General welding questions that dont fit in TIG, MIG, Stick, or Certification etc.
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Hi everyone.

I believe that i have discovered what it means to know frustration.

When you lay down an absolutely killer tig run (or other weld) and the only purpose it serves is to repair a crappy ass robot/automatic weld or some one elses crap. And most likely will be ground off anyway. GRRRRRRRRRRR :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

What do you other people think?

Mick
delraydella
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That is truly frustrating..........how about having to fix things that someone else made that is making twice as much as you are and doesn't know sh** from Shinola...that's frustrating too!

I've been in show business for 30 years now, and I can't count the number of nights I've stayed up because the director or producer just has to have this one piece built and they need it first thing in the morning......only to find out in a few days that it wound up on the cutting room floor or got struck from the show altogether. I would guess that more than half the stuff I've built for shows has never been seen by the public...that can be frustrating. Especially when they want to make you wait 120 days to get paid for what you built! :x


Steve
WeldingSyncrowave 250,Millermatic 252,30a Spoolgun Cutting12" Hi-speed Cutoff Saw, 9x 12 Horizontal Bandsaw MillingGorton 8d Vertical Mill TurningMonarch EE Precision Lathe GrindingBrown & Sharpe #5 Surface Grinder
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Hi,

Steve, Those are few very good examples of frustration. i know how you feel with the one about the person who gets paid more wrecking things. Best example ive seen was a mid level workshop supervisor who couldnt stop talking about how good he was. Well he ended up with 99 repairs on an NDT. So much for 35 bucks an hour.

Mick
rankamateur
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Everything I build goes to fire/rescue training...firemen can destroy anything. Good for job security, not good for making you feel good about your work.
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Then again,

If it take a trained professional to destroy it...

:D

Steve
RedIron881
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Hey Mick,

Another thing that really gets me going is I worked in a sheet metal shop for a few years. They would be all over me about taking a extra 15-30 minutes on a part while other guys were doing them at rate or a little under. But, the kicker is my parts were well within tolerance (+/-.020) so when I was done, the part was done. With the other parts our QC guy would spend 1-2 hours, per part, qualifying the other welders parts.... Why are they on me for making perfect parts that take a tad longer and not getting on the other guys that are costing the company hours and hours??? They would scrap out pallets of parts so out of tolerance it wasn't funny but heaven for bid I take a extra 20 minutes... So they get 7 perfect parts a day out of me and not 8-9 crap ones. To top it off I wasn't allowed to help any other welders make better parts because I was doing them a different way then the supervisor wanted. Needless to say I'm happy to longer be working there... Ha ha!!
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Hey,

Thats a real case. mine is not as bad as that but I do prefer putting out quality over quantity.

Mick
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RedIron881 wrote:Hey Mick,

Another thing that really gets me going is I worked in a sheet metal shop for a few years. They would be all over me about taking a extra 15-30 minutes on a part while other guys were doing them at rate or a little under. But, the kicker is my parts were well within tolerance (+/-.020) so when I was done, the part was done. With the other parts our QC guy would spend 1-2 hours, per part, qualifying the other welders parts.... Why are they on me for making perfect parts that take a tad longer and not getting on the other guys that are costing the company hours and hours??? They would scrap out pallets of parts so out of tolerance it wasn't funny but heaven for bid I take a extra 20 minutes... So they get 7 perfect parts a day out of me and not 8-9 crap ones. To top it off I wasn't allowed to help any other welders make better parts because I was doing them a different way then the supervisor wanted. Needless to say I'm happy to longer be working there... Ha ha!!
I know this frustration. The sheet metal shop I work at builds a ton of big water tight aluminum cabinets. They are really fun to do some of them are 6 foot by 6 foot with over a 120 welds on them. But the frustrating thing is my company doesn not believe in cleaning the material and after in comes from the turret punch press and grinding to get the beveling put in it these things get really nasty. So I starting cleaning my parts with a solvent to remove all the crap, so I would not risk get porosity and then have to re weld it after the welds get ground off. Well that all went fine until I had to go to day shift for a week to fill in becuase the day shift guy quit and they freaked when they saw me cleaning the parts. The funny thing is, is that I can still double the rate and triple all the other guys production and because the parts are clean they grind a lot faster and don't have to be fixed. But after tey saw me cleaning the parts, they made me stop because I might be able to get another part done in the day if I don't clean them. Thanks god I normally work nights by myself and can do whatever I want and not get yelled at:) O ya and having all your welds getting ground off really sucks to, because in the end if you are really good or not so good it all looks the same :(
rankamateur
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I got a new one:

Sitting in operations meeting yesterday, boss asks about a project due out Friday. Everyone turns and looks at me...I'd never heard of the project. Project manager says "I'll try to get you drawings tomorrow or the Wednesday so you can get material here Thursday, does that leave enough time?"
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Man thats rich. Good luck.

Mick
ajlskater1
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got to love good scheduling :)
RedIron881
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Hope you'll be able to get it done! But, I'm sure if everyone looked at you that means they have confidence in you so you'll be fine! The question is how long did they have the prints just laying around on their desks saying,"I'll get to that tomorrow..." ...and who makes more money...?? I'm/we are on the wrong side of the desk. Ha ha!!

Let us know how it goes!
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Here's some workplace frusatration--

About 100 yards from me, a guy got SHOT!

It may have been a stray bullet; It may have been a random act of violence. Three kids, aged 12, 13, and 15, were arrested for negligent assault and illegal discharge of a firearm. A witness report suggests it may not have been an accident, but that is currently under the "rumor" category.

I was just as exposed to the place the shot came from as the victim for much of the day.

The victim was on his third day as a new hire at this company. His uncle, a supervisor, hired him. The uncle was the first witness-- his nephew suddenly dropped. He'd been hit in or near the spine. He will likely be permanently paralyzed to some extent. It's not known yet how extensive the paralysis will be.

My prayers are with him.

Here's a link to the story:

http://www.wwltv.com/news/Juvenilles-su ... 55855.html

Steve
delraydella
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That sucks, big time.

Every New Years eve and 4th of July here in Detroit some of our citizens will fire their guns up into the air and every New Years eve and 4th some innocent old lady or kid gets paralyzed or killed because the pinheads that fire up into the air don't seem to realize that their bullets will eventually come down.
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RedIron881
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Okay I had something happen at work that truly got under my skin...

One of the parts we weld at my shop is a long stainless water channel cover which is purged. It takes a good hour and a half if nothing goes wrong or you don't get bothered. After your finished welding this part your lungs are burning and you end up coughing for the rest of the night sometimes the next day. This part is the only part that has this issue at my shop. So, I went out and bought a respirator (the one Jody mentioned, which I've used before at other shops and worked great) because I'm getting sick of this crap after a year of welding these. You know there's a problem when you're told to hold your breath while welding this part during training, but lets be honest that's common in the welding industry. I mentioned to my lead that I purchased the respirator to weld this part. He said that to wear it I needed to be cleared by a Doctor and give the results of the test to the safety department or just don't let them see you with it on. Me being Me... I went to see my doctor, passed, and gave the results to the safety director and was told that I was not allowed to wear the respirator because he (non-welder) deems it unnecessary, stating that they have done testing to prove the air is clean enough with out a respirator. Though they didn't do the testing while this One operation was being welded. After trying to explain myself to him as this is a personal preference issue he did not grant me the right to wear it. For the life of me I NEVER thought I would told from a Safety Director that I can Not wear a extra piece of safety equipment... After work that day I called OSHA (Anonymous) to find out if I have any ground to stand on. Turns out... Voluntary use is only permitted when your employer has determined that there is no airborne hazard that would require the use of a respirator (from OSHA's webpage). So, even though my lungs are burning and I'm coughing after, I Can Not wear it!! What did I learn from this?? Don't ask the Safety Department Anything! Just wear it and play stupid when they ask later...

What am I going to do?? They are my Lungs so I'm going to wear it! Fire me for being safer and wanting to breath!
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A simple rule I use, and advise for others around me:

"It's always easier to get forgiveness than permission."

Don't ask; Just do.

Sadly, if you's kept quiet and just used the respirator, you'd likely never have had an issue.

One of the fumes given off when welding stainless is Hexavalent Chromium. Seen the movie, "A Civil Action"? Consider talking to your personal physician. If he says (on paper) that the respirator is helpful for you, you can tell the idiot safety guy what to go do with himself.

Steve
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Hi there,
It seems to be a case of bureaucracy gone mad.
Who gives a shit if you wear extra safety gear. Especially if it didnt cost the company anything. In fact it seems to be beneficial to them. Because you would be more productive and healthier at work.

Tell them to jam it I say. What would you relivant union say?

Mick.
RedIron881
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Steve,

I had a few people tell me at work that saying about "It's always easier to get forgiveness than permission." I was trying to do things the right way and follow the rules... I haven't seen that movie and if it's about stuff I'm breathing I'm not sure I want to, ha ha!! I do plan on just wearing it for my own health.

Mick,

I couldn't agree with you more about this being beneficial to the company. I'm not trying to make any waves or start anything just want to be a healthier employee. I know the main reason I'm getting flack from this is because we had another welder that was trying to get permanent disability from an accident dealing with breathing fumes (all Bull Shit). I had worked with him at another shop and he tried the same thing there with hurting his back. One person ruins it all for the rest... Sadly, I'm not in a union so I don't have any protection like that. Also, Arizona is a Right to Work state so they can fire/layoff anyone for any reason.
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Ah,

I see now.

Your bosses seem to be idiots. They're getting put through a compo case over breathing fumes and they dont want you to wear a mask. Genius.

If push comes to shove, buy yourself an Adflo (speedglas) respirator shield, ( I know they're expensive) and tell them that you are wearing it for keeping you cool.

Good Luck. Mick.
Greg From K/W
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