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Metallurgy · Weld Integrity · Failure Analysis

Back Issues · Nos. 25 – 37

Every issue we've printed, top to bottom.

Article summaries only. Full text is in the mailed copies. Prior subscribers with a gap in their set can ask through their shop — we keep a small stack of back issues behind the coffee pot for exactly this.

No. 37 Autumn · shipping Nov 15
  • The Lying Gusset. Hidden field repair on a pedestrian overpass — the hardness spike that told the real story.
  • Tack vs. Skip. Print-reading fundamentals nobody reviews with apprentices anymore.
  • 7018 in a Pickup Truck. What 48 humid hours does to an open can of low-hydrogen rod.
  • Porosity on Galv. Grind the coating back two inches. Always.
  • Back Page — Margo. The shop dog, and other quality systems.
No. 36 Summer
  • Hydrogen, Slowly. Delayed cracking in a galvanized bridge railing eighteen months after install.
  • The Case Against Skip-Lot. Why small shops should inspect every heat of structural plate.
  • Stainless Sensitization. 650°C is not your friend — and what this means for repair welds on 304.
  • Back Page. A note on the passing of a longtime reader from the Iron Range.
No. 35 Spring
  • A Broken Crane Hook. Overload, or something older? (See Casebook File 34-F.)
  • Preheat Is Not Optional. HSLA field repair gone sideways, with a hardness map as evidence.
  • Reading a Macro-Etch. The three things AIs miss on bend coupons.
  • Q&A. Undercut tolerances, reader questions from three shops.
No. 34 Winter
  • Cold-Weather Welding. What actually goes wrong below freezing, and which of it is the welder's fault.
  • Sectioning a Pipe Weld. Photo-essay, eleven cuts, one sample.
  • Rockwell vs. Vickers. When to use which — and why the portable testers mostly lie.
  • Letters. Corrections from Issue 33, printed larger than the original error.
No. 33 Autumn, prior year
  • A Failed Anchor Bolt. Galvanizing, stress, and a long cold winter. (See Casebook File 36-D.)
  • Pre-Qualified Joints. A rant, respectfully, about shops that think "pre-qualified" means "no inspection."
  • Bench Notes. Calibration drift on the Vickers indenter — two months of log data.
No. 32 Summer, prior year
  • The Stiffener Banding Case. How rolling direction cost a county a retrofit. (See Casebook File 31-C.)
  • TIG Tungsten Selection. 2% lanthanated vs. ceriated vs. thoriated for stainless root passes.
  • Back Page. A reader writes in about a fifty-year-old stick electrode he found in a barn.
No. 31 Spring, prior year
  • Why Your Bend Coupon Failed. Five common reasons, ranked.
  • Weathering Steel, Misunderstood. A572 vs. A588 — the patina doesn't fix bad welds.
  • Q&A. Reader questions on fillet size calls and leg vs. throat.
No. 30 Winter, prior year
  • Ten Years of the Quarterly. What we've learned from 120 issues worth of bench work.
  • The Duplex Interpass Case. A ferrite-balance failure that wasn't the procedure's fault. (See Casebook File 33-A.)
  • Letters. Corrections and a reader's photo of a 1968 stick weld still holding.
No. 29 Autumn, two years prior
  • Lamellar Tearing, Revisited. Why through-thickness properties still matter on heavy restraint joints.
  • A Failed Lifting Lug. Short column, wrong direction, no redundancy.
  • Bench Notes. Reagent storage and why nital doesn't belong in a clear bottle.
No. 28 Summer, two years prior
  • Heat-Tint Colors on Stainless. What the straw, purple, and blue actually mean.
  • The Case of the Migrating Weld. Distortion that wasn't where anyone expected.
  • Q&A. Shielding gas mixes and what a 98/2 does that a 90/10 doesn't.
No. 27 Spring, two years prior
  • Grain Size and Why You Should Care. ASTM E112 explained without the equations.
  • A Cracked Reinforcement Pad. Old repair, new load, predictable outcome.
  • Back Page. Renata on her first bad weld, forty years on.
No. 26 Winter, two years prior
  • Hydrogen-Assisted Cracking in HSLA. Preheat tables aren't suggestions.
  • A Sectioning Essay. How we plan cuts on an as-received sample.
  • Letters. A debate with a reader over undercut allowances.
No. 25 Autumn, three years prior
  • Fractography for the Field. Beach marks, chevrons, and what they rule out.
  • A Tack Weld That Became a Skip. Print ambiguity, real consequences.
  • Bench Notes. Why our sectioning saw coolant went from blue to brown.

Issues 1 through 24 exist on the shelf behind the coffee pot. Ask your referrer. Some of the early ones are stapled, not saddle-stitched, because that's what the press could do in 2011.