A Little Welder Humor:  Now I don't know if this story is true but here's how it was told to me as a green helper working with an experienced, hard working, conscientious pipe welder I spent some time learning from many years ago early in my career.  A pipeline welder in Wyoming down on his luck, recently cleaned out in a divorce and down to his last few bucks tests in for a job.  The Inspector, who'd never struck an arc in his life but had a piece of paper that certified his unquestionably superior knowledge of every single nuance and apect of the trade, took a look at the welders coupon on the test jig, gave it a real good Nose F*cking and decides to look him out.  The two argued to no avail.  The welder, inscensed and outraged at having good work rejected went home to his worn out trailer, got his Remington 30.06 and came back to the jobsite and shot that Inspector right through the face.  The welder took the coupon to a test lab, had it Xrayed and certified as a correctly performed to code weld.  He offered the test report as evidence in his trial and was acquited.

Like I said, I don't know if the story is true, but I've run into a couple of Inspectors over the years that seemed a little too full of themselves, a little too willing to critisize non-critical imperfections- [You're gonna have to crawl back up in that ratnest pipe rack and repair that 1/32" undercut on the outside shoulder of that no pressure water drain 2" socket mirror weld I saw up there] considerably too inexperienced in the real world of construction to be taken as seriously as they take themselves and just green enough that when I tell them the story related above with a completely straight face, lookin them right in the eyeballs on the punchline I've noticed a slight draining of blood from their faces and a more reasonable approach to weld inspection criteria therafter.  Not sayin it was the smartest thing to do, but sometimes a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do.

All that told, I've met some truly great CWIs through the years who've taught me a lot, were great to work with, were true professionals and knew how to get the job done.  But Joe, seriously, be careful f**kn with some welders, you know they have to be half crazy to ever get in this trade to begin with.