Charles, I appreciate the info on the persulphate. The thought occured to me to utilize it myself in some manner, especially for HSLA's and the like.
But in total agreement with you, I had no intent of implying that arc strikes do not need to be taken seriously. It just that in som alloys they are more serious than others.

Hello makeithot, you have a valid point when you say that any test you ever took would not allow any arc strikes outside of the weld joint on a pressure test and as well on many other types of certification tests. Having that occur during the test is an automatic failure in many cases. You also know that in the real world situation there exists the possibility for arc strikes to happen outside of the joint even when the best precautions are taken. I have read other threads that have discussed this at length and it appears that for the given codes that apply to various situations, there are allowances and procedures for the repair of these occurences. As one of the posts on this thread suggested, when the grinding, polishing, and etching showed that the imperfection was gone but the thickness limits were compromised, this was justification for a cut-out, if the material still had the proper thickness intact, the repair could be accepted. Just my take on this. Regards, aevald

Joe ,
Correct me if I am wrong but are not arc strikes considerd a failure of the weld as a whole. At least in all the tests I have ever taken that has been the case. If in fact the welder does not consider this to be so, how did he get into the position of having todo a pressure weld to start with? I would like to read the code that says you can grind them out. If you could post that I would like to look it up.

The only time we ever run into this level of attention is when dealing with gas transmission lines.  Given that most transmission line owner/operators expect these lines to be there "forever", it still seems heavy handed, but not that heavy handed.

The real message that needs to go out to the welders is to eliminate arc strikes outside the weld.  That is always the best message, but when they see just how seriously some owners are, their attention to detail improves drastically.

Charles.

First you have to grind the area until you think you have gotten the strike out, then polish it with a 120 Grit (or finer) sandpaper.  Look at it with light from different angles.  Sometimes the hard spot can actually be seen visually.  Most times, you have to grind about 1/32 inch or more to get rid of the phase change area under the site of the arc strike.  Arc Strikes on cold material are worse than arc strikes on hot material. You have to be carefull, because often the minimum thickness is such that very little grind out can be tolerated.

Amonium Persulfate solution should be mixed at a rate of 20% granular Persulfate to 80% pure water by WEIGHT.  Unless you have a good sensitive electronic food scale, you should use a postage scale or a re-loaders powder scale.  One gram of persulfate is less than a teaspoon. 4 grams of water is not much either. You need a very small water tight container with a plastic lined inside top.  Keep the solution out of the sunlight. This solution can be carried around in your car without danger of fire or explosion.  If the cap vibrates loose, it will rust your car wherever it splashes! You can dip your finger in it and you will not get burned.

I recommend you apply it with a Q-Tip.   The solution works fastest on a carbon steel surface that is between 120 and 150 degrees F.  This solution does not work with austenitic Stainless Steels.  (Arc Strikes are less imnportant on those materials anyway.)  You need fresh water to neutralize the action after you develop the indication.  Bottled water is fine.  If you wipe the area with a rag, you may smear grease or oil and that will obscure your indication.

It is good "Show-and-Tell" to do the polishing and developing of the indication in front of the welder.  So many of them think that arc strikes don't mean anything.

is there a recomended depth in grinding out arc strikes...........

Here is my understanding...

A36 contains only about .25% to .29% carbon, but the carbon is not uniformly distributed.  On a microscopic level there are grains of ferrite and grains of pearlite.  The ferrite contains .02% carbon but the pearlite is about .80% carbon.  With arc strikes the heating is so rapid that there is not enough time for the carbon to diffuse and become uniformly distributed in the austenite.  The result is grains of high carbon austenite, and since the cooling is as rapid as the heating, the austenite transforms to untempered martensite.

Will this cause problems?  D1.1 says to grind out stray arc strikes, so there must be some basis for concern...

Regards,
Bill

Lawrence & Blaster: I put a post with regard to this, but it is near the top of the page, I should have put it down here. There are homebrew quenchants that incorporate detergent and a few other things to get a more severe quench, blacksmiths use it on cold rolled and A36 to make it somewhat hard. Granted it does not harden like tool steel, but it does get harder than it was. With respect to Lawrence's arc strikes there are possibly 2 mechanisms at work. With regard to martensite formation it is possible that the actual arc impingement was quenched by the cool parent metal and formed untempered martensite. I know this to be a problem in tool steels, We lost many rivet yokes at the plant due to a faulty grounding strap on a welding / riveting fixture - the work was arcing to the yoke. The other problem is that the arc crater causes a stress riser. This is less of a problem on ductile materials, but if there WERE enough alloys in the A36 to form the martensite that small area would loose ductility. The above mentioned rivet yokes were only 33 RC and would not have been particularly notch sensitive had the localised hardening from the arcing not taken place. The yokes were made from AISI S5, an oil hardening high strength shock resistant tool steel.

Lawrence, I agree with the arc strikes causing failures, have seen the pictures evidencing such.  I too am waiting for the eggheads, but have been assured by several that A36 is not "hardenable" by quenching and have thus far proven that to myself.

I'm waiting to hear from the egg heads on this one.  I have used A36 for examples of quench hardening. And it sure feels harder to file after a quench! I have also attributed failed bend tests to foolish quenching practices... Maybe it was just a bad weld.

The Arc strike examples I use... A36 hot rolled, 11/2 inch X 10 X 3/8    Drag a stick electrode across the center and bend. Always opens up right at the arc marks.... I was assuming that the tears were happening because the arc strikes created small areas of untempered martinsite (Which is a mechinisim of quench hardening isn't it?)... if not that than what?   I would like to get this story straight and make sure I'm not giving out bad information.

"With GTAW or SMAW your electrode is always live so you have to have total concentration when you are about to strike an arc. As arc strikes are not allowed on most pipework you have to get the tip of the electrode / tungsten as close as possible to the prep before flicking down your helmet and one moment of lack of concentration can cause you to ignite the arc before you have got your helmet down thereby giving yourself or your fitter a flash." - quote by Shane

Hi Shane/Pipes,
This situation that you describe is about the only advantage I have found in having an Auto-Darkening Shield. We don't like to have arc strikes outside of the joint either and the guys who only have SMAW welders at thier work stations have to tack the pieces and get the alignment correct with levels and squares while fussing with some of these tacking rods (E7028) that don't like to relight after they have been burned one time already. No doubt if you work around this stuff long enough, you will at some time get a few flashes that you weren't expecting. I remember when I was just learning to weld with SMAW and using a E7018 for the first time...Man, the misery of not getting that shield flicked down in time...

Pipes,
Prior to becoming a CWI my career was as a pipefitter or pipewelder using GTAW or SMAW.
I have had arc eye (flashburn) numerous times while wearing safety glasses (all the glasses do is lessen the effect).
The worst flash is in from the side and not all safety glasses have sideshields.
Some of the members on this post may be from a workshop environment where the majority of work is GMAW or FCAW. You have to pull the trigger before the handpiece is live which makes it very hard to give yourself a flash as you can poke the gun into the prep and then pull the trigger.
With GTAW or SMAW your electrode is always live so you have to have total concentration when you are about to strike an arc. As arc strikes are not allowed on most pipework you have to get the tip of the electrode / tungsten as close as possible to the prep before flicking down your helmet and one moment of lack of concentration can cause you to ignite the arc before you have got your helmet down thereby giving yourself or your fitter a flash.
Regards,
Shane

I'm really kinda surprised to hear about arc strikes outside of the joint using FCAW, just because of the mechanics of how it works. Our guys usually mess up and miss the joint using the stick to tack with while holding their shield in their hand all the while trying to get the E7028 tacking rod to re-start.

FCAW arc strikes usually are occurring during fitup operations.  Careless handling of the gun is the main cause.  Sometimes it is a poor ground while fitting up sub-assemblies while having them sitting on main members.  The other time is while welding pipe columns.  I hit them with is when our bench tops are not ground well and they roll the column across it while welding cap or base plates.  We usually attach the ground directly to the column.  Have tried grinding bench tops and rolling on angles also, but with no consistent results.  Directly hooking the ground works best. 

We have most of our welders SMAW certified also but SMAW is used perhaps 1% of the time here.  Almost exclusively FCAW.

Hi Doug,
I'm curious why you have welders leaving arc strikes outside of the joint, if they are using FCAW? I used SMAW in my demonstration because that is the process where I see the problem with arc strikes occurring with these hard to re-start E7028 tacking rods that we use during fit-up.

edit: PS. Best to experiment first before gathering the whole shop around for a demo. ;)

OK guys.  I, too, am looked at funny for circling arc strikes on our structural steel to have them ground out.  I remembered this thread and have planned to perform this little experiment in front of our welders to demonstrate to them what I have been preaching.  Well, yesterday we had some arc strikes on our steel and we were very temporarily slow (like for for the next 37 minutes) so I decided to gather up a few welders and perform this demonstration in front of them.  I used A36, 3/8" 2" bar stock, dragged a FCAW electrode all the way across 6 of them lined up side by side.  Had an arc strike line from one side to the other.  Flap wheel sanded 3 of them until most, if not all evidence of strikes was gone.  Stuck them in our bender and guess what I saw?  Looked just like a regular bend test with a weld on it; no cracks, nothing but what looked like a small, thin weld bead.  Now, when I showed that to my welders, they say UH-HUH.  Arc strikes really aren't as big a problem as you always make it out to be.  I looked like a fool!  My camera is out being used on a job site else I would post some pictures.  What did you guys do differently?

John,

Great pictures and very timely. I was having some issues with folks not taking arc strikes seriously that is until they saw your pictures.... I hope you don't mind I'm showing them to some of our welding supervisors (with your name attached) during tool box talks. We are also going to try your experiment.

Sean

You're welcome.

One of the transmission line companies we worked for had us use a solution of water & ammonium persulphate to verify complete removal of arc strikes.

It's a pain in the arse. You have to grind and polish the strike smoothly to blend in with the adjacent base metal; swipe the solution over the effected area and look for darkening. If it darkens up, you haven't removed all the traces of the "heat zone" so you have to repeat the steps.

Once all traces are gone, you have to check wall thickness using a UT tool. If too much material was ground out, the section has to be cut out and replaced.

It is obviously better to avoid arc strikes.

Charles

Here are my results..... ASTM A36 3/8" bar x 2" x 8"

[http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/jwright650/welding%20pictures/arcstrike2.jpg]

[http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/jwright650/welding%20pictures/arcstrike1.jpg]

John Wright

edit: material on far left was plain material w/o arc strikes.
All 5 of these pieces came from the same stick of A36 material.

If not properly removed, an arc strike has the potential of propagating fatigue cracks. Arc strikes located in tension areas need to be removed by grinding. They can result in unacceptable hard spots or small cracks. After the arc strikes are removed, every location where they occur where the steel is in tension should be checked. Mag-particle testing on all arc strike locations could be performed to assure that no cracks are present. Hardness tests could also be ran on all locations to assure that no unacceptable hard areas are present. Hardness values should not exceed the higher of Rockwell C30 or the hardness value measured in the steel outside the location of the arc strike. If the above testing reveals unacceptable results, the flaw can be removed by grinding and the steel be retested to assure that the flaw has been completely removed.

Hello Neighbor,
Arc strikes are a no-no as mentioned above. I recommend copying this post and answers to provide some teeth for your plea.
Very best regards,
VONASH

The method they use in pipeline construction seems to work very well. Sometimes they will let you get away with it once (sometimes not even that), but the second time the welder is run off.
Of course arc strikes usually result in a cut out, which is an expensive repair.

JTMcC.

We took a steel plate and dragged an electrode over it fast (leaving a line of arc strikes). After that we flapped the plate to remove the obvious signs of the arc strikes. Than we bent it in a bend jig like we would a bend test. The arc strikes open up in a very dramatic, convincing way.

Charles

I am not aware of any different preheat or delayed cracking concerns. I treat it the same as I would A709 grade 50.
My D1.5 PQR's are done with A709-50W so that they cover the lesser grades as well. That allows fillets up to 5/16" (single pass) without the need for a matching filler metal. If I need a matching filler metal on grooves then I can weld out all but the cap passes with non-weathing electrodes.
I recall there used to be a concern with low heat input WPS's , and also with arc strikes, but that seems to be history from what I have seen. Those issues are now handled as routine in the D1.5 code; I can't say for other welding codes.

Chet Guilford

In a past similar situation, I was able to please all parties through the creation of a hydrostatic testing procedure of wrapped piping (exposed joints), pre-approved by all parties, that included the following main points:
1. Complete Mill testing records on all materials used.
2. Charted documentation of hydro pressure.
3. Visual inspection documentation of complete pipe wall surface, immediately prior to coating, with special attention to the removal of all inadvertent arc strikes and grounding marks.
4. Employee training records of all pipe fabrication and equipment operators concerning preservation of the integrity of pressure tested pipe.

It all boils down to the fact that if a wrapped piece of pipe fails under hydrotest pressure, it's still going to have to be repaired and the rework expense falls on the contractor.

I should note that this procedure did not include systems for sour service.

Tim

THE BIRTH OF PULSED BOVINE FECAL MATTER
AT MILLER. In the nineteen eighties, the largest technical college in Vancouver Canada purchased Miller's first pulsed MIG power source, the Miller PulsedStar. This pulsed equipment cost 400% more than a traditional CV. MIG power source.

The technical college was exited about it's investment in new weld technology. For many weeks the instructors at the college tried to get the Miller pulsed power source to produce a vertical up fillet weld with an 045 MIG steel wire on a 6 mm steel plate. As the weld process control training manger for Linde, Western Canada, I was considered by a few as an expert on the MIG process. The college asked if I would visit and see what I could do with their costly MIG package. I set that Miller power source at every possible wire feed and pulsed frequency combination possible. The PulseStar simply could not provide a suitable wire feed / parameter combination for welding vert up and the pulsed welds made in the flat and horizontal weld positions were inferior to a much lower cost CV power source.

After the PulseStar came the pulsed Miller Maxtron and that excuse for an unstable MIG power source does not deserve one line in this web site. One thing you can say about Miller is they don't give up.

After the Miller Maxtron they provided the pulsed Invision which went through more E Prom changes than I have had pints of Guinness. Finally the Miller Accupulse. If you are using this equipment on a robot, using pulsed and the adaptive arc mode you may be getting arc instability, arc ignition issues, arc outage or wire burn back issues to the contact tips. Many of the pulsed adaptive arc issues that Miller is having today were on their their pulsed equipment made a decade earlier.

Watch out for the next new pulsed power source within 24 months after the introduction of the Accupulse. I guess some one in marketing at MIller thinks the best way to get rid of their numerous, pulsed electronic issues is to place the power source in a new blue box and give it a new blue name

During the last decade, MIG power source manufactures have found a home for electronic chips and printed boards. These companies quickly found out that with "electronics", they could triple the cost of their MIG equipment.

You can pay $2000 or $12000 for a MIG powere souce and on steel welds you wont attain a benefit from the $12000 power source. The high cost of electronic MIG equipment today strikes me as strange, as the implementation of electronics into most other manufacturing products has typically ended up lowering the cost of the product.


UNNECESSARY MIG POWER SOURCE COMPLEXITY. Panasonic proudly informs the welding public. "To cover all weld application possibilities, our Panasonic MIG equipment has a data base of "four million patterns" of various weld wave forms". It's ironic that in a decade, I have yet to see one of their MIG power sources out perform the traditional lower cost, more rugged CV, MIG equipment on a steel weld. By the way every MIG weld application in the world only requires 4 weld settings, I dont know what Panasonic needs with the other 3,999,997 wave forms.

taken from- http://www.weldreality.com/flux_cored_pipe_welding.htm

U'm not bragging, these are common things in the outside welding world.
What would be the exceptions you reference??? There are none. We have no choice but to abide by the safety regs of the contractors we work for. It's their site, their ball and bat and we have to abide to get to play.
We weld on live high pressure gas lines, over water, at heights and in deep excavations, these enviroments differ quite a bit from a production shop. Sometimes the weld HAS to be made by some dude in waders. That didn't violate any rules of the world wide prime contractor we were working for. They even supplied the waders. We made welds leaning over the side of the safety boat on that job as well, and floating on crane mats too. There are no safety violations here, much less "indefensible" ones. I'm thinking you might not have much familiarity with our working enviroment.
I suppose the inninitiated might gasp when the welder first strikes an arc on a live line with 850 psi inside, but it's done safely and regularly. But, I'm sure that would be a safety voilation in your working enviroment wouldn't it? There are probably a lot of things we (and others in our business) do that would be a violation at your site, that doesn't make it a violation or even a hazard in ours. We are geared for the work we do and our safety record speaks for itself, we haven't been "lucky" all these years.

JTMcC.

By the same token there are those in other industries or segments of the welding world that routinly do things we aren't familiar with or experienced in or are not insured for. So we don't do those things. A good example is those guys fishing for crab off Alaska, I watch 5 minutes of that and I see a couple of dozen things that I would consider a gross safety violation, but that's their workplace and they know and understand how to move about in it in a somewhat safe manner. We work on the water from time to time, but my over water safety policies sure aren't the same as those fishermen. Two different worlds.

I put gas on my litlle licoln 110 mig welder. Loved every minute of welding with it and basked many hours in welding glow. Sadly though, it has now developed problems. It will burn the wire right up into the gun on low amperage before it ever strikes an arc. I turn the settings up and it will at least weld but not very good. Has anybody had this trouble and what if any was the fix? Thanks for your help.

Neither ASME IX or B31.3 address arc strikes or grinding marks. You would have to check your Engineering Design documents or consult with your Engineering Department.
Usually Arc strikes are never permitted. They can cause localized hardening.

If this is the kind of welder I believe it is, starting an arc will take some skill to master. I have one that plugs into 110 volts that has such low open circuit voltage there is not enough "ooomph" to get the arc going easily. I usually lay the rod on the far edge of the plate so the tip is hanging off, then drag it up to the edge until it strikes as it pops over onto the surface. Scratch starting is tough with these welders.

There is an AWS catagory for Tungstens doped either with propriatary formulas or with oxides or oxide percenteges that are not currently represented with a color code. EWG is the designation and the color code is Grey.

A former employer of mine simply refused to purchase EWG electrodes if the manufacture would not put into print for us the blend.

Milti Strike may well be happy to give you the recipie if your company requires it, it certainly can't hurt to ask.

Anyway. I've never seen a wonder tungsten (secret mix) outperform what is already on the market, and we have done alot of trials (programs with hundreds of arc strikes)

Hey Metals!

The process they (Grumman Aircraft of Bethpage, NY out on Long Island) used on the "Tomcat's" fuselage was EBW.
Otherwise known as Electron Beam Welding.

The process was totally automated (customized one of a kind system) and, the welding was performed in a "clamshell" type vacuum chamber. Do'nt worry about the "brainfart" because your intentions were good!!!

I know first hand about this system at Grumman because, I had the honor (seems like many) years ago to actually see how this system performed and MAN-O-MAN, did it ever!!! Perhaps one of the GREATEST Fighter aircraft EVER produced in the WORLD!!! GO NAVY!!! SECOND TO NONE!!!
The F-14's motto is "ANYTIME - BABY"!!! Too bad they're being retired!!!

Anywho, getting back to your situation "Racefan"... As TimGary mentioned, with the appropriate trailing shields, the need for a vacuum chamber can be avoided. SWP also had some good advice also as did Lawrence...

I've personally welded a variety of Titanium.
From CP (commercially Pure) grades to a variety of Ti alloys when I worked for company in New Jersey and, the key words to successful weldments were: Cleanliness & backpurge and monitor the heck out of the joints before during & after welding for gas purity!!! I say this because even if everything else was strictly followed such as mentioned in the previous posts, if the joints were'nt clean (white glove treatment) & backpurged properly - it did'nt matter if everything else was correctly done... The welds would turn out to have some CONTAMINATION and they would not consistently pass NDT or NDE (Non Destructive Testing or Non Destructive Evaluation, they both mean the same)... Just as important is to make sure not to contaminate the joint with arc strikes or tungsten contamination...
Color is also an important factor in understanding how to set up your current, travel angle, travel speed, work angles, tip to work distance, etc. Cross contamination is critical also. Meaning that the machine tool bits used in fabrication, the grinding/cutting wheels, the wire wheels must be of the type that does NOT leave any residue or impregnate any of it's materials into the Ti base metal and, must be used exclusively on ONLY the specific Ti base metal!!! NOT on any other metal PERIOD!!! I cannot stress this enough!!!

I could go on and on but, the only way you're going to learn how to weld Ti properly is to learn from someone who has already done so successfully on a consistent basis because, even though the metal is relatively easy to weld, it is far more difficult to produce consistent high quality welds with this metal without knowing and experiencing firsthand - ALL of the factors & variables, ALL of the necessary precautions that are required to ensure success due to the very nature of this reactive metal... Not to mention that Ti is'nt a relatively inexpensive metal to fabricate and weld compared to lets say, Aluminum... I hope this helps!!!

Respectfully,

SSBN727 Run Silent... Run Deep!!!

Vee groove both sides, double vee, tack weld run-on and run-off tabs. No arc strikes outside of the weld joint! Preheat to 500F. Weld with Super Missile Stick Rod (lotsa nickle), been a while so don't remember who makes it. Weld across and balance stresses both sides. Once totally welded, flame cut off the run-on run-off tabs and grind parallel with length of spring. All four surfaces. Grind it smooth. Used to weld up cultivator springs this way. Hope it helps.

Excellent Advice G!!!

Welcome nspc6f to the forum!

Like Gerald, I've worked on both sides of the "fence" so to speak and. I have to agree with his opinion wholeheartedly!!!

There are always some "bad apples" in both union and non-union trades.
The ones that stay on the jobs longest always get the bad rep because, of the few that are eventually no longer on the job...
Sure, it may take a little longer to get rid of "dead weight" if they have some seniority (in the union) but, they either shape up or ship out!
The ones that are constantly busy are usually among the best and most reliable and, that's why there always in demand, get assigned to the next job first...

Different jobs require different amounts of manpower so eventually, a local will run out of enough "A" list and "B' list members... This requires them to request help in the case of the Boilermakers, from the NTL (National Transient Local) which was designed to help fill manpower requirements for the different locals located across the country and sometimes in Canada or visa versa... What I'm getting at is this; sometimes contractors will get manpower from different regions that may not be used to the work ethic that may or may not be present in a certain region or local and, this may or may not result in management developing unfavorable opinions concerning some of these individuals and visa versa but, it's not always the case because, I know quite a few excellent NTL journeymen that eventually find a local that they develop a mutual respect for each other and, that person ends up on there "A" list or at least their "B" list... Heck, I was on both lists at quite a few locals in my career as a Boilermaker and, had both pleasant & difficult experiences when I was with the NTL...

BTW, which location were you at when you were at Tulsa Welding School? Good school but, not the end of your training -only the beginning!!!

Gerald, I dobt it very much that all of these so called "Master Welder" types could perform some of the welding we had to do when we worked on our favorite "pressure vessels" if you get my meaning!!! At least I have'nt ran into one that would accept some of the more challenging jobs we were qualified to perform - "mirror, mirror on the wall or should I say walls" because I know that I sometimes had to use more than one and,I know you did too pal!!! nspc6f, you may want to ask these master welders that you know if they've done any mirror welding before and, I do'nt just mean with SMAW!!! Alot of GTAW pipe welding that me and Gerald did, required some of the joints to be either partially or fully mirror welded and it was a rarity when we encountered a fully accessable pipe joint that did'nt require the use of a mirror or two or even three in some locations where in some instances, pipe hangers or other weldments that because of poor planning, conflicting schedules, the lack of modular construction or shoddy workmanship required repairs after everything else including the "kitchen sink" was installed - making it unjustifiable to rip out whatever was obstructing our veiw in order to repair or add on a run or another hanger, structural component, machined surface from a revision in the design for whatever reason or because a component was completely overlooked if you catch my drift... Even arc strikes had to be repaired and they were usually noticed after everything else was installed so, if you want to know who were or are in my opinion Master welders? The men and women that did and still can perform this type of work including the ones that do this type of work today because, not only can they perform the work to a consistent level of quality that would be the envy of many experienced welders without this exposure... They also can without hesitation, explain all of the technical aspects occurring before, during and after the welding is performed and justify why this type of welding is necessary or not.

The AWS has entry, advanced and master or is it expert level welder designations at least from what I can recall (please correct me if I'm incorrect) and I'm not knocking their requirements but, I'd like to see if the master level designations could handle some of the work that I know Gerald and a few other gentlemen including myself (well I'm not always a gentle person but that's another story) have experience with, in a "baptism by fire" situation where they were only shown and allowed to practice with a mirror or two or three (if they could handle that many) for a week, then find out if there level of quality passes muster, meaning MT, PT, RT & UT on a mock up!!!
Throw them inside a United States Navy Warship - preferrably a nuclear powered submarine that's already packed to the "gills" and perform this type of work and, achieve the same consistent level of quality workmanship that is required in order to be qualified to perform this to say the least, type of welding in such challenging working environment...
Now do'nt get me wrong, there are some gentlemen that can perform this level of expertise without ever having Gerald's or my experience but, not many of them exist... I do recall a recent article in the welding journal showcasing repair welding of certain components that are found in our nation's NASA Space Shuttle fleet and I must say that I was impressed with the challenges that were overcome in order to successfully complete the work and. the conditions in order to do so...
Nonetheless, some of the conditions we encountered rose to that same level!

Anywho, If I were in your shoes, I'd take full advantage of the Pipefitters or Ironworkers union offers because, they offer training that will definitely help in your career advancement and, they'll even help you out in paying for your welding engineering degree if you can handle everything else, especially the mathematical proficiency, physics, metallurgy, proficiency in inspection methodologies, best practices, etc., that is required of you just to continue towards your goal of becoming a decent one. All of the welding experience that you'll gain in a variety of processes and conditions will also give you a unique perspective that other students in your class might not have...
Therefore, giving you an advantage that others may not be able to handle. In other words, you will be able to graduate and hit the ground running as opposed to learning how to walk first!
All of your goals can be achieved and on top of that, while you're reaching for your goals, your getting paid a decent wage and you do'nt have to pay for any of the training!!! Who could ask for anything better than that??? Unless you do'nt mind spending alot of money on your own!
My advice to you, from somone that was offered a teaching position at Tulsa Welding School when they opened their facility in Jacksonville, Florida, which I turned down because, I recieved a more convenient offer locally in Pittsburgh, PA, is to reconsider the Pipefitter's local offer because, the local Steamfitters as they're called here in Pittsburgh, have training facilities in all regions of the US that meet and surpass any of the schools that you have to pay for period!!!
Now do'nt expect Journeymans status immediately unless you have enough documented experience in man hours in order for them to justify granting you that status. Besides, like anything else, they'll find something that is a requirement to achieve (yes, you have to work for it) Journeymans status that you may need training in to meet their standards...

If I were you I'd take another look! Buono Fortuno!

Respectfully,
SSBN727 Run Silent... Run Deep!!!

I've been using a $30US used 240 volt ac electric kitchen range for low hydrogen SMAW electrode reconditioning and 250 degree F storage. Works fantastic, used a second set of oven racks bent on a brake to look like a "W" and set on the rack with the wires 90 degrees to the first rack. Built a sheet metal box and put on the burner top to catch the exhaust heat for the rutile and cellulose electrodes. The temperature is about 70-80 degrees F and doesn't melt the spools of GMAW and FCAW wire. Electrodes are kept dry and rust free.
A second tip, If all welding is being done from a weld table or fixture, weld a 1/2" bolt to the side or bottom of a weld table and put a 6 to 10 foot length of weld cable with a work clamp. Set the material/project on the table. Bolt the machines work clamp cable lug to the table and position out of the way to avoid tripping. Use the second clamp to provide an "arc strike" free connection. Don't use the table to provide continuity 'cause the arc strikes make a hard brittle spot that could crack when stressed.
Also for bevel groove pipe welds fabricate with a three legged copper device to make contact directly to the bevel face. I use a 1/4" copper flat bar bent 90 degrees to a vee to straddle the pipe and insulate it with tire inner tube and rubber electrical tape where it makes contact. The flat bar has a 1/2" hole drilled or silver braze a weld cable lug for a work cable lug to be bolted to. The third leg is a 1/4" copper rod (old oxy-fuel cutting and welding tips work great) silver soldered/brazed on the vee. The rod is sharpened to a point. This point is set on the pipe bevel face. A rubber tarp strap holds this work clamp tight against the pipe. You can make up various sizes of the three legged work connections to fit various pipe diameters. For GTAW 1/2 -1 1/2" diameter 0.030-0.045" thin wall chrome-moly 4130 tubing they are pretty small. They will carry less than 100 amps.

JRA: From where I sit you have 26-1/2 years experience. During your 25 years of welding you made some contacts. Network with them. Read the post by CHGuilford when he responds back to SRW2506 on the subject "who backs up the CWI". That is some good stuff! I think it applies in every field where sombody strikes an arc. If you had a good reputation as a welder, they'll love you as an Inspector. Good luck!