A steel detailer in Kansas City changed how I look at weld symbols

I was at a shop drawing review meeting last month when a veteran detailer named Dave pointed out I had a field weld symbol where a shop weld should go, and it would have cost the fabricator thousands in extra labor. He pulled out his own marked up set and showed me how he flags these things before they ever hit the shop floor, no fuss, just pencil notes in the margin. How do you train yourself to catch those small differences before the steel gets fabricated?

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2 Comments

baker.simon3mo ago

Man that's exactly the kind of thing that separates a good detailer from a great one. Dave's method of marking up his own set before it hits the shop floor is smart because it forces you to think through the whole process ahead of time. If you want to train yourself, try making a simple checklist of common weld symbol mixups like field versus shop welds and run through it during your own reviews. It's those little habits that save real money and headaches down the line.

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drew_chen3mo ago

Hold on, let me push back on this a little. Marking up the whole set before it goes out, that sounds like a lot of extra time he's billing that fabricator for. I've seen cases where a detailer is so proud of catching every little thing that he's basically re-engineering the whole set, which just adds weeks to the schedule. Sometimes a field weld is fine, it just means the ironworker spends an extra 15 minutes with a stick welder instead of the shop doing it. If Dave spent his whole career in Kansas City, he might just be used to a certain regional practice and not know the national standards cold.

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