[TamJeff]

And it was said with a straight face, too! I wonder who got to make the call. "Sir, your part is fixed, you may pick it up any time." lol!

I know, I know. . .it's not nice to be critical of others work but all of us here have paid our dues in the criticism department. I would expect to never live this down, to the point where I would laugh at myself too by now. They even ground the anodize off.

[Alexa]

TamJeff.

After reading your message and looking at the photo, I wondered if it has ever happened, where one commenter sends in a photo of a weld, and then to discover that the photographed weld was the work of another forum member.

Kind of like showing up at the brothel and discovering a friend or family member working there.

=====

Tank for photo.
There are some pretty incredible poor looking welds out there ... and many are still holding up after years in service.

Alexa

[BDoubleU]

Anodized is pretty unforgiving ... and requires some serious "know-how". Looks like they need another repair & maybe some reinforcement

[Otto Nobedder]

That's what happens when someone with no clue what they're working with eagerly says, "I can do that!"

I don't care if it's a work barge, either... Boat owners are picky people.

Steve S

[Otto Nobedder]

I once heard, in reference to a weld like this, the phrase: "Crow shit on barbed wire."



Steve S.

[TamJeff]

If they are a forum member, I am sure they have improved by now. All of us admit to having done some pretty shameless welds in our lifetime. It's part of the learning process. Welding will make a dummy of the most coordinated people. It took me 2 weeks to pass a 3 bead, 6010 tee joint test in school, mainly because I thought them so hideous, I refused to bring one to the instructor. LOL

I am betting the person that welded it may not be an aluminum TIG welder, but may be an ace at MIG or stick. When it comes right down to it, we all have our gremlins in the trade. For all I know, he was forced to fix it by his employer. Either way, we all take our lumps from other welders. The guys I came up with were frig'n brutal, but I love em nonetheless. It's after surviving the ribbing all these years it is nearly impossible to be insulted these days and that's a nice place to be in this trade. If that guy is a welder, he will own it and we will all understand how it happens.

Some of the proof of my work I post here is iffy. I leave the mistakes intact and I know other welders notice them. If anyone laughs here, it's in part because we know what the poor bastid went through. Half of us are in this particular trade because it is mostly immune to political correctness and the normal 'kid gloves' routine, at least until us dinosaurs die off.

[TamJeff]

I once heard, in reference to a weld like this, the phrase: "Crow shit on barbed wire."



Steve S.

LOL, Steve. Sounds as if we went to the same school. When I saw that weld, it creep'd me out. The first thought that occurred to me was, if that weld was on something in my room, I would be afraid to fall asleep at night for fear it takes on a life of it's own when the lights go out.

[Alexa]

NEW WELDING PROCESS

About twenty years ago I learned of a new welding process.

This was back in '92 if I remember correctly. At the end of each month, we the contractor, try to document as many completed structural welds as possible, in order to collect the monthly payment from the Client. So the welding supervisor informs me that the pipe rack welding is finished and to make sure the Client gets invited to inspect it before the last day of the month. I send out one of our inspectors to double check, and he comes back to tell me that about twenty percent of those joints are not welded. So I do not arrange for an inspection with the Client. Instead, radio the welding supervisor and tell him that he still has work to do. Of course he protested but promised to have them finished even if they needed to weld all night.

Late that evening, tasting some holy water from one of the homemade stills in the barracks, one of the Client inspectors tell me how busy he was going to be tomorrow inspecting the pipe rack. I thought to myself, there was no way all those joints got welded before we left the site.

So early the next morning, I get to the pipe rack and to my astonishment, those welds were finished and even painted. So, the supervisor must of shifted welders from other crews to finish them up. So I gather a ladder and climb up to look at them. All were painted with dull red primer. I grab an electrode stub and start to scrap away the primer on a weld to have a better look. The weld literally pulled out of the joint. They had silicon-ed them.

Needless to stay, immediately back to the radio to inform the Client to cancel the inspection, in that we were not quite ready for their visit. The Construction Manager got wind of the cancellation and had them haul my arse into his office. He was steaming with me. I handed him a brown envelope and congratulated him on having invented a new form of welding. His eyes popped right out of the sockets upon pulling out the red silicon welds.

Never had any more difficulties from that welding supervisor.

Alexa

[big pete]

Worst one of those I heard was on a large fixture, requiring a heavy multipass fillet (30mm+ throat). The fixture broke in service, killed one or two guys IIRC, as the large vehicle chassis dropped into the pit. In the following investigation they did etchings of the welds, which turned out to be full of little circles on the cross section. The welder had knocked the flux off a bunch of rods and dropped them into the prep, then welded over the top.

As for processes, ever seen a guy using an mma rod like a TIG filler (flux still on) while using a normal MMA stinger as well?

On the silicon thing, there are a few outfits where the gaps between stitch welds are filled from a caulking gun, looks like a seam weld under the paint, just to keep the end users happy. The stitch welds are up to the job, but the end users don't trust them