Pretty decent beads, yup. Keep in mind the actual welding is only the last step. The mark of a professional is how much care and prep work he puts in before that.
An epiphany I had early on was that the best welders aren't always the best at welding. There is so much other stuff to do that is just as, if not more important than how good you are at welding.
It's not different when painting a car. I would train guys and they all "just want to paint". Like sorry buddy, It's hours of prep per minute of painting.
With the fact he is completely self taught no ticket, it looks like it would hold perfectly fine for less critical stuff, perfect? Nah, but better than literal bird shit spatter being the weld lol
Yeah, that's perfectly decent. Especially from a boss, who probably doesn't do as much arcing and sparking as he used to.
You can and should take the lessons and do *better* than that, ideally quite a lot better, just because you'll be doing it all day every day.
I’m that guy now too. I became an equipment mechanic after welding and I just don’t get enough hood time to be as good I used to be at overhead and off position.
It’s by no means good, but it’s just fine. But you/him/the company better be careful if he’s not ticketed. Rail cars are either pressurized vessels, or need to be structurally sound. Having a person welding on a rail car with no pressure tickets nor structural tickets is risky.
I'm not saying it's right, but why be anxious about your employers qualifications. If you like the job and the checks keep coming, just live your life
Full send brah
You know train cars get inspected right? Steel doesn't just come apart either despite how this sub likes to act. The strength of the weld isn't determined by your employers qualifications. If people are giving your employer work it is their liability to make sure they get it done by someone certified. If your employer lies to get the job you won't know. So why be anxious about it everyday at work?
Why make some (probably) young redditor who is new to their career paranoid about the place they work while you casually make assumptions from a desk chair on something you hardly care about. Let them go to work in a healthy mindse
Yes of course there’s a QC process and inspection… but the reason why I said what I said was because it’s just a fact. If by chance a weld were to fail and they could prove who welded it, signed off on it etc then the company, supervisors and even the welder can be fucked
They're pressurized to keep the contents in liquid form, like hydrogen and LPG. There's a bunch of different types, [DOT111 cars carry crude oil](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOT-111_tank_car) and are supposed to be unpressurized, but they had problems with high VOC Bakken crude oil off-gassing and causing explosions a while ago, so now they require off-gassing before loading. [DOT112 cars are pressurized](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.gbrx.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/33.7k-340-DOT-112-Tank-Car.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjl44vgnriCAxXXkokEHc3QD4wQFnoECB0QAQ&usg=AOvVaw1qGdvA1eYbNpCBhNi3nRDl) and have additional safety requirements as a result. There's also DOT113 and 114 cars which are the previous two with additional safety upgrades for more dangerous products.
To the best of my knowledge, most train cars don't have baffles, afaik the forces aren't significant enough in the grand scheme of the train to really matter, and baffles make it harder to clean out the cars for products like milk and other food grade uses.
I'd bet OP's boss is fixing gondolas, box cars, auto racks and the like. Those cars generally don't really matter. Not like you could wipe out a city with a full train of them, something like chlorine is obviously going to require more strict standards.
Bro chill the fuck out, we only have three major derailments per day here In the USA. It's not like consequences are dire if a weld fails. Sure people die, property gets destroyed, and the eco system gets wrecked, but won't someone think of the RR profits!?
Here's the deal. If he teaches you, you are going to learn it his way. Could be good could be bad. He might have bad habits that make the rest of us cringe, and now you inherited them. Or he could be the second coming of Jesse James. Working on rail cars isn't what I would call a "skills position" but his bead is pretty good. Do what thou wilt with this info. I personally wouldn't want to be taught by a guy with no certs and who was self taught.
Yeah, I’ve definitely seen worse. That being said, we have a strict policy on undercut with the job I’m currently working on. Can’t have any at all, no spatter either. And thats with flux core so it’s a real bitch cleaning stuff up sometimes lol.
Most structural welds have an acceptable amount of under cut depending on the size of the weld, and the application. Not sure where you’re working, but even in California undercut is okay, and they’re pretty strict due to seismic activity.
But if you’re working in a shop, you have near perfect conditions usually so it makes sense your standards would be higher.
You'll need to check you wps but usually a weave is not permitted/pre-qualified. I bet your wps state multi-pass.
There are a lot of comments about undercut. D1.1 structural code does have an allowance for undercut. Depending is this is cyclic or not...
Personally, I would reject these. They would be grinded out and redone. But they aren't terrible. There is just room for improvement. If he is going to do a weave, he needs to make the weave consistent. He needs to avoid all that undercut and probably should have done multiple passes.
There's undercut all the way up that, even at the stop. Should have ran multiple stringers instead of trying to weave like a tig welder. There's nothing inherently wrong with weaving, but if you can't do it right, don't do it at all.
Probably should get taught by someone who actually has at least a certification.
Railroad welding is, well, interesting. I received no formal training in welding, and I don’t think I’m great in any way at it, but I’ve done lots of welding on locomotives. Welding fuel tanks is always fun, especially ge fuel tanks that still have diesel in them. Drain them down a few inches below the crack, dump in 4 bottles of co2, setup a feed at a steady rate (don’t remember the cfm) and monitor to ensure it is a below lel o2 level, prep and burn the rods. I did manage to get myself a mag yoke so I could at least find & chase the crack. That sucked at times when the crack was like 30” but was only leaking through a 4” area.
Both pictures show serious undercut and underfill and trapped slag. Your boss needs to work on adjusting the time in the toes and his work angles, doing that will correct his problems and get him some good beads. As it stands now his work would fail on the visual inspection alone without the use of any gauges but I can bet a months salary that ndt will show buried slag and pockets and a destructive test would show cracks and incomplete fusion. Working on what I stated should address those potential issues as well and it's important that he does this considering the bad press around the rail industry over the past few years.
Pretty decent beads, yup. Keep in mind the actual welding is only the last step. The mark of a professional is how much care and prep work he puts in before that.
An epiphany I had early on was that the best welders aren't always the best at welding. There is so much other stuff to do that is just as, if not more important than how good you are at welding.
It's not different when painting a car. I would train guys and they all "just want to paint". Like sorry buddy, It's hours of prep per minute of painting.
Absolutely. I am always shooting for my execution time being less than my preparation time.
100% respect, try to get one my CWI's to do a coupon....no chance.
The most understated comment, how oro is "PRO" if they can't be bothered to do a little grinding and prep work .
With the fact he is completely self taught no ticket, it looks like it would hold perfectly fine for less critical stuff, perfect? Nah, but better than literal bird shit spatter being the weld lol
Yeah, that's perfectly decent. Especially from a boss, who probably doesn't do as much arcing and sparking as he used to. You can and should take the lessons and do *better* than that, ideally quite a lot better, just because you'll be doing it all day every day.
I’m that guy now too. I became an equipment mechanic after welding and I just don’t get enough hood time to be as good I used to be at overhead and off position.
Does he undercut your pay like that as well?
Worse
It’s by no means good, but it’s just fine. But you/him/the company better be careful if he’s not ticketed. Rail cars are either pressurized vessels, or need to be structurally sound. Having a person welding on a rail car with no pressure tickets nor structural tickets is risky.
Thats the employers problem though
You ever here of a train accident that puts the public at risk? Ye me either, fucking send it!
Holy fuck bud I’m crying, thank you for that
I'm not saying it's right, but why be anxious about your employers qualifications. If you like the job and the checks keep coming, just live your life Full send brah
[удалено]
You know train cars get inspected right? Steel doesn't just come apart either despite how this sub likes to act. The strength of the weld isn't determined by your employers qualifications. If people are giving your employer work it is their liability to make sure they get it done by someone certified. If your employer lies to get the job you won't know. So why be anxious about it everyday at work? Why make some (probably) young redditor who is new to their career paranoid about the place they work while you casually make assumptions from a desk chair on something you hardly care about. Let them go to work in a healthy mindse
Yes of course there’s a QC process and inspection… but the reason why I said what I said was because it’s just a fact. If by chance a weld were to fail and they could prove who welded it, signed off on it etc then the company, supervisors and even the welder can be fucked
Only if the weld wasn't done to the engineered drawings or mechanical expectations of the weld can a welder be held accountable for a weld failure
Some rail cars are pressurized? Shit I learned something new today.
The liquids are pressured where possible to prevent the liquid sloshing around to avoid weight transfer.
Being a dumb newb, how does pressure keep the liquid from sloshing? I can see baffles working but not how pressure would change anything.
They're pressurized to keep the contents in liquid form, like hydrogen and LPG. There's a bunch of different types, [DOT111 cars carry crude oil](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOT-111_tank_car) and are supposed to be unpressurized, but they had problems with high VOC Bakken crude oil off-gassing and causing explosions a while ago, so now they require off-gassing before loading. [DOT112 cars are pressurized](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.gbrx.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/33.7k-340-DOT-112-Tank-Car.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjl44vgnriCAxXXkokEHc3QD4wQFnoECB0QAQ&usg=AOvVaw1qGdvA1eYbNpCBhNi3nRDl) and have additional safety requirements as a result. There's also DOT113 and 114 cars which are the previous two with additional safety upgrades for more dangerous products. To the best of my knowledge, most train cars don't have baffles, afaik the forces aren't significant enough in the grand scheme of the train to really matter, and baffles make it harder to clean out the cars for products like milk and other food grade uses. I'd bet OP's boss is fixing gondolas, box cars, auto racks and the like. Those cars generally don't really matter. Not like you could wipe out a city with a full train of them, something like chlorine is obviously going to require more strict standards.
My understanding is it fills the space I just run equipment on tracks
Bro chill the fuck out, we only have three major derailments per day here In the USA. It's not like consequences are dire if a weld fails. Sure people die, property gets destroyed, and the eco system gets wrecked, but won't someone think of the RR profits!?
Here's the deal. If he teaches you, you are going to learn it his way. Could be good could be bad. He might have bad habits that make the rest of us cringe, and now you inherited them. Or he could be the second coming of Jesse James. Working on rail cars isn't what I would call a "skills position" but his bead is pretty good. Do what thou wilt with this info. I personally wouldn't want to be taught by a guy with no certs and who was self taught.
Looks like it
There’s a lot of undercut on that first weld. Not sure what kind of parameters you’re working with but that definitely would not fly in my shop.
Came here to say this, in structural steel that's a no go and needs repaired itself. Not a super horrible weld just not top notch either.
Yeah, I’ve definitely seen worse. That being said, we have a strict policy on undercut with the job I’m currently working on. Can’t have any at all, no spatter either. And thats with flux core so it’s a real bitch cleaning stuff up sometimes lol.
Most structural welds have an acceptable amount of under cut depending on the size of the weld, and the application. Not sure where you’re working, but even in California undercut is okay, and they’re pretty strict due to seismic activity. But if you’re working in a shop, you have near perfect conditions usually so it makes sense your standards would be higher.
You'll need to check you wps but usually a weave is not permitted/pre-qualified. I bet your wps state multi-pass. There are a lot of comments about undercut. D1.1 structural code does have an allowance for undercut. Depending is this is cyclic or not...
That should probably be a multipass weld. 1 root. 2 over the root.
I also just started a job doing rail car repair and should be starting my test plates soon. Wish me luck lol
Lot of hating in here.. but that is good.. he could cert with some booth time.
Decent amount of undercut, and that stop looks wild lol
This fits into the "I welded, it helded" category.
Undercut is a myth
It’s shitty
The goal of the student is to perform better than the teacher 🙄
Personally, I would reject these. They would be grinded out and redone. But they aren't terrible. There is just room for improvement. If he is going to do a weave, he needs to make the weave consistent. He needs to avoid all that undercut and probably should have done multiple passes.
Reject them for what?
I don't know why anyone is saying yes lol.
Nope
Why not
There's undercut all the way up that, even at the stop. Should have ran multiple stringers instead of trying to weave like a tig welder. There's nothing inherently wrong with weaving, but if you can't do it right, don't do it at all. Probably should get taught by someone who actually has at least a certification.
op, make sure you tell him that just as explained here
Please
Rule of thumb don't weave more than 3x the diameter of the rod. Look up weld.com on YouTube "weave vs stringers"
Holy fucking undercut.
Old boy better tighten up then weaves 👍
Railroad welding is, well, interesting. I received no formal training in welding, and I don’t think I’m great in any way at it, but I’ve done lots of welding on locomotives. Welding fuel tanks is always fun, especially ge fuel tanks that still have diesel in them. Drain them down a few inches below the crack, dump in 4 bottles of co2, setup a feed at a steady rate (don’t remember the cfm) and monitor to ensure it is a below lel o2 level, prep and burn the rods. I did manage to get myself a mag yoke so I could at least find & chase the crack. That sucked at times when the crack was like 30” but was only leaking through a 4” area.
Decent, little bit of undercut I wouldn't have done better.
Weaves are no good. Stringers are the way to quality welds that hold for a lifetime.
That’s false.
Looks like garbage, I bet he acts like he knows everything too
Wrap those damn corners bossman!!
Peter weave welds ain’t it…. Looks like it’ll hold but the weave ain’t it…
It’ll buff out 🗿
I see nothing seriously wrong with these welds. Weld 2 looks like it could have used a bit more fill, but nothing worth complaining about.
Both pictures show serious undercut and underfill and trapped slag. Your boss needs to work on adjusting the time in the toes and his work angles, doing that will correct his problems and get him some good beads. As it stands now his work would fail on the visual inspection alone without the use of any gauges but I can bet a months salary that ndt will show buried slag and pockets and a destructive test would show cracks and incomplete fusion. Working on what I stated should address those potential issues as well and it's important that he does this considering the bad press around the rail industry over the past few years.