3 years ago
A very productive place, plenty of parking, staff ...
A very productive place, plenty of parking, staff was very kind. However i wish the weld test went differently. (By the way, the pay rate was decent)
I get handed a practice piece (3/8" thick T Joint) and began to do a few practice mig weld runs, wire being used was .045 mig wire. I got the machine at the settings that i wanted and asked for my test, which was a 1/4" thick Sq tubing.
At first i was doing okay with my test, i noticed how the base metal was not too thin but not thick either...but i still was comfortable with my settings knowing i wont be welding too hot to burn through the base metal.
Halfway done, the person that administered the test increased my temperature, and thats when i began to deposit welds that even i considered bad. (Mig welding is not my specialty, but i know how a bad weld looks like).
So i continued the test, i didnt change the settings because i was thinking that maybe this is the temperature they burn at. What confused me the most was how a hotter setting was dialed on the machine from the person giving out the test, even though the base metal being welded was not that thick at all. The welds were almost halfway burning through the steel, giving a "sinking" appearance, almost gouging the metal...plus alot of undercut. Then the person who gave me the weld test said that i had too much undercut (Well yeah, I wonder why) and stopped me from the test.
Thanks for the opportunity, but if i were to fail a weld test, at least let me fail from the weld settings i dialed on the machine....not from someone who changed my settings to a hotter temperature for 1/4" steel, even though i was already comfortable with my original settings. Not sure if the person who changed my temperature did it intentionally knowing that the welds will look bad, or if they wanted to see how i handle hotter temps.