Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi everyone

My question is this. I’m running a one-man shop. Very low volume. I do automotive customization. Generally speaking, I work on maybe two or three cars per year, doing a lot of chassis modifications (using tig welding). There is no “customer” until the car is sold at the end of the process. (I basically prepare the cars and then put them up for sale at the completion of the job). So even though I’m tig welding several days a week on the cars, I’m not sure how I will be able to maintain any certifications I have without retesting every six months. How can I deal with this problem? Thank you in advance. I appreciate any help.

I will start by saying that I am unsure as to wether you actually need certs to do the job.
If you dont need it then get a cert to prove you can do the job, buyer confidence type thing and just dont recertify unless you need to.
Certs are a great way to sort the pro from the hobbyist. Hobbyist are good welders too, for sure but if your rebuilding chassis for sale it would be nice to show a cert.
In Australia we cert a welder for a process. As in if you get a cert then you have proved that you can use say stick welding in all circumstances with three or four test pieces. I.e butt welds in difderent positions, and fillets in different positions. All 4 or so welds MUST pass visual, notch and bend test, full destructive testing of multiple sections of all the welds.
If any fail, even by .5mm on reinforcement for instance then you have to do it all again. This is part 1. Part 2 is advanced theory.
As a customer, if the chassis builder passed this at least once I would be comfortable that they knew what they were doing. If you are doing cert welds where you needed to supply a current welder no. Then keep a current cert but other than that I think making welders retest every 6 mths is a rort. If you are good at what you do, and you produce good work then that should be fine. If you dont need to, other than the first one for confidence for yourself and buyer, then dont waste the money.

I would suggest you pm superiorwelding. On this forum. He has experience as a shop owner and I believe some of his experience is directly geared towards helping others fill the needs your asking about.