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It seems lately more than ever I've been getting a lot of clueless customers when it comes to welding. Just wonder if any of yall have any funny/good stories?
About once a week I have someone who wants me to weld aluminum to steel
Have customers want me to weld on their vehicles, when I warn them that paint will be damaged near the weldment from the heat they are amazed
Customers call me on rainy days and want me to weld outside
Had a guy the other day call who wanted me to weld a leaking kitchen piece. The only access to the leak was 1' x 2', the leak was several feet from the opening with piping running throughout making it impossible to reach. When I told him there was no way to get to the leak without dismantling the item he looked at me quizzically as if I had just told him some very complex riddle.
"Can you weld my glasses frame"? 30 something dingy neighbor lady across the street. "Why sure I can, but you're probably not gonna like 'em when I am done."
Chris
I welded my wife's titanium glasses frame when the hinge broke. 5A DCEP TIG on my Dynasty 200DX. Not the best results, but good enough to work until a replacement could be obtained. Gave the guy at the store a good laugh too.
Went to bid a "fence job" just yesterday. When I arrived, he proceded to show me his wooden privacy fence that had a gate falling down. It needed a track welded at the top but 90 percent of the job would have been replacing wood fence pickets and posts. I kindly referred him to the local privacy fence installer. But really? Who would call a welder to work on a wood fence? I guess I need to ask more questions before looking at some jobs!
By Cumminsguy71 
Date 04-21-2011 22:28
Edited 04-21-2011 22:36
Most of my stories are clients that suffer from homedepotitis. Price me out this handrail in the picture I took while in Europe. 36 custom built scrolls turned sideways in custom railing and when I told him the price you would have thought I just dropped my drawers in his dining room and dropped a loaf on his dinner plate! "That sounds really high". Told him 18 hours to build scrolls alone and that was my price. Funny, never heard from the guy again. Got a real good idea now for some tricked out handrail free of charge though!
Actually had a lady that wanted a "lifetime" handrail. 1-1/2" solid square jewel posts, 2-1/4" caprail with large lambs tongues and decorative fill balusters, can't quite remember what but it was pricy. When I gave her the price she said, "well they sell it at Loses and its only $xx". Told her that was great but she'd be regretting it in about 6 months when the stuff was falling apart. Drive past her house once in awhile and she still don't have handrail.
Yea same thing here (wood gate) pulled up and stood there a while shootin the breeze and I finally said well if you will show me the gate I will get started. He looked at me like I was crazy and said its right here get started. Hinges pulled out of the post, I welded a bolt to it put a nut on the back and said that will be 180.00. Then he started cussing me and I told him before I came out it was a three hour min.
Caleb thats a good one. I've had my fair share of them but my worst one was. I was working through a company, i was on a job and another job came in so they sent a helper to the boat to figure it out. i got finished on my job and the helper couldn't figure out how to fix the problem on the boat so they called me to fix it. when i get there the helper informs me the black water pipe is stopped up. i called my boss and told him that im not a fu***** plumber. he said you have to be able to fix anything,lets just say i couldnt figure it out. that was a long night and the next morning the boat captain called me, there was a valve turned OFF. I was pissed.
It didn't happen to me, but my father told me the story of an executive that cussed him out because it took so long to respond to his problem.
Let's start at the beginning. My father was an electrician at a very large manufacturer in New England (he's now retired). His department was called by the irate executive because his computer wasn't running. My father's boss told him to go take a look at the damn computer so the fella would stop calling them.
My father protested saying that he was an electrician, not a computer geek. He told his boss he didn't know the first thing about computers!
The boss said to go up to the office and take a look anyway. The executive was all ticked off because no one had shown up to see what the problem was.
The executive offices are actually in a different city, so my father had to drive over to the "mansion" to see what the problem was. As he tells it, "the floors were covered with thick white carpeting, so I took off my dirty work boots so I wouldn't leave stains on the nice white carpet." He told the secretary he was there to take a look at the computer that was giving the executive headaches.
The secretary said she was very happy to see him because the executive had been a bear for the last couple of days because the computer wouldn't work.
My father went into the executive’s office where upon the executive let loose complaining how it was impossible to get good help that knew their butt from a hole in the ground. Trades people were overpaid high school drop-outs that didn't deserve to be employed!
Now, my old man was never one to take much BS from anyone, but he managed to bite his lip. As he looked over at the computer he saw the problem. "You have a point sir, I don't have the college education you have and I profess not to know much about these new fangled computers, but I would think that a person with your intelligence would know enough to check to see the plug was plugged in to the wall socket." He plugged the machine in, turned it on, put his work boots back on and walked out of the office leaving his dirty foot prints on the nice white rug as a reminder that he knew enough to plug the new fangled machine in.
Best regards - Al
Referring to plumbing jobs, I get calls all the time from customers who want pipes to be "sweat welded". I always tell them to call a plumber. They always seem shocked and annoyed that I can't "sweat weld"
By Cumminsguy71
Date 04-27-2011 11:42
Edited 04-27-2011 11:44
Shoot, charge your mobile rate and sweat the copper. I was running chiller pipe and when we had the pumps and pipe done the mechanical company asked if I could sweat copper, told them there was always a first time. Had 36 units to run copper to with valves. Think I got another month of work out of them fitting and sweating copper.
Oh, and the only leaking joint was one the plumber did! LoL!
i got a call from one of our lead operators asking me if i knew how to access the programming for one of our robots (it was used for tig welding a part to a rocket motor) i had spent a lot of time with this robot and knew that there was no way in hell that it need reprogramming. so i go talk to the Mechanical engineer that was trying to access the robot, he told me that the machine wouldn't start the weld so the robot must need reprogramming. so i take a look around the side of the blast wall to where the welding machine was sitting
someone had turned the power off
BTW they had the line down for 8 hours over this issue they had 12 operators standing around for 8 hours
This didn't happen to me but to my older brother. He was lead welder in the repair shop of a trailer manufacturer in our area, one day a guy in a suit driving a caddy pulled up at the bay doors of the shop, my brother walked out to see what he needed, the guy informed him he was a close friend of the prez of the company and the prez said the repair shop could fix this guys son's bicycle that he backed over that morning. My brother took the bike out of the trunk the weld between the top frame rail and the neck tube was broken. My brother ground out the weld tweeked the tube back into place and ran a bead on it, here is where it gets interesting. My brother then carries the bike out with his gloves on since the weld was obviously still hot. The guy asked him, "How long does it take for the glue to dry?", my brother told him "oh, it's dry right now" before he could stop the guy he touched the weld to see for himself, my brother said the look on his face and the squeal worm that exited his butt was well worth the trouble of doing a "buddy-buddy" repair for the upper management.
We get a variation of that one all the time..."How long do I need to let that weld cure?"
Have a Great Day, Brent
Many years back I worked at a shop in Farmington NM that built Semi Tankers. Most of our work was aluminum so the shop is well known for high quality aluminum fab and repair. One morning a VERY cute cowgirl showed up with a brand new aluminum horse trailer and the back door was falling off. The shop Forman was looking at the trailer in the bay next to me and I was obviously distracted by this cute cowgirl so I was making myself look busy standing by my toolbox. The Forman tells the girl how we can fix the problem by welding in a 6" gusset for the hinge and outlines how the repair pieces will be welded on as a visual for the lady to see. She stepped back her mouth dropped open and said...That is 6"??? Her hand then went over her heart like she was losing her breath and then she said... Are you sure that is 6"...
There was silence in the shop as everyone else was doing just like I was, then we all burst into laughter as this poor girls face turned BEAT RED! Forman yells out... Back to Work!!!
I know everyone has heard the 6" jokes. But I can tell you one thing for certain. Some cowboy in New Mexico is either hung like a hamster or a horse!
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