CWI Part B

By pipewelder_1999 (****)

Date 07-25-2003 04:23

1)In my experience as a welding inspector I have had to use micrometers to measure tube/pipe wall thicknesses. It is also used to measure the dimensions for reduced section tensile specimens.

2) I have always used the major size of the discontinuity unless instructed otherwise.

3) Try this http://www.dot.state.ga.us/dot/construction/materials-research/Documents/ppt/vis_inspect/sld047.htm or http://www.weldinginspectionsvcs.com/FilletWeldgage.htm

Hope this helps

G Austin

By gcherny44 Date 07-26-2003 18:55

Hi SMshaler,

If you know the closed book and the open book as you say, then I would take the practical seminar with AWS or with someone who teaches for the AWS examination. Part B isn't really that hard if you attend a one day seminar.
The micrometer can be used on the tensile speciman which is on the practical exam. The caliper s can also be used. In 21 years as a senior inspector and as a Certified Welding Inspector, I've never used a micrometer in the field.
For porosity, I measure the widest section, if that's the proper way to say it. On the test, you should have no problem. The holes are pretty well defined.
As for the fillet weld gauge, well, you are measuring the width of the face, rrom toe to toe of the weld. You still have to use the correct gauge after you determine if the weld is concave or convex.
I still recommend the one day seminar on the practical. Part B of the exam is the one that most individuals have a hard time with.
Know the procedure for PT and MT, the yokes. You will also need to look at three or four RT's (radiographs) to determine the indication.
I hope this helped some. Does anyone else out there have anything to add, or, correct me if I'm wrong.

By DavidP66 (*)

Date 07-31-2003 19:40

I have heard the same thing. With a lot of people failing the part B. For me, my instructor told me to just plain "inspect and report". Never mind how many rejects, or accepts there are. In my case i think i rejected almost everything in my part B and ended up with a score of 43 out of 45. And keep an eye out on the tools. Some will be metric and some will be SAE. You need to know the conversions. The questions are not hard, they just make sure you are able to use the tools correctly and can follow specs. As mentioned from above posts. Make sure you know your NDE stuff. Know all there is to know about it in the book. Methods, Processess.....Be sure to calibrate all your tools first. Some are purposly preset off of 0 to see if they can catch you. And make sure the Vernier Calipers are good ones. The pair i had were cheap plastic and i would often come up with different measurements 2 or 3 times in a row. So double and triple check everything. You have 2 hours to complete it.

Good luck
David.

Be a real man and take the test with AWS D1.1 in the code section JK :)

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 07-31-2003 20:14

Shawn,
You know I was told before I went that like David said lots of rejections and several will be right on the edge of rejection by the code they supply. So, I went into this looking for porosity that measured .374" when .375 is rejectable. I didn't find any questions like that at all. All of mine were very much acceptable or rejectable. I did notice as David said the tools were very cheap and the dial calipers were way off and I had to zero them before starting. Some of those sample welds you will say no way i'd let that go, but you must remain objective and go by the code. If the code says it is acceptable then accept it and visa versa. Hey don't sweat over it too much, you'll have plenty of time to finish this part. It's the other parts that will eat up your time if you don't move along with the answers you know and come back to the ones you aren't sure of. The NDT parts were fairly easy, I thought, but I've been in NDT for a while and was somewhat familiar with most of the methods of testing. Know your UT and RT, I had several questions about these methods. For MT, they had a picture of a MT yoke and the question was "what is it?".
Anyway, they have about six different tests that they hand out in your testing room, so don't try to cheat, you'll only cheat yourself. In the "Hands on" part they issue a test kit, all of the peices of that kit have serial numbers on them and you have to put all this info at the top of your test.
Maybe this will give you an idea of what to expect,
John Wright

By MBlaha

Date 08-11-2003 17:30

I found it easier to use the 6" straight ruler to measure the perosity. I also used the magnifying glass and the light they provide you with to measure perosity and undercut. I did not use the micrometer for any of the part b. As stated previously, the samples are quite defined and not really close enough to have to make decisions on.

Bear in mind that you have to use the practical examination Part B booklet they provide you with for acceptance criteria. Do not count on your memory for any part of this test when referencing criteria.

Mike