Experienced?

Experienced Inspector!

I enjoy doing anything welding related and I like to do it correctly. When it comes to inspection, knowing the requirements is key! During the recent CWI class I was blessed to attend, I often commented on things from my experience as an inspector over the years. I tried to refrain to minimize the time I used up and possible confusion I might cause. I may have failed once or twice.

On the last day of training, we took a short practice quiz and a longer 46 question test with a 2 hour time limit. I was extremly pleased with the fact that a young man that didn’t meet the CWI qualifications for experience but was testing anyway scored better than I on the short quiz. (I hope he did better on the 46 questions too!)

The quiz questions do challenge me quite a bit. I sometimes analyze the words a bit much thinking about whether this is a “good question” or not. This may sometimes cause me to select the wrong answer by maybe reading things into the questions. THIS was not the case here on this missed question!

The practice quiz was short and I went through it pretty quick with no perceived “problems” in my head. When we graded them, I did miss some but as we reviewed the questions as a group, I HAD to open my mouth on one I missed.

The question was about a weld length on a replica. The length was specified on the symbol and the welds were intermittent fillet welds with a return (boxing) at the ends.

In my head, the length of the weld was required to be on the weld where the arrow was pointing and I was not to include the return length. Well just because it was in my head does NOT mean it was right. I remembered “reading” the requirement in the BOS and thinking it was the same as D1.1 as far as including it in the length. I think we even read over it in class without any discussion.

I got the question WRONG which usually doesn’t bother me but, I went ahead and mentioned that I thought that was NOT what the BOS said I got the opportunity to listen to a fellow student of much less experience recite the applicable BOS paragraph that said…

” The length of a fillet weld is the overall length of the full size fillet, including end returns (boxing) as measured along the center line of the effective throat and excluding the undersize portions of starts and stops. ”

Well, to let everyone know I wasn’t completely crazy, I went and grabbed my D1.1, went right to the paragraph and there it was! Pretty much the SAME requirement! Experience Inspector ? Hmmmm?

I had been wrong on quite a few occasions in the field in which end returns were specified (see note at the bottom) and the length of weld was “short” because I did NOT include the end returns. Hopefully, no contractors read this and decide to back charge me for that! If they did, they would be completely in the right to do so! But if they had taken some training or asked me to show them this requirement, I would have learned a little something that day!

Never be afraid to challenge something that you think is incorrect. Just understand that you may just plain ole BE WRONG! You can be pretty sure I wouldn’t miss that one again!

The point!

I had read through the BOS numerous times but because some things were “in my head” I didn’t do a good job of updating my thinking. The review of requirements is a key part of inspection and sometimes, it may be best for me to review those requirements a little closer!

If you have questions during training, Its my opinion that being “wrong” about something is a great way to learn!

The instructor did a great job of pointing me in the right direction on my mistake. I have mentioned before, I can weld a little, Inspect a Little, and teach a little. I may not be on the top of the heap at any of em!

(NOTE: That as far as D1.1-2015 goes, any boxing or return details MUST be included in contract documents! See Para. 2.3.5. It is NOT an automatic requirement to box the ends and if boxing was NOT specified, I would NOT include that additional weld length.)