Re: Lanse welding your truck frame

Posted by trucker 40 on May 09, 2010 at 07:54:23 from (69.152.32.127):

In Reply to: Re: Lanse welding your truck frame posted by 135 Fan on May 08, 2010 at 23:35:46:

Actually you are wrong about this.I didnt need to pass a welding test to weld on Sky Scrapers.I did have about 6 months experience welding though.I was taught on the job.The way they did it was there were 5 Vietnam Vets working there as welders.So they start the new guy,me on one side,another new guy on the other side, on one end of the assembly line which was with an air arc cutting bevels on a warped piece of metal that had hard surface on it.After beating this warped up piece into place and having the real welder tack it,they gave me a hood and I watched the real welder weld a couple of times.Once with rod once with MIG but each weld was about 2 foot long.Then they watched me weld.Right off they decided to put me on a stick welder,watched a couple of practice welds and showed me some stuff,and since I could already weld from Ag class in High School it only took them a little while to show me how they wanted it done.Then for a couple days that vet would watch me close when he wasnt watching the other guy.If he saw something he didnt like he would stop me and with lots of cussing and descriptive language tell me why that would cause me to be unemployed,and then I would weld some more.Once that guy was done with me I was sent to the next one.In my case the next one was a fitter.He showed me how to read prints one afternoon.It was harder than welding for me,but still not very hard.He showed me a couple of tricks about measuring and drawing lines and then in about 3 days working with him I went to the next one.He showed me how to fit and weld stuff and measure it,knock it off if it was wrong,do it over.I spent the longest time with that one,maybe 2 weeks,and the last one was a MIG welder.He already would come by and observe me welding and show me stuff when I was working with the others.By the time I got to him I already knew him and he was only a couple years older than me and we got along good.He had me welding with a MIG in about 30 minutes on flat metal.Then after a couple of days with him watching me,I was considered a welder.They put me working with a fitter.A fitter has more responsibility at that shop so he would get chewed out for mistakes,I just being the welder, could go weld something and not get chewed out,unless I made a mistake and had to air arc it out,or somebody elses mistake and have to air arc it out as it came down the line.I worked there from May until October and at the last part of working there I worked in the supply department running a forklift.Other new guys hired after me were being taught how to weld by the same crew.If they need a welder they would come get me at the warehouse and I would weld until they got caught up.I was getting ready to go back to welding because most of the new guys quit after a couple of months.I was a farm kid so they werent worried about me.They knew I could do anything they put me on.I even ran a shear for a half of a day.Training on that was,where is the switch?Oh here it is, turned it on and walked off after showing me a pile of big angle iron he wanted cut into 3 foot long peices.I decided to go to school so I quit and went to school for a while,quit school and went back to welding at a couple of different shops,one was making railroad cars.The last place was a division of the first shop that taught me how to weld and hired me as a welder because I already had taken their OJT training course and they knew I was good.That place made skyscrapers among other things.Other times working there and other places I had to pass an x ray welding test,but not for skyscrapers.The X Ray test was to weld government jobs(bridges) and a nuclear power plant.So for Bridges and power plants yes,skyscrapers no,plus I was a fitter welder.I fit the skyscraper parts, maximum 1/8 inch tolerance, and welded them or we would take turns.One week I would fit and tack and somebody else would weld,next week we traded.They did watch me close for a while,maybe 6 months I worked with different old men that sort of showed me what they wanted,but I could weld good enough that they didnt say much about welding,most of it was fitting,and it was a lot harder than the first place.Also engineers for the whole company were at that place and they would come watch you work sometimes and pick welders they wanted for critical stuff.If they didnt find anybody in the shop they had other outside welders to pick from,who were in a different union.

We did a lot of welding that was critical,just some was more critical than others.The fitting had to be done right in close tolerance on skyscrapers ,1/16 inch was preferred.The new hires worked on roof beams and floor beams until they were satisfied they were good enough to move to more critical welding,or if they couldnt do that they got fired or quit.
I welded roof and floor beams at first but not long,and they moved me to trusses.First I would make a jig working with an old fitter who knew how to do it.That place only had one old man for that.I worked with that old man while I was there, a lot.We made jigs and then built trusses.A couple of times they tried other people,and they had a couple of other crews build jigs and trusses,but most of the time me and the old guy made the trusses.When there werent any trusses to make I spent months welding with a big buzz box burning jet rod or 7018.Maybe fitting once a week,then welding all the rest of the week.
MIG was used a lot on stuff.At times all of the welders were MIG welding on some jobs.Sometimes they hired more welders,usually MIG welders,and they would do a job and once it was done they would fire them before they got in the union.

All of this was back in the 1970s.I really like welding but even after doing all of that and welding 4 years at that kind of welding,I wasnt as good of a welder then as now.I sure learned a lot from all that welding,but I learned a lot more after that, welding truck frames and maintenance on big trucks.I also know there are welders who are better than me at welding.Some of them live in this town.

I dont care what you do,any job that you do,a big part of it is practice.More is a good teacher,but the most of it is wanting to do it.If you dont want to do it then its hard to get it done.Its still not impossible,but it might seem like it at first.

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