A Good One For The "Big List Of Excuses"

Date 04-04-2014 19:25

On one hand, he kinda sounds like my kid when I asked if he took out the garbage yet...always an excuse for not doing the work.

But on the other hand it is hard not to agree with you, he does have a point

We have steel plate welder training / testing cells here. This is a job mock up of a typical confined space and they are required to weld inside.
The welder is required to weld up his test plates inside the cell, with fresh air hoods, fans, confined space monitor, etc..
But we never had his switch hands though!

By Lawrence (*****)

Date 04-04-2014 19:38

One of my most "uncomfortable" professional moments was during a plant tour when I suggested the purchase of left handed welding guns.........

You can imagine how unfun it was to explain to my superiors that it was a joke after they instantly asked me what the ROI on these guns might be if we moved forward with purchase..

By ssbn727 (*****)

Date 04-05-2014 01:16 Edited 04-07-2014 08:49

As far as I know, I have never come across a WPS or PQR where it stated that the qualification was limited to the use of whatever hand the welder preferred to qualify with so your welder doesn't have anything such as precedent to substantiate his objection to welding with his weaker hand...

Many, many moons ago I was welding inside a submarine which one could argue is an entire confined space anywhere inside of it, and I was assigned to weld a joint the required for me to use my right hand which was not the hand I qualified with... I asked the CPO what to do and he told me without hesitation that if I couldn't weld the joint together with either hand to pack up and leave the boat to be reassigned and that was the end of that because I Found a way to weld with my right hand and succeeded in doing so quite nicely...

There were plenty of mock ups being used to see if the welder was capable of depositing sound welds in restricted locations throughout a boat of the type that was being built and two tests that I remember which did require the use of at least one mirror and a few nuclear restricted joints to qualify before being rated as a nuclear welder and similar tests were given to qualify welders @ GD's Electric Boat Division when I worked there back in the day... Boilermakers were and still are required to weld with either hand regardless of position, location and for the most part, environmental conditions!!! No excuse whatsoever and that's one of the differences between a welder and simply a rod burner - a lazy one at that IMHO!!! :yell:

Bottom line is where I welded for a considerable amount of time, one had to become proficient in using both hands in order to even be considered as qualified and as a journeyman mechanic that was paid mechanic wages as opposed to a failing apprentice's wage who would never earn mechanic wages by self restricting themselves to be capable of welding with only his/her preferred hand and probably be asked to do something else for a living... Because in the 40 years of my career not once did I encounter any place where one had to qualify with their weaker hand nor was there any training offered or given for the situation in question... Who knows! Maybe they're doing so nowadays.

Respectfully,
Henry

By ctacker (****)

Date 04-05-2014 01:32

That is not an essential variable. Someone who passes a welder qualification knows (or should know) what needs to be done to put down a decent weld, whether its with his left or right hand (or feet).

By Joey

Date 04-07-2014 08:42

I think he just want to be polite when saying he is not certified with his left hand :lol:

The welder has a valid reason by saying that he could not reach to weld them....
This problem should be addressed to Designer. One factor sometimes overlooked by designers is the matter of accessibility.

By Superflux (****)

Date 04-07-2014 13:00

I personally do not see left or right hand accessibility an issue. A true professional should have a basic grasp (pun?) of ambidexterity at the minimum.
The other side of the coin is; the majority of welders hold the stinger with electrode on the palm side of their hand. Since many whiners, uhm I mean welders are adamantly one hand only kinda people, then the grip could be reversed with the electrode towards their back of the hand side.
I'm sure it is out there (a mirror test?) but I've made a few mirror welds, even had to use two mirrors a couple of times (which is even weirder cuz the image is no longer reversed) yet have never been mirror tested/certified.
Accessibility (with adequate visibility) and ability are two completely different issues as I interpret it.

By ssbn727 (*****)

Date 04-07-2014 18:12 Edited 04-07-2014 18:17

I agree with you completely Superflux! :wink:

Many, many moons ago I was working for GD @ Electric boat in "Rotten" Groton, Connecticut as a shipyard welder... Back in the day, in order to become a welder/mechanic 3rd class, we had to qualify welding with a mirror w/magnet assembly and it was bend tested after passing VT... If you passed both, you were qualified but, the certification was EB's and you couldn't take it with you if you decided leave...

I remember that we had to get referred to the South yard welding school for a 2 week "vacation" from the Boats and without them knowing I was already qualified when I was in the service before going to work @ EB so, to me it was a vacation as were most of the other "vacations" I had when qualifying for this or that... :grin:

I mirror welded with 2 mirrors many times in many of the boats whether they be LA attack, Trident/Ohio boomers as a "hanger banger" and in some very unique locations and situations and repairing too many bad welds regardless of their location... Without the luxury of moving anything that was obstructing access or my view to the weld deposit or repair location... On a handful of occasions I welded with 3 mirrors and whether it was 1 or 3 mirrors, I always had an apprentice that would connect or disconnect my stinger lead to the welding cable I used that was strung into the boat from outside where the 8 or 12 packs (welding power sources) were located...

We later came up with an on off switch to power on & off the stinger (We used twist lock electrode holders) in order to position the electrodes properly just before ignition and to power off so that we could safely remove the "spent" stubs without leaving some nasty arc strikes that would ruin any job... I also came up with a rig that was an electrode holder attached by a clamping mechanism to a moveable elbow and telescopic arms for jobs that were too inaccessible and could not be reached with a broom handle alone...

It has been claimed that the conversion to modular new shipyard construction has virtually eliminated the need for "mirror" welding yet every now and then I'll see an advert for a mirror welder... Now that may be true about new construction but, repairs will always be needed after extended operations and they're not going to move stuff in order to access whatever needs to be repair welded... So it's a good bet that mirror welders are still in high demand @ the various shipyards in the USA as well as many power plants also.

Many, many times the use of my right hand was necessary to get the job done and if anyone refused to do so, they would lose their whatever class welder/mechanic status from that day on and become reclassified as a welder/apprentice until they could prove otherwise by welding everything, everywhere with which ever hand the was necessary to in order to complete the job ticket...

Because I was a leftie/southpaw, I was very much in high demands to perform repairs on the various boats so I was designated as a "rover" and I was well taken care of by the many supervisors I worked with especially after work when I caught up with them in one of the 2 bars that were next to the main gate with many complimentary rounds by them for getting the job done where many before me failed to do so but at least gave it their best shot in attempting to complete a critical repair weld or any number of pipe hangers that had to signed off by a certain date in order to stay on time with their schedules... Those days are long gone and I know that I could NOT do that type of work even if I was healthy @ my age but it was fun while it lasted! :grin:

Respectfully,
Henry

By js55

Date 04-07-2014 18:42

I think these types of qualifications are handled where they should be, outside of the Code. Although AWS has taken a step beyond the norm with the restrictor plate qual.