Improving your welding?

[Shield Arc]

roadhunter you need to be careful, and back off just a touch. If Sodo makes a hard right turn, you'll break your nose.

 

[muddstopper]

I agree 100%. We have all done some unsafe things and picking eachother apart over crap like that is pointless. Anybody ever see a pallet used to lift someone up with a tractor or forklift? Many people even have grinders with no guards !!!!!! Oh the horror!!!

You could go to any farm or ranch in my area and find unsafe working conditions and things that are dangerous but that is just the way things are. What works in family owned farms is not the same as what works in the large corporate farms. Same goes for country red neck construction versus big city construction sites where safety is much more of a priority. The same is true trying to compare safety rules and regulations from professional jobsites and fab shops compared to hobby welding projects done on private property.

wonder how many of these accidents and deaths could be prevented if just a few of the big corporation safety practices had been put into place
http://www3.marshfieldclinic.org/pr...crahs-childaginjuryfactsheet_april-2012.1.pdf

You will never convince me that there is an appropriate time to dismiss safe working practices. When I first went to work for the Railroad, the industry had one of the worse safety records of any industry. I have personally seen deaths and severe injuries that could have been prevented by just following some of the most basic of safety rules. This is the way we have always done it doesnt make it right and it sure dont make it safe. There is a big difference in safety and luck. You keep playing the odds long enough, sooner or later your luck will run out. Safety rules are written in blood, it shouldnt take someone losing there life or being crippled for life before safe working pratices are put in place. There are plenty of accidents everyday to learn from. You dont want to be the one everybody else learns from that being unsafe has consequencies.

 

[PhysAssist]

wonder how many of these accidents and deaths could be prevented if just a few of the big corporation safety practices had been put into place
http://www3.marshfieldclinic.org/pr...crahs-childaginjuryfactsheet_april-2012.1.pdf

You will never convince me that there is an appropriate time to dismiss safe working practices. When I first went to work for the Railroad, the industry had one of the worse safety records of any industry. I have personally seen deaths and severe injuries that could have been prevented by just following some of the most basic of safety rules. This is the way we have always done it doesnt make it right and it sure dont make it safe. There is a big difference in safety and luck. You keep playing the odds long enough, sooner or later your luck will run out. Safety rules are written in blood, it shouldnt take someone losing there life or being crippled for life before safe working pratices are put in place. There are plenty of accidents everyday to learn from. You dont want to be the one everybody else learns from that being unsafe has consequencies.

As one of the folks who works out in rural America putting people who don't follow even the most basic safety rules on their family farms, small businesses, and shops, it is truly criminal what some people will do or allow to be done in the name of laziness or cheapness and then come in and wonder why we can't fix them up as good as new...

Think first, set up for safety, wear your safety glasses, mask, shield, ear plugs, hard hat, gloves, etc, and do the job right without shortcutting, and you won't need peiople like me to pick up the pieces.

Soapbox mode off:
Thomas

 

[PhysAssist]

wonder how many of these accidents and deaths could be prevented if just a few of the big corporation safety practices had been put into place
http://www3.marshfieldclinic.org/pr...crahs-childaginjuryfactsheet_april-2012.1.pdf

You will never convince me that there is an appropriate time to dismiss safe working practices. When I first went to work for the Railroad, the industry had one of the worse safety records of any industry. I have personally seen deaths and severe injuries that could have been prevented by just following some of the most basic of safety rules. This is the way we have always done it doesnt make it right and it sure dont make it safe. There is a big difference in safety and luck. You keep playing the odds long enough, sooner or later your luck will run out. Safety rules are written in blood, it shouldnt take someone losing there life or being crippled for life before safe working pratices are put in place. There are plenty of accidents everyday to learn from. You dont want to be the one everybody else learns from that being unsafe has consequencies.

As one of the folks who works out in rural America trying to put the people who don't follow even the most basic safety rules on their family farms, small businesses, and shops back together, I have to say that it is truly criminal what some people will do or allow to be done in the name of laziness or cheapness and then come in and wonder why we can't fix them up as good as new...

Think first, set up for safety, wear your safety glasses, mask, shield, ear plugs, hard hat, gloves, etc, and do the job right without shortcutting, and you won't need peiople like me to pick up the pieces.

Soapbox mode off:
Thomas

 

[Sodo]

I think I have a comparison for SoDo to think about

I took over a Foreman job on a crew a few years ago. The Guy that had the job had retired. The men that where operating the equipment had been on the same job for 20+ years. They had their way of doing things. Of course everytime i suggested doing something a little different, they fought me tooth and nail every step of the way. Their reason was that they had been doing this same job for 20years and that was the only way it could be done. Problem was, I had been doing the same or similar job at other locations for just as long as they had, so I knew/thought I was doing it right just as well as they knew/thought they where right. Well Prove is in the pudding so to speak. Since i was in charge, it was going to be done the way I wanted it done, it was my job on the line if anything screwed up. When I first took over the job, the crew was always making overtime doing the same repairs over and over. From March to about Sept it was 7days a wk just keeping the railroad track in its roadbed. We started correcting the track defects, instead of just patching and having to keep going back to the same spots. The first year I was there and after several manhours of work, we had the track pretty much stabilized and overtime dropped considerablely. The next summer, we had to go back and do a little more adjusting, and the track pretty much started staying put. Mine you, the last few years has also seen record temperatures which has a very serious effect on railroad track staying put where its supposed to. In other words, just because the original crew had been maintaining that section of track the same way for 20+years, it didnt mean they where doing it correctly. By the second summer of my taking over the crew, maintenance requirements dropped significantly, overtime hours dropped the same amount. Train delays because of track defects became almost non exsistant. It took the old crew 20 years to create the situation that had became a maintenance nitemare. They thought they where doing everything right, and doing it wrong for all those years wasnt because they were'nt trying to do it right. They just had never had anybody teach them the correct way to do it. Currently, there are only a small handful of people with the experience necessary to to do this job correctly. Time has a way of retireing older employees and replacing them with younger less experienced people. It has been said "Take care of your older employees, for if you dont, they will leave you and you will be left with younger employees that lack the education and the experience to get the job done."

Now for anybody to say their welds have always held, never breaks and are good enough because they have been doing it the same way for 20-30 years, doesnt mean their welds are correct or as strong as they can be. It just means you have been extremely lucky Also when someone that knows better, offers help and suggestions, it might be best to listen to what they have to say. You just might find a better way to get the job done. I am not a professional welder, never claimed to be. I am a professional RailRoader with over 38 years of experience. I might not know welding, but if I dont know my railroad job, I have wasted a lifetime. Lots of welders here that have spent their entire lifes in the weldling profession. They come here to past along some of the wisdom they have learned over the course of their carreers. In the absents of having any formal training in the welding field, I think the hobbiest would do well to listen to the advice given by those professionals that spent a lifetime perfecting their craft and are willing to share what they have learned. Take care of these older professionals, or you could be left with folks like Sodo, that lack the education and experience, passing along bad information, and dont even know enought to know that they are wrong.

So let me get this straight. You came on the job and had to fight the old guys tooth and nail to make your improvements, were successful, made improvements. Basically more than ignore the old guys, you had to devalue their experience and over-rule them. Then you became an old guy and now "old guys rule" again. Well anyway the more things change the more they are the same. I'll be an old guy before too much longer and you can bet I'm taking notes

I do OK, get my stuff done. I'm not the best but I'm not the worst, and I'm certainly no forum villain to rally against. This is a hobby/maintenance welding forum and I do that stuff. I have experience to offer that's useful, and am willing to take pics, post and share, which I think there is not enough of on this forum. You can choose to ignore it, but I've read enough on this forum to know there are interested members. I will not obey every forum welding rule, I'm sorry, you can look to other members for that.

Some guys like test plates more than projects. Well I'll participate in that a bit and see if I can gain some understanding there, and with luck offer something useful.

 

[Happy Gilmore]

I say heck, go for the test plates guys, I'm a little curious, so hey why not.

 

[Shield Arc]

This is a hobby/maintenance welding forum

You keep saying that. Can you point me in the direction where you see that? When I log on all I see is this. Maybe you use a Microsoft operating system? I use Linux so maybe I'm missing where it says this is a hobby/maintenance forum.:confused3:

 

[downsizingnow48]

When my dad taught me torch welding he made me bend the welds until he was convinced I had it right. I still bend and saw stuff apart when doing projects. Apart from proving to myself I know what I am doing, it is interesting to see what is going on inside welds.

And I am really looking forward to seeing the collaboration between BethelHntr and Shield on 110v testing, that will be something new and a real contribution.

 

[ZAR2USA]

Maybe it WAS the wrong place, but it could change. ( ? ? ) With luck. Also there was some 'tension' in the forum, which threw people off and gets in the way of knowledge. Hopefully that's gone now. It took some time because I'm slow - but I may may have figured out what the problem is in the forum. Pros don't have much to offer with regard to 110v machines because they have 220v. Most (active) hobby/maintenance welders have 220v, so the BULK of forum responses you will get, will be from members with 220v (just by statistics). Even if they are stick welders they will answer 110v MIG welder posts with how they'd do it on 220v. And what do you EXPECT their answer to be? They want to join the discussion but off-topic is all they've got. Even if they have a 110v MIG they don't know how to extend it's range, thus have little 110v experience (because they have no need). Every time they have a problem they drop the 110v and go blast it with 220v, even if the 110v MIG may have been the better machine for the job. Keep in mind that 220v welders can't find any help for their 110v MIG (on forums) either. This lack of 110v assistance affects those guys too they just don't know it. There's very little forum assistance for 110v MIGs because statistically, most 110v users are inexperienced. Which is surprising considering high quality 110v machines have been available for 10, 20 years (and how many are sold). Basically most people (as they get more serious) find the need to spend the money to get 220v to their welding area and this leaves the 110v users hangin'. It's a knowledge gap that occurs naturally. Maybe we need a new thread called "Improving your 110v MIG welding".

Best said!

 

[Sodo]

Best said!

thx, I'm glad at least one person read that. Forum needs more 120v MIG contributors. I think if the 'tension' is dialed back there will be more.