Welding porn

[ieezitin]

Rockerbilly ....I would respectfully disagree with your assessment.

First of all I don’t see any undercut, and even if there was a slight trough on this weld shown it certainly would be easy to get rid of with a half-round file to pass the inspectors visual, his cap looks perfect height which meats spec 1-1/2 wire size.
Field welding (I know this example is not a field weld) will always challenge you and will inevitably produce an undercut and cheats are employed.

As long as wall thickness is not compromised to a degree this shown weld would pass, certainly inspection specs are allowed for variables all left up to the inspector, so it's down to a individuals personal view on how he see the world, you said yourself " fail above a certain requirement" which also means below a certain requirement, hence the variance.

You said "While the surface ripples are really pretty they are, theoretically at least, welding flaws in their own right. As a welding inspector it's really easy to pass work like this and you'll rarely cop heat over it, but it's not right just cause it's pretty" again your view. Free hand welding will never remove the ripples produced by it; it's also not against spec.

You said " Also the fact that you don't see the starts n stops is because the colours are all mixed up there so they are out of shot." This weld was done on a rotary table, agreed he probably hid his stop 180 deg from the camera angle, he may have had a fish-eye but he could have held the cup with gas over it and eliminated it.

I worked in nukes for 15 years, you know as well as I do running XXXH wall pipe on 1250lbs steam corrosive weldment joints on pipe will no way effect the service life and integrity the of pipe and system, 'FAC' rips out all fittings and joints after 60% service life, I know Europe and the USA have the same policy.

Why would the original welder of the welds shown have the joints "passivated" he just showed off his weld.
No offence intended here just an observation..
 
Anthony.

[Rickabilly]

I composed a long reply but have shelved it, in it's place just this;
As a weld inspector I have been pulled over the coals for defending showboat work, I love it,

But, I now realise it has no place in industry where clean, smooth easy to test welds prevent failures and make for higher profitability, Pretty just costs money for something no-one needs.

The comment about many Nuke welders not being able to do this, might be true but what an industrial weld is supposed to be, is what they do and it's a hard sweaty uncomfortable world they perservere through each day.

So lets look at these welds for what they are, really pretty, but ultimately without a need and their prime flaw is that they have no use beyond a bit of ego boosting, they can't really even be done in an industrial environment as the nuke plant tends not to rotate around the guy with the torch.

I am no knocker but I do stand by my previous personal opinion,
Maybe Porn is the correct analogy It might look pretty on the surface but for your sake don't rely on it.

I fear we are coming from opposed camps, When I was a welder I hated inspectors, but as an inspector I didn't care who hated my opinion, I was there to keep us all safely employed.

Best regards
Rick

[ieezitin]

Rick.. 

Here we agree.... those welds cant be replicated in the field.. thats where the inspectors personal objective opinion comes into play applying the given specs.

Great topic and great discussion.

All the best..


Anthony