 inch plate at the fab shop in Baton Rouge, just forcing the cut and getting slag everywhere. A 30 year vet walks by and says "you're leaning on it like it owes you money, give it some angle and move." I backed off the pressure, bumped the angle to 45, and the cut went clean in half the time. Who else had to unlearn bad habits from being too aggressive?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_kevin9h ago

Took me about six months of fighting my grinder like it owed me money before I realized the tool was smarter than me.

elizabeth_ramirez9h ago

You ever notice how the guys who've been doing it longest always say the same thing, like they all read from the same script? @the_kevin I learned that lesson with a hammer drill, kept bearing down on it till I burned the bit and the old guy just laughed.