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The week we had to weld a 3/4 inch thick patch on a boiler in St. Louis with a bad backer rod.
We were under a tight deadline and the old backer rod material kept melting out before we could get a good root pass. My partner suggested we try a ceramic fiber rope instead, and it held up perfectly to the heat. Has anyone else found a better backer for thick plate in a high-heat repair?
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nina_butler5mo ago
Yeah clairefisher is totally right about it changing your view. I mean, once you see ceramic fiber work in a spot where everything else fails, you stop trusting the old stuff for high heat jobs. It's not just about it holding up, it's that it gives you a clean root pass without all the contamination from melting backer rod. We started keeping a box of the rope on the truck for any repair over 600 degrees. Makes the whole job less of a headache when you know your backer won't blow out.
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clairefisher5mo ago
Honestly thought ceramic fiber was just for furnaces. Used to swear by the standard backer rods for everything. Saw a guy use it on a cracked flange on a high pressure steam line last year, and it was the only thing that didn't blow out. Changed my whole view on high heat repairs.
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davis.dakota5mo ago
That St. Louis job sounds like a nightmare, but nina_butler is right about the ceramic rope.
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