Welding Tips and Tricks

This one is for all my fellow greenhorns who are still in a welding class. The instructor in my class is a great guy, accomplished welder, and a really good teacher. But, he has extremely high standards and will nit-pick you to death on even your best welds. So, one day I asked him to show me a vertical open root v-groove for like the third or fourth time as I still wasn't quite getting it right according to his requirements for advancing. He makes the weld while I watch and leaves it open so that all three passes can be seen. I keep the weld and save it for a few days. One day when I just needed some entertainment I brush the rust off of it, and take that coupon to him as if it is my latest effort. He proceeds to tell me that the passes are low and not tied into one another very well and that the feed on my 7018 is inconsistent and my bead placement on the first cap pass is skewed to the right and that if I hadn't left it open he wouldn't have been able to tell and probably would have passed me! I told some of the other guys about it at lunch and they have all tried it over the last few weeks as well (with similar results). It really takes the edge off of the frustration that arises from trying to perfect this craft and if your school is set up in a similar curriculum I highly reccomend it!

Our school hired a lab instructor who failed his "interview" bend test.

Did you tell him ?

Yeah, we've let him know a couple of times, and he has a good laugh with us. Don't get me wrong, his welds look great. I mean after 20 years of welding pipe and 15 years of teaching welding he is most definately an old hand.

As an Instructor, I wanna cry foul! But I'm too busy laughing like hell!