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c/boilermakers•margaretk89margaretk89•5d ago

Why does nobody talk about using a soapstone marker on hot metal

Last week I was out on a job at a refinery in Gary, trying to mark some cuts on a preheated drum, and my regular chalk kept burning off before I could even get a line down. I grabbed a soapstone marker on a whim cause the welder next to me had one and it worked perfect, even on metal that was over 300 degrees. Now I keep three in my bag and it saved me from redoing a whole layout the next day. Anyone else run into this issue or do you all just deal with the chalk?
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2 Comments
wells.brooke
wells.brooke5d agoMost Upvoted
My buddy Mike out in Tulsa was marking up some pipe flanges for a custom weld and his soapstone kept skipping because the metal had this weird mill scale on it. He spent an hour trying to clean it off with a grinder before someone told him to just heat the area first with a torch, then the marker glided smooth and left a perfect dark line. He called me that night ranting about how nobody tells you this stuff in the trade.
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rileyjones
Little heat fixes most soapstone problems though.
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