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Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / What is the Most Egregious Violation?
- - By Blaster (***) Date 01-16-2010 17:50
Catastrophic failures in the news always bring this topic to mind, for me.

What is the worst example of a code or procedure violation that:

1.  You have seen a welder or inspector attempt?

and / or

2.  That you have been asked or told to do yourself?
Parent - - By 3.2 Inspector (***) Date 01-16-2010 22:12
1 - Inspector: http://www.aws.org/cgi-bin/mwf/topic_show.pl?pid=160340;hl=

1 - Welder: Welders cooling (quenching) X20 welds with water "to make the job last longer" :)

2. Told to throw away some NDT reports, there where full of rejects, which would turn a large portion of the welds into a 100% RT

3.2
Parent - - By joe pirie (***) Date 01-16-2010 23:05
put a piece of rebar in the joint on a highpressure steam line to fill the gap lmao
no ididn't do it
Parent - By Blaster (***) Date 01-16-2010 23:16
Yikes!  That reminds me of a steam pipe explosion story that a former fireman who I work with told me. 

It was at a Rainier mill in WA.  The pipe ran above the door way of the break /  lunch room at the mill.  It exploded and cooked a bunch of guys alive who were inside.  Makes me sick to think about.
Parent - By ibeweldingsum (***) Date 01-16-2010 23:05
Just jam it together boy! you don't need no bead in that pipe. We got to go! Wastin time duin that sh!t. lets go lets go lets go!!! Turn "n" burn boy!!!
Parent - - By JohnJohn (**) Date 01-17-2010 01:03
The Chinese fabricating the new Bay Bridge will add some future posts to this thread.
Parent - - By up-ten (***) Date 01-17-2010 04:10
Rolling out some 4" for a mechanical company. After buffing the hot pass and getting set to cap, the foreman asked,"How many times are you gonna weld that joint?"  Guess they were used to the old timer who slammed everything together with one pass of JetRod and I quickly understood why they called him,"Bubbles". lol
Parent - - By joe pirie (***) Date 01-17-2010 06:41
Hot pass whats that lol . chilled water lines only bevel one pipe straight cut the other side beat your landing
on the bevel side with a single jack lol slam it together as tight as possible. you better geter done in two passes
no grinding allowed just burn over the slag lol  if you set your heat just right you burn the 1st pass with 1/8 5p+ downhill
scrape it with your file burn the 2nd pass with 5/32 5p+ at the same heat.  blow n go baby it's only gotta test to 100psi  lol lol
Parent - By up-ten (***) Date 01-17-2010 16:57
Well Joe if I was downhanding then I'd barely touch it with the wire wheel but procedure here calls for 5p+ root and 7018 all the way out.   Blow an go... I like that.lol
Parent - - By jrw159 (*****) Date 01-17-2010 14:24
http://www.aws.org/cgi-bin/mwf/topic_show.pl?pid=113675;hl=bogus%20inspector

I have had x-ray hands ask if I was the one that had the whiskey to insure that all shots passed.

Been offered whiskey and trips to the gentleman's clubs (NO I did not accept).

I have been run off for enforcing quality and safety procedures.

More "don't and say we did's" than I care to type out here.

And then there are a couple that I can not discuss as they are still in the legal works.

Oh, and as mentioned, the Bay bridge, much more to come on that one I fear.

jrw159 :-)
Parent - - By jeff parker (**) Date 01-17-2010 18:52
put a carbon root and hot in stainless and chrome to save money  on argon usage, and also patch a hydrolic leak on a stainless line with 5p+ because they did not have any stainless wire or rod on the job. I made the repair on the leak but told them to kiss my a$$ on putting the carbon roots in the chrome (main steam, gland steam and hot reheat) I have put a carbon root in some schedual 40 304 stainless junk pipe in a paper mill though lol what ever they want I guess.
Parent - By joe pirie (***) Date 01-17-2010 19:25
had a buddy working at a paper mill where they welded  a 2" carbon steel threadolet on a stainless 10" with 7018
on the main industrial water line for a hot  tap . right after they punched trut the pipe the weld olet ,valve and hot tap
equipt fell off the pipe lmao. when they finally found the main valve it wouldn't hold shut the whole plant down for
a couple of days. when they finally got the tie in done someone opened the main valve all the way all at once the
resulting water hammer ruptured the pipe in several places i wish i could have seen it lmao
Parent - - By Blaster (***) Date 01-17-2010 22:09
JRW - Reminds me of an inspector I worked with on a job some time back.  His name is Harvey.  Looked like he might have had some Phillipino or Hispanic blood in him.  I had a lot of respect for him as he was really good with UT and stood up to massive pressure on the job.

It was a big heavy structural steel job done primarly with Lincoln NR 232 and welds were failing left and right.  Lots of guys were run off the job.  Many were not familiar with the techniques to run that wire successfully.  Quite a few Boilermakes showed up on that job as the Ironworkers local was out of welders.  They didn't fare well at all either.

Regardless, I could never understand how a guy could get upset at an inspector for failing work that didn't meet the standard.  If some of the guys spent the time learing to weld correctly that they did making threats or *****ing about the inspector being "too picky" they probably wouldn't have had to worry about rejections in the first place.

Anyhow Harvey seemed to be catching everything.  I spent several months doing almost nothing other than fixing UT rejects... mostly problems in the top of the lower beam flange, the bottom of the top beam flange, or at the flange or web ends.  It appeared the other inspectors were not failing as many joints, but I think it may have been because they simply were not as good or thorough as Harvey with the UT equipment.

Guys thought Harvey was unnecessarly marking good welds.  But as I was tasked to repair them, I don't think that was the case.  I can't remember ever gouging into one and not finding a problem exactly were he indicated there was one.  He was just very good at his job.

He earned a huge amount of respect from me.
Parent - - By Paladin (***) Date 01-18-2010 02:52 Edited 01-18-2010 04:11
Years ago I worked on a new feed mill grain elevator. It was about 135 feet to the top and the only way up was a rung ladder or ride in the cement bucket lifted by the crane. The superintendent  asked me to build a personal carrier for the crane to lift. I made the frame out of angle and asked him what I should make the hook connection out of. He said use rebar. REBAR?

I was young and very green but I knew better than to risk my life or others life on welds to rebar. Did not do it! I figured out something else to make it out of. When it was finished no one  would ride in it. So the welder ( I did the fitting) and I hooked it up and rode it. I had the crane driver pick it up a bit and we jumped up and down to see if it would hold. We were both a little nervous and the welder asked , while we were in the air, if I thought he put enough weld on the key points. He was younger than I. I guess he did. I’m still here as of today.
Parent - By Robert48 (**) Date 01-20-2010 02:42
We have started building man baskets in house now and you would not belive the hassle it is. We had an engineer draw up a design and certify it. As always they want to cover there ass so the things are built with such a saftey factor and are so heavy it's unreal. They are rated for 1000lbs but I would trust my life in it with 10000lbs along side me.  PS: This design has no rebar.
Parent - - By bozaktwo1 (***) Date 01-19-2010 12:40
Knew a guy who, on the mid shift, ran out of wire and had a tiny bit left to go on one joint in a mock-up for a secondary cooling loop repair job, so he used a paper clip.  RT busted him out, and the guy lost all his quals and had to start fresh.
Parent - - By Superflux (****) Date 01-20-2010 05:13
Carpenters fabbed and Welded the personnel baskets. I was "meat on the hook" swinging around with a 290' boom Manitowok 4100 for probably 3 months in one. Looking back on it now with what I know and failures I've seen..........
That's scarrier than Rosie O'donnel in a bikini...without makeup.
Parent - By joe pirie (***) Date 01-20-2010 05:26
doing weld repairs on a storage tank in camp pendelton. after welding tank repairs had to be sandblasted inside of tank and painted with
a special two stage epoxy paint that had a very long lead time. Painters ran out of paint so they took a lid for a color match to frazee
paints  and finished the job with semi gloss enamel. at the time i thought it was very funny because the inspector was to fat to get in the manhole
to do a proper inspection and in the early 80's i was to young and stupid to realize the consequences
Parent - By ssbn727 (*****) Date 01-20-2010 07:36
That's one image I wish you didn't come up with for us to visualize John!!! :( :( :(

Now that's a funny story Joe!!! :) :) :)

Respectfully,
Henry
Parent - By pipewelder_1999 (****) Date 01-25-2010 17:26
Saw flame straightening of Duplex 2205 for to the extent that it blackened the other side of the 5/8" or 3/4" material. When I addressed this to the quality manager, he indicated he had talked to a metalurgist and there was no need to notify the customer. I left !

Saw in process welding of duplex with visible areas of non fusion being welded over. This was during patching of holes to be relocated. Welds were cut out but no corrective actiuon was ever addressed. The welder indicated it was a common practice. NOT ON MY WATCH!

Navy radiographers used tha same film 2x for one guys welder qual. They rejected both until I asked to see the film from both.
Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / What is the Most Egregious Violation?

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