Its difficult because of the union. With out getting to elaborate the company gets forced to either offer their job back, or is forced to pay the employee in exchange for their resignation. At all the non union shops this isn't an issue at all, but over where I am at it happens all the time. There have even been some seriously unbelievable instances where people got hurt intentionally and the company had to buy off their resignation to get rid of the problem employee.

The reason they state they use this practice is so that they have a shelf to keep their weld from drooling out when they are putting in multiple passes. They claim it allows the passes to blend into each other better creating a smoother weld face on large multiple passes. The wire we use welds with a convex profile on the weld face. If you turn up the heat on it to where I previously used to run the same sized core wire at other shops it causes severe undercut. Most of these guys run it to hot and install uneven toe welds that if you try to weld over them they explode every so often. As far as a good welder being able to do this and not get inclusions... I may have only met 2 in my experience that could potentially do this, but even then they would refuse to compromise their integrity to take a short cut. All the welds we weld are in the flat. 1F and 1G. It really doesn't get much easier than this. If it did they would hit a button and a robot would do it for them. I personally have never heard of the practice being acceptable ever with exception to welding over a 6011 pass with 7018. I didn't know if they have created a wire that would make this practice acceptable?  

There are jobs at this shop like most that are "rush" jobs but the work environment is majorly relaxed. Even if the job is "hot" the management doesn't go out and lean on anyone or start yelling to get it done. Every welder has the opportunity to take their time and do it the right way the first time.

The pic below is how the guy who claims to be the "Best welder" in the shop thought was an acceptable way to fix a weld that was both undersized and lop sided. I got to arc this mess out and install it properly.

Thanks for the advice. I can when I get my copy of D1.1, but that won't be until the seminar starts.

I understand what you mean as far as words. These guys tend to form cliques with like minded welders so they have more than just themselves to try to argue for how they weld.

I have been doing what I can to get ready for the test. Anything helpful to look at and study will always be appreciated. My main point of concern is the code book itself. I have never had the opportunity to look through one much less read what was contained in it.