Welding Tips and Tricks

for the most seemingly obscure reasons?

No, it's not because I swept the area after I was done with my welding test, although that certainly helped. Some places won't allow you to drop your stubs on the floor at all. These minute details are often missed by greenies applying for a job, but a lot of employers look for such things. Especially if the shop foreman is seasoned. The quality of your welds at present may not even ultimately concern them at all once they have decided that you are at least trainable.



I notice it. Even with guys I have worked with for a spell. As subtle as it may be, it is certainly telling and it has to do with a mindset concerning consistency and efficiency of habit across perhaps an entire spectrum of one's shop presence.

Hell, I got hired once for my sense of humor! I bombed the weld test horribly (I wasn't expecting rusty scraps with no prep and a random gap...), but I had the foreman and crew chief laughing the whole time. I actually excelled at that job, too, going from welder III pay (the lowest with perdiem) to top-out in four months.

My current job is such an exception to the normal rules... I rarely sweep my work areas more than once a week, and my tools are scattered all over the shop, seemingly at random, as I've usually got at least three projects going at once. There are often rod-butts and cigarette butts, plastic and tape, nuts and bolts, zip-ties, etc. under me all the time. I'll sweep up when they begin to annoy me, or when someone else is working on the same unit and my debris may get in their way.

Sometimes, I'll sweep up just because a process or task is annoying me, and I need to "not think about it" for a while.

Don't get me wrong, we don't allow it to become a hazard, it's just usually more efficient to wait for the unit to be moved, when two or three of us will jump on brooms and clean it up in a few minutes, rather than the half-hour a day it might take to sweep around all the equipment (much of which can't be moved during the processes it's there for).

Actually two things that got me hired at this job were my strong and obvious interest in the work, and the fact that the foreman and I had some history in common. We'd never worked together, but had done the same kinds of travelling construction.

Steve S

I got offered a great job once at one of the city's top metal fab companies because of my ability to clean out the entire shop in a manner of minutes. Seriously!

Back when I used to drink and party, I spent the entire evening drinking beer and felt like crap the next morning so for lunch I had some coney island hot dogs (for those not from Detroit, a coney island hot dog is a hot dog topped with chili, mustard and onions). I had to go to this shop after lunch to pick up some things and by the time I got there what I had for lunch and what I had the night before were thoroughly mixed together and ready to hatch. I asked to use the bathroom and by the time I got out the stench had wafted all the way back to the nether regions of the shop. People just stared at me, speechless. The foreman came up to me, laughing, shook my hand and said anyone who can do that deserves to work here!

Other Steve

I sweep in pretty much the same manner as Otto states on an as needed basis, but even as top dog in the shop, I still do it. Mostly though the photo is in regard to the size of the rod butts. They're all relatively small. The other welder we had working for us used to leave 1/4's laying on the floor, and this after he cut his fillers in half. It doesn't seem like a lot, but in a year's time, that could easily add up to a box or two or five of filler rod. Put 10 welders on the floor and it's a lot. A lot of foremen notice what you waste. Burning short was taught in welding school. I used to be able to go around the shop and pick up what others disposed of and use it for a lot of tacking. A week's worth of welding on tungsten others used to deem as too short for service.

I imagine most DIY'rs would probably be much more conscious of waste and probably use theirs down even further than we may on most days, just for the fact that they may not have access to the amount of supplies some of us do. But for those greenies that are thinking of getting into welding or who are going on interviews, every little trick helps when making first impressions. Get in front of a super that is actually an old school welding head, he will likely notice how efficient the use of material is. One less thing he will have to yell at you for.

delraydella wrote:I got offered a great job once at one of the city's top metal fab companies because of my ability to clean out the entire shop in a manner of minutes. Seriously!

Other Steve

Same here. Before I got into welding, I used to have to push a broom sometimes on commercial construction sites. We didn't mess around. We moved our feet. I am pretty fast at cleaning up. On piecework, scrapping was often included in the price. Nothing teaches time as money as when one is doing piecework.

You can often note one's ambition, or lack of, by the way they clean up after themselves.

no welding rod stubs laying all over the place here. every tool is marked and all welding rods counted. unused welding rods and stubs better tally at days end. a lost item could have serious repercussions if used as a weapon against staff or in an escape attempt. tools counted and checked against a master list continuously.

Hey,

Im thinking "escape attempt???" Why cant you just quit? But then I remembered you work at a prison. Have you ever had to deal with that sort of stuff. I can remember kids at high scoll making weapons, (in australia, it wasnt a prob for a long time, at least in my area) they thought they were pretty bad ass.

Mick

jwmacawful wrote:no welding rod stubs laying all over the place here. every tool is marked and all welding rods counted. unused welding rods and stubs better tally at days end. a lost item could have serious repercussions if used as a weapon against staff or in an escape attempt. tools counted and checked against a master list continuously.

Believe it or not, I pick up those stubs and put them in the recycle bin with all the other aluminum waste at least.

weldin mike 27 wrote:Hey,

Im thinking "escape attempt???" Why cant you just quit?

Mick

That's what I thought as well. lol

DEBRIS FORENSICS

Noticed that some older inspectors study the stubs and debris at a welding location to understand at a glance how the joint may of been welded. For example, to speed welding up, the welder may stray from the procedure and use larger diameter electrodes. Another example, the use of different classification of electrode to speed up the fill, and then cover pass it with the correct rod. Etc. etc.. Stub lengths, and bent stubs also help to understand the choice of the welder's technique. I suppose it could go on and on.

Alexa

There's a lot of waste goes on at my shop, but rarely by me. I always burned stick into or past the numbers. I collect short stubs for tacking, and if i find a 10" piece of stainless TIG rod with no numbers left, it becomes a hook to hang something for paint, or used to tack on a dog that will be removed.

When I change MIG wire, I cut the ball off the business end, and roll the liner's worth back on the spool, while most clip it at the rollers and throw away 20'.

Oddly, no one here wastes tungsten, though it's freely provided.

Steve S

Steve, I actually don't expect you would waste anything. I remember your story to where you are now. Maybe that's why I am like that as well. Beside all of that, these little traits were part of our welding training in school. Our instructor was ex military and that may have had a lot to do with it. If we had unnecessary waste, that was what we welded with (I know, barefoot thru the snow, uphill both ways) the next day. The tests were hard enough without having to weld with stubs, including the additional starts in the middle of a test piece. But I suppose that was a two-fer lesson by default and was likely intentional on his part.

Most of you may relate to a time or 3 being twisted up in somewhere and out of rods with a weld left and picked up the stubs and saved yourselves climbing back out for a rod. I've come home and found stubs in my pocket that I had stashed there for tacking, and snagged the car upholstery with them more than I care to admit.

Always got a kick out of a guy spitting in the floor or stub bucket. I'm a chewer myself, but you won't catch me doing it. Got a job once for simply showing up with a hood and jacket.

Vince51 wrote:Always got a kick out of a guy spitting in the floor or stub bucket. I'm a chewer myself, but you won't catch me doing it. Got a job once for simply showing up with a hood and jacket.

=====

Vince51.

What do you mean by: "Got a job once for simply showing up with a hood and jacket."?

Tanks.
Alexa

I know exactly what Vince means...

I've many times seen kids show up for the interview, but not prepared to weld-test. Didn't think to bring their hood and sleeves. After four in a row wanting to borrow a HOOD AND GLOVES, the next one that came prepared got hired on the spot, despite a "less than stellar" weld test.

Steve S

I also know what he means about the jackass spitting at random. I've even confronted a few... "Hey, I"M NOT crawling in your saliva, asshole! You clean it up, or YOU WELD IT!

Steve S

I worked with 3 dippers. The final straw was when I was coiling up my air hose and stripped spooge off the hose with my hand. Told them if it ever happened again, I would walk into their office and take a dump, being that we were going to be so free with our bodily wastes. It was unnerving as hell. You would have your hood down and you would hear it hitting the floor. *sPlAt* They thought it was cute. There would be like a mine field of spooge everywhere they worked. It's instances like those where you would rather kick their parent's ass instead of theirs, for not finishing the job before setting them loose on the rest of us.

I have hired people for showing up with their gear. Turned people away for wearing their drawers down by their nuts or not having shoelaces. "Dood.. .I'm here to take a welding test. . .got a hood I can borrow, dood?" One guy came in and couldn't speak a lick of English but his gear was organized and I could just tell he was serious about welding and he did great on the test for never having welded anodized before. When I asked him if he had his (I was serious) green card, he said yes, but never came back the next day.

Haha just showing up ready to work. Sweeping my booth after testing. Thanking the Qc and steward on the way out good, bad, or ugly. I'm a young man myself being 27, but respect goes a long way for me. Tamjeff I got a chuckle out of that. I've confronted quite a few guys in confined spaces that live to spit in the only spot you can see the backside from.

wow! tobacco juice on the decking?! now that's a blast from the past. I was working on the Jacob javits convention center here in nyc during the 80's and there was one guy who thought nothing of spitting that s#it right on the moment plates I had to weld. this is the same guy who was too lazy to hit the portosan and pee'd in the column web on a scorching august day. I was so glad when the company told me to pack up and take my stuff across town to another job











3
1t

Pissing on the column? I'd have put my boot in his ass, and fought him with his pants down.

I'd take an ROMF, if I got it, but I'm pretty sure most bosses I've had would take my side.

Steve S

for a while it seemed every winter i'd be working on a bridge freezing my backside off and every summer i'd find myself sweating that same backside off in some shop. I was working in one of those shops when the owner came in and was looking at the floor like he dropped his wallet. then he started screaming about the length of the welding rod stubs littering the floor at my bench. inspectors aren't the only ones concerned about those kind of things. ever since then I make sure to burn them down short. rod holders are cheaper than rods he use to say. true or not I never forgot it.

Our shop is a metal building with no insulation or climate control. People ask me how I weld aluminum with fans blowing right at me. I tell them to check back in August. Couple years it got up to 102-104 in the shop and nobody wants to hang out with me welding. That's stifling heat, even for me. Winter time it may dip down to the 30's and suddenly, everybody wants to be my friend.

Wonder how hot/cold it gets in those tankers that Otto welds on/in?