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Saw a guy using a cutting torch to remove old rivets on a bridge job in Pittsburgh last week
He was heating the rivet head until it glowed red then trying to hammer it out, took him 20 minutes per rivet. I showed him how to use an air arc gouging rod to blast them out in under a minute each. Why do so many guys skip learning the basic air arc setup?
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max2231mo ago
I picked up air arc in my first year at a fab shop in 2019, and it saved me hours on a job where we had to gut an old conveyor frame.
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paulw531mo ago
You ever just watch someone fight a job for way longer than they need to? I was on a bridge deck rehab a few years back and we had to pull a whole row of rusted-in bolts off a expansion joint. First day I tried hammering them out like that guy and got maybe 3 done in an hour. Next day I grabbed the air arc and knocked out 40 in under 30 minutes. The trick I found was keeping the rod angle steep and the air pressure high. Most guys I see skip it cause they think the setup is too much trouble, but once you get the compressor settings dialed it's a total game changer.
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