Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey guys. I'm just starting to weld, and I look at my union's dispatch page everyday to try to get an idea of what kind of weld tests are common and the stuff I should be practicing and the like. Its a pipefitter union so we obviously weld on mainly pipe.

First thing, we have a call out for some chrome welders thats been sitting on the books for a couple weeks now. With almost 1000 guys out of work, I cant believe someone doesnt want to take this call, and I cant believe noone can actually pass the cert. Why doesnt anyone want to weld on chrome?

Secondly, I see alot of stuff about passing a "hot weld" qualification. Ive searched all over and I cant find anything about a hot weld. Whats a hot weld???

Thanks for the help guys.

"Hot Welding" can apply to a couple of situations. One case is in repair welding where "hot welding" is applied if the workpiece is highly stressed and the workpiece is preheated to 550 to 700°C. The other situation, which may be what your looking for, is the welding of plastic pipe. Hope this helps.

first of all where are you located? im a member of ua local 322 so nj. are you guys taking any travelers? secondly we have the same problem alot of guys dont want to deal with the problem of welding chrome, certain grades of chrome can be a real hassle in our local we deal with 5, 2-1/4, 9,and p-91 chrome, whats your local # if your guys dont want to weld it plenty of us will.

thanks for the reply. I think the first hot weld description was what they were talking about on the call out.

Im out of UA local 525 Las Vegas, NV. We got a powerhouse adding 100 megawatts about an hour out of town and (from my perspective anyway) it seems their havin some trouble gettin guys to take some of the welder calls out there, which ya know is alot of stainless xxheavywall and chrome pipe and crap like that.

For this particular call the website had a little note at the bottom of the page about guys wanting to travel to take the gate test and what certs they wanted em to have. Me myself, just starting welding, I would like to know what the big deal about welding chrome is, cause like you said seems like alot of guys dont want to do it. Im the kind of person that wants to get all the certs I can and stuff ya know.

the problem with chrome is that if iys 5,9,p-91 you need a good purge if you dont get a good root on the first try and you have a cut out that can be a real drag,another is you have a 400 degree preheat with fibreglass insulation(itchy stuff) this can be more of a hassle that a paycheck is worth for some people. for instance i just came off a job in pa welding 2-1/4 chrome didnt needa purge but wall thickness was 5'' and we had a bad fitup with bad gaps and all welds all shot clean but lots of pressure other than that chrome is no diffrent than ss and if all is well welding usually is not a problem but if you have troubles it can turn into a major problem quick good luck

From the guys I talk to they call it hot welding when you're doing repairs on existing line machinery such as in a manufacturing plant, assembly line, food processing, etc. It might also inlclude live piping, etc. You never know what you're going to run into and you have to do it on the fly or while the equipment is "hot" so to speak. The reason guy's hate it is because your job is on the line all the time and you spend a lot of time just being a maintenance man. Most welders want to be welders and not do the other grunt work.

This is just what I've heard around the table a few times.