Unpopular opinion: the old foreman was right about layout marks

Back in 2014 at the Mobil refinery in Joliet, I watched a veteran foreman chew out a young fitter for grinding off a soapstone line before welding. He said a boilermaker who wipes his layout marks is just guessing, and that stayed with me. Has anyone else seen crews skip layout because they trust the torch too much?

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jamie8041mo ago

Hell yeah, that hit home for me. I saw the same thing at a paper mill in Louisiana back in 2016, this kid laid out an entire header with a laser and never once snapped a line or marked the centers. When the inspector asked for his reference points, he just pointed at the laser marks and sure enough, they were gone after the first grind. Old timer made him redo the whole layout on the floor with soapstone before he was allowed to weld a single stub. I get that lasers and digital tools are great, but they don't leave you anything to go back to when things shift.

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