Worst. Advice. Ever.

What’s the worst or most erroneous piece of knowledge that’s ever been dropped on you?

Most of us have spent time thinking about our learning process, about the people who helped mold us, and how we’ve grown because of that help. I am who I am because my parents, co-workers, and instructors spent their time, energy, and expertise answering my questions at every turn. Especially when it comes to being a millwright and a welder, the guys I work with both now and in the past have acted as indispensable tools in honing my talent.

Let’s have some fun and look at the other side of the coin. I want to hear about not just the most asinine advice you’ve been given, but something you were told or taught that you believed, lived by, and even passed on for years before realizing it was just flat-out wrong. Fortunately for me, those tidbits have been few and far between. I like to question everything anyway, then question the answers. And in the Google era it’s so easy to fact check almost anything. Still, sometimes you just trust someone and take what they say at face value because they’ve proven to be dependable in the past.

The one I think of right away was around 2003, when I was still a new apprentice. I worked at a Chrysler plant, and a couple of journeymen and I were in the millwright shop fabricating a heavy-duty steel frame. There was a long, vertical fillet weld that was going to be short-arced. I asked why we always traveled uphill. I was told, “Never weld downhill. There’s no penetration. The weld could fail. Always go vertical up.” There was no Google then, and I had no reason to doubt the answer. The theory seemed sound. I took it as gospel.

For a few years I held onto the practice and even gave it out as advice. As is the most case with absolutes, eventually a counter to the rule emerged. An old-timer in a certification class at the training center said he welded downhill on many of the pipes he’d done in the field. It was much easier, and with the right technique would be as strong as needed. The process had been qualified and proven. Now, it’s fairly obvious to me that welding downhill “could” be the solution in multiple situations.

Looking back, I think maybe the intention of the original instruction was “in this instance, with this machine, on this material, never weld downhill.” I think misunderstandings like that happen and they propagate bad intel. It happens.

So fess up. What’s the worst advice you’ve ever received?

All images courtesy of Josh Welton, Brown Dog Welding.

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