this is my first post on this forum and by way of an introduction although i'm not sure if this is the right place for it. i'm a maint welder in a large detention facility on the island next to lga airport. before that i was a structural ironworker and before that i worked in a fab shop. right now i'm mostly a stick welder but use a 110 mig welder on occasion for light jobs or to get into a tight or inaccessible spot that i can't bring my 500+ lb  40 year old idealarc. recently there were some changes to the nyc dept of buildings welder's license renewal which i'm sure most of you already know about. flash back to this past june when i had to shell out over 800 bucks to take the aws d1.1 structural test which i did and passed. a couple months later the dob reverses itself and now says anyone holding a nyc welder's license will NOT have to take the practical test to renew and to please send in 65 dollars for your brand new welder's license with no class designation. the only good thing about this whole episode is i got to meet a great guy who owns a testing facility nearby on long island. he was a con edison welding inspector and was very knowledgable. i'm looking forward to learning a few things here and maybe i can pass on some of the little i learned in 41 years of welding.