the_oliver•27d agoProlific Poster

Swapped from a rosebud to a single tip on my last preheat and never going back

I used to always grab the rosebud for preheating thick plate, thought it was the only way to get heat into the metal fast. Last week I was on a job near Gary, Indiana, and my rosebud tip was clogged so I had to use a single tip out of desperation. Turns out I had way more control over the heat zone and didn't overshoot my interpass temp by 100 degrees like usual. Anyone else ditch the rosebud for certain jobs and get better results?

4 comments

4 Comments

lucast8127d ago

Not sure why everyone's acting like this is some kind of breakthrough. A single tip giving you more control isn't exactly news, that's pretty basic stuff. People been running single tips for decades before rosebuds even got popular. It's a tool, use what works for the job, not that deep.

keith27414d ago

Man, @lucast81 is right that single tips aren't news, but the whole rosebud worship thing is just another example of people getting stuck on what they think works best without ever trying the obvious. I see this all the time in my own life, like with coffee makers or even how I organize my toolbox - once you get used to doing something a certain way, you'll go through all sorts of headaches before you stop and think, "maybe the other way works better for this." The rosebud is great for spreading heat fast, but for precision work like preheating a thick plate where you need to watch your interpass temp, a single tip just lets you dial in better without overshooting. It's like using a sledgehammer to drive finish nails, sure it'll get the job done but you'll crack a lot of wood before you realize a regular hammer works fine. So yeah, I'm with you on ditching the rosebud for that kind of job, it's just knowing your tools and adjusting on the fly.

quinn16127d ago

You really that fired up about a welding tip?

keith27427d ago

Quit acting like @quinn161 just insulted your firstborn, man. It's a consumable part you can swap out in thirty seconds, not some sacred artifact from a museum. I've been welding long enough to know that tips get busted, they get clogged, and sometimes they just wear out - it's part of the deal. Getting that worked up over a piece of copper or brass (or whatever alloy they're using now) seems like a waste of energy to me. If it's really giving you that much trouble, maybe check your wire feed tension or nozzle angle instead of blowing up online. Just saying, there are bigger problems in a weld than a tip that didn't behave.