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Up Topic Welding Industry / Inspection & Qualification / Inspection hall of horrors
- - By Arctic 510 (**) Date 07-23-2009 22:35
This thread was suggested, so I figured I'd start it. 

What was the biggest oops, miss, mistake, or bad call you've made?  What happened as a result?

What are some of the worst calls you've seen or heard of being made?

What was the costliest (correct) call you've made or have seen made? 

I'm only a bit over a year as an inspector, so I really haven't had time to make any really good or really bad calls.  I did miss five cellphone calls (slept right through them) the other day while contractors held an earlier-than-expected hydro on a new vessel for me to witness.  Held up the job for just under four hours.  I was a popular guy that day. 
On the same day, I had welders pull a spool of piping that they had fought all day to install because the replacement had not been hydrotested (the people involved "waived" the hydro without consulting the inspection dept. because they didn't order blinds or spare gaskets to hydro).  It was the right call, as the service and consequence of failure made this hydro a must, but two welders were a bit upset.
Parent - By walkthecup Date 07-23-2009 22:56
Here's a story about the worst I've heard of: http://www.dailypress.com/business/dp-biz_welds_0718jul18,0,6716881.story
Parent - - By CWI555 (*****) Date 07-24-2009 13:03
(1)"What was the costliest (correct) call you've made or have seen made?  "
People have to be careful with that one. Usually there are disclosure agreements involved with projects that can have calls costing 100K or more.
They can state the estimated dollar value, but not the specifics for that reason. The personal cost is also associated with this. Calls that get into the 6, 7, 8, and in rare cases 9-10 figures tend to be associated with people being added to the RAMFO list, lawsuits, the potential for or actual major disasters, and attempts on your life depending on the dollar amount and number of jobs in jeopardy or lost due to the call.

As for this one,
(2)"What are some of the worst calls you've seen or heard of being made?"
There usually going to be associated with the first one listed.

(3)Usually the bad call part is associated with an inspectors early career. One to many bad calls has this nasty habit of effectively ending an inspectors career, or at best severly retarding it.

In short, your questions are touchy ones.
Parent - - By Shane Feder (****) Date 07-24-2009 14:10
Gerald,
From a naive welding inspector from the southern hemisphere- what does RAMFO mean ?
I think I know what the FO stands for but RAM ?
Cheers,
Shane
Parent - By CWI555 (*****) Date 07-24-2009 18:40
Run A M*** F***** off
RAMFO
Parent - - By jrw159 (*****) Date 07-24-2009 18:46
Past tense would be ROMF = Run Off Mother f******. :-)
Parent - - By BryonLewis (****) Date 07-24-2009 19:07
No John,
Past tense would be MFRO Mother F***** Ran Off
The PC for would be:  PWWHSRWTOMRAP   Person With Whom Has Sexual Relations With Their Own Mother Run Away Please

Boy, its been a long day, if I came up with something like that.  :-)
Parent - - By CWI555 (*****) Date 07-24-2009 19:10
I forgot, the powers that be in AWS forum have declared this to be a politically correct forum.
So much for free speech and expression.

I stand corrected. Thanks Bryon.
Parent - - By BryonLewis (****) Date 07-25-2009 11:20
Its their Forum and their Rules.  Like it or not AWS is a business and their business is WELDING (hence their name).  :-)
I can understand their standpoint on this matter.  It makes them look bad if new people, students, kids and other welding business entities come on here and see the sort of crap that has gone on.  Especially the comment in question.

There is a fine line between Freedom of speech and ignorance of speech.  So I understand the delimma that they (AWS) is facing with this, 1) Maintaining a place where we can get together, albeit on the Internet, to discuss welding related issues, as well as how bad or good Liberals are (that's me) :-).  And 2) Maintaining the image of the AWS in the public eye.  Eventhough the market is relatively small, there still must be an image protection.

Anyways, I gotta get to work.  Besides, you still have gunbroker.com.  :-)
Maybe I'll go there and stir the kettle!!!!!
Parent - - By CWI555 (*****) Date 07-25-2009 12:24
Even the ignorant has or had freedom of speech. Maybe someday when your speech gets you jailed you'll understand that.
Parent - - By BryonLewis (****) Date 07-25-2009 12:40
Freedom of speech, as with other freedoms have been twisted.  There are certain things that should be left to ones own mind or a bar room with the good 'ole boys.  The freedom to say anything you want, whenever you want is not an absolute right.  There are cultural, moral and ethical norms that SHOULD be utilized and a certain aspect of descency exercised.

The actions of the "powers that be" are not out to take away anyone's freedom of speech and the stores that post the "NO WEAPONS" signs are not out to desecrate the somewhat abused 2nd Amendment.  They are watching out for the image and reputation of their property.  Whether its an online Forum or a boutique on Rodeo drive.....well it is what it is.
Parent - By CWI555 (*****) Date 07-25-2009 21:32
Eventually you will learn bryon. Say as you will, but history is behind me. Those who protest against the voice of opposition will inevitably find themselves silenced just as they once silenced those they didn't agree with before. Freedom of speech and expression is either there for all, or an illusion for all. Remember that in the future when you find yourself on the other end of that stick.
Parent - - By Arctic 510 (**) Date 07-24-2009 16:40
I never asked for anyone to violate any agreements or break the law here.  Inspectors (like it or not, I'm just being honest) are sometimes notorious for being perfect in their own minds, I just figured we could relax, be honest, and tell some war stories that may benefit some of us less experienced fellows.  I am sure by the way, if I had titled this the hall of glory, the thread would have been packed with replies already. 

Responding isn't mandatory.  I know this may be touchy, as you put it.  That's half the fun.  If we can be honest and share experiences without breaking contracts or whatever, well, that's my intent here.
Parent - - By CWI555 (*****) Date 07-24-2009 19:08
Declaring in an open forum how much money you've cost someone or company, or how many jobs you've cost smacks to much of arrogance to me.
None of the long term inspectors on this site, or any other will have gone their career without at least a 6 figure call, if not a 7-10. It's not something to brag about or pride yourself on in my opinion.
When you do make a call like that, you damn well better be right and you cannot be sure it is the right call if your to arrogant/ignorant to listen or learn something new.

I don't think the thread would be packed either way, I would not have volunteered what I've written already if there was not a point to make with it, and I believe the other long term inspector welders would see it the same way.
Am I perfect? far from it, no more perfect than anyone else who've ever posted here.

Regards,
Gerald
Parent - - By Arctic 510 (**) Date 07-24-2009 19:48
If you or any "long term" (or heck, even us lowly "short term" inspectors) inspectors feel contributing to this thread is inappropriate, don't.  Let it die. 

No one is asking for names or dollars.  I -being a short term inspector- (you referred to "long term" inspectors twice, length of term must be important) am only looking for instances where diligence prevented a mistake, or lack of dillegence/experience caused one.

I respect the opinions of you and others.  If your opinion leads you to remain silent, I won't fault you for that.  Out of curiosity, do you feel the two instances I mentioned in my opening posts were inappropriate or arrogant?  Jeez, that type of stuff is all I'm really looking for.  Lighten up!
Parent - - By CWI555 (*****) Date 07-24-2009 20:16
I believe you've take my post wrong.

There is no such thing as a "lowly" inspector. Don't let that stop you from posting. You asked I answered, it may not be the answer you were looking for, but it's my answer, others may see it differently.
In the last few years, I've had the good fortune to get into training weld inspectors. So far I've trained a little over 300 of them and find I learn something from every group.
Parent - - By Arctic 510 (**) Date 07-24-2009 20:38
I think I did take your post wrong.  I apologize and thank you for your input!
Parent - By michael kniolek (***) Date 07-24-2009 22:05
Early one morning when I pulled into the lot sitting in the yard was a fully loaded 50 foot flat bed truck.
A whole job  of bridge bearings that we shipped months ago! So the first thing I do is tear open  the plastic cover we put on for protection, and I couldn’t believe my eyes  The Mud caked and packed into every crevice of the bearing in some cases it was easily up to ¼ inch.
I get the paperwork from the driver but no info there.
I guess you could imagine the feeling I had waiting for the rest of the business world to wake up and start so I could find out what happened.
Well the calls came and this is what happened ………
years back remember the floods in Pennsylvania well the on site Storage  area was near a river.
When the area flooded the bearings were covered in Muddy Muddy water.
And every knows its difficult to do things right the first time
So imagine the pain of  disassembling cleaning reassembling a whole job.
We did get paid well for the emergency turnaround.
Parent - - By CHGuilford (****) Date 07-26-2009 02:51
I think the worst mistakes I have made is trying to be a nice guy and not hurt feelings.  And sad to say I have repeated that mistake many times and always see the same results.

One time I witnessed a welder testing for a bridge repair being done out in the "williwacks". 3G and 4G 1" thick.  He tried all day and a lot of people were angry with me because I wouldn't let him grind (wouldn't have helped anyway).  The client wasn't happy with me because I allowed it to run all day and should have shut it down sooner.  And he was right.

And I've done that a few other times in other circumstances because I dreaded giving the bad news, or didn't want to be viewed as "reject happy".  It never was the wise thing to do.

It's OK to hold off long enough to go double check the books on something you're not sure about - but results of an inspection, good or bad, should not be delayed in hopes of finding better news.  Bad news never gets better.  Someday I might remember that.
Parent - By michael kniolek (***) Date 07-27-2009 21:00
Being a "Nice" guy is never good, no procedure on being a Nice guy.
I always go into the serious problems with a "Could you explaine to me what you,ve done" and "lets check the proceedure" attitude, .
Although, I Know what it is that's wrong, i encourage the welder / machinist to humor me, and walk me through the process untill they point out the mistake to themselves.
then i say ok, thats why i was confused i didnt know if you set ..so and so ...or machined this or that ...for a reason.
consistancy is important, i like to think when i inspected everyone knows what to expect, and thats..... in tolerance = accept.
MDK
Parent - - By 3.2 Inspector (***) Date 07-28-2009 17:36
7 figures, we are soon due in court :) (the contractor went bankrupt because of it)

3.2
Parent - - By Bill M (***) Date 07-28-2009 19:21
I was working for this x-ray lab.  They hired a new guy who seemed pretty sharp.  The new guy was assigned to work at a pipeline station job.  Well, about a month goes by, and my boss asked me one day to stop by and check out his work.  Boss was proud of this guy cuz, he really was cranking out the work too.  I started randomly going thru the big stack of film he had piled up.  Everything looked pretty good too.  I mean it, he had good sensitivity, good density, darn nice shots.  One film though, I noticed this squiggly little arc strike on the side of a weld, kinda wierd lookin', but didn't pay much attention.  Raised an eyebrow when I saw it again a few welds later, then one more time.  I got kinda curious, and started over at the top of the pile of film.  Well, you know what..I saw that same darn squiggly little arc strike again...  and again....and again.  I'll be danged, that welder made that exact same perfectly identical arc strike on at least 20 welds!

Heck-No wonder he was producing more radiographs that anyone else!
   
All the pipe was buried by now too.

Well, I told the boss about it, and you know what...the next day they let him go! 

Months later... he went out to this Nuclear Power plant job out East somewhere, he even called to brag about making big cake shootin' welds out there.

Funny, A few years later these two serious looking guys in black suits with business cards that have only three big letters "FB&I" stopped by at the same testing lab just to visit me.  They were want'in to ask me questions about this same guy!  Well, I told them the same story and they seemed pretty interested cuz they took lots of notes.

Later on, I heard he wasn't working at that power plant anymore.  In fact, i heard he was wearin' a funny colored jump suit ...and had lots of free time!

(unfortunately, true story)
Parent - By Arctic 510 (**) Date 07-28-2009 19:42
Ouch!
Parent - By michael kniolek (***) Date 07-28-2009 23:11
Not good
Up Topic Welding Industry / Inspection & Qualification / Inspection hall of horrors

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