Some companies/inspectors require the branch to be laid out. You need a Blue Book and a roll of adding machine tape. My procedure when I test a welder is to allow the cutting and trimming at what ever height the welder feels comfortable with. The tacks have to be in the quarters. Once the branch is tacked up the throat has to be set at 18 inches. No more no less. Bead must be full penetration. Once the welding begins,, the welder can grind the starts and stops. After running the bead, the bead can be ground, then the hot pass applied. That is when I look at the bead. Any IP, not your day. Blow through, sorry. Arc burn, gone. Bead and hot pass run with 5/32. Fillers and cap with 3/16. You don't get your gap right, you are never gonna get that five in there. Oh yea, you get grinder marks on my pipe, gone. I have never found a welder who can pass this test who cannot weld or who ever disappointed me. Three times in my career I have cut a spark idiot a break on the branch. Every time, I got bit. When it comes to testing, I dont care if your youngest son has an incurable diseases, that your momma is in a state mental hospital and you need money to get her out, or that you are dying of cancer and need money for treatment, I love that one, (just a few of the corkers I have heard over the years). A pipeline branch test separates the men from the boys. I have never has a company man tell me to lighten up. I dont like test booth queens.
BABRT's