Got an inspector buddy in Rifle, Co...........it's all good.
Show up, throw down some 5p and 70, and get out..........
Just a comment of two one the cost of qualifying a welder; what do you charge per day for welding?
How long did it take you to weld the coupon, and by the way, add the time it took you to set-up, etc., that is, include all the time that the test witness (he or she may have even been a CWI) was on-site to watch you weld. Then, once the coupon is welded, what happens to it? It doesn't get radiographed or cut and bent by its self.
If you use the lab's facilities, i.e., welding machine, test booth etc., someone has to pay for the capital investment, insurance (just in case you manage to cut your finger off with the grinder), etc. I stopped offering the welding machine, electrodes, a test booth, etc. It wasn't worth the time and trouble. Now, I go to the welder. He supplies his own machine, electrodes, grinder, etc. Now if the electrode isn't fresh, it's his problem. If the machine isn't running correctly, too bad, he should have bought a new machine. His garage is really, really cold in the winter and the roof leaks, oops, too bad.
It takes as much effort to test one welder as it does three or four. I charge by the day, not the test.
As a NDT Level III, I pay every five years to maintain my certifications, about $700. Every three years I have to send my money into AWS to maintain the SCWI status. It's a cost of being certified and a cost of doing business.
As a welder, your certification is valid as long as you maintain a continuity log. As for the customers that insist on recent certs, it's a cost of doing the work. If it isn't worth the cost of getting recertified to satisfy the project requirements, don't take the job. I used to tack it on to the project cost and pass it through to the customer as a line item. If they balked, they could waive the requirement or pay the expense. I had a valid certification that they could either accept or pay for the retest.
Let's face it; we're all cheap bastards. No one likes to pay out-of-pocket expenses. Well we're at it; the price of regular gas is down to $2.95 per gallon! Now, gas should be free just like the cost of welder qualification, NDT certification, hey, let's throws in free pickups to put the gasoline in while we're at it! Guys, I think we're on to something big here.
Best regard - Al
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