Pipe Welders

[vin-man welding]

What seems to be the slowest pat of the job? Are there enough of these joints that it makes sense to buy/lease a beveling machine? Maybe a wire feeder could help. I started as a helper with guys who had mostly came up in nuke plants and they were slow as you could ever be. The first 45 deg offset I helped on was 4" sch 40 and it took all day. My first shutdown opened my eyes to how other people do things. Downhill guys tend to be faster as a result of the process and that pace goes on to other jobs. If you are doing all that work and not dragging a$$ at all ,and the customer isnt happy, you need to change something. Maybe some dogs or a jewel clamp would help. We have some 60"- .75 wall casing pipe to do monday, I'll let you know how long it takes.

60" .75 wall. please post pictures of weld if you can. thanks vince

[c wagner]

My brother is a pipe fitter.. if you join a union you make a decent living yes.. really its dependent on the area where you live.. if theres a lot of work and you wont have many layoffs, then yes its a good job.. we live in the western ny area and the last few years have been a little rough work-wise. Now that casinos are popping up, there is plenty of work and we are making plenty of overtime (he's working 7 days a week right now). you might want to directly join a union, and go thru their 5 years of appreticeship school, as opposed to going to a trade school, which you'd have to pay for.

WTF does this have to do with anything???

Even tho you're a hack and I shouldn't listen, I agree.
It's as bad as adding hours if you think nobody's paying attention.
Kind of like that other thread where the guy does work for "free", then adds extra hours on the next job or two to make up for it. Good grief, either charge for it like a man.....or don't. Don't lie to them to make em love you while you play with the hours, just do the stupid work.
People who are dragging thier feet hoping to rob the customer on an hourly job are ripe for the pickin' by companies that just want to get the work done and get out.

JTMcC.

I agree with both of you guys, draggin your feet just isn't right. I also got a chuckle out of that other thread too JT. I screwed up on a quoted job the other day, I didn't lose my shirt but I think I made far less than minimum wage. Did another job for the same guy, but an hourly job this time, he still got his moneys worth. I sucked up the lose from the previous job and wrote it off as a part of doing business, it's simply a matter of gaining experience. Like any good lesson it's going to cost you! All I know is I'll pay a little closer attention next time I do a quote so I don't run into the same mistake.

[Wicked one]

Whatever happened to an honest day's work for an honest day's pay?? In my opinion you can screw whomever you want!! But don't come crying that there is no work out there. Maybe due to your willingness to slow down or bilk the customer's out of their money they don't want to hire you because your a crook! Now if that is as fast as you can weld and your customer isn't happy you need to talk directly to him or set him straight. If you can't weld any faster maybe you should refer him to someone who weld's pipe for a living. Remember honesty is the best policy. I mean if you want to get hired again. Jef

[1930case]

I'm not getting the reason for avoiding a bevel machine, and I'm mechanic and equipment guy rather than a (professional) weldor.

They pay for themselves just cutting coupons for students. I added quick disconnects on the torch head make for convenience. Drop it on, lock the chain, hook it up, turn on the gas, and you are rolling. BTW, you can mark your cuts with a "dash" instead of using a wraparound. No bending over with a torch (I have a bad back and really like that aspect, cut pipe all day with no strain!) and get nice clean bevels. Hang a plasma cutter machine torch on it if you like (we don't have a spare plasma cutter or I would). Mark your cuts with a "dash" instead of using a wraparound. Time and wasted movement add up.

We use a Mathey-Dearman 1SA Short Saddle machine. If I had to make a living that involved bevelling more than a very small amount of pipe, I'd get a personal unit because it would start putting money in my pocket very quickly and make my life MUCH easier.

[Sberry]

Once many moons ago I go to a job being the real jag off, they were running some 6 inch drain line of some kind, .250 wall. These guys some kind of semi pro fitters fussin around with a grinder and bevels. I was being kind of a dink and they give a couple pieces of pipe, say fit them up weld them together as some kind of rudimentary test, so the guy goes yonder, I burn it in half, set it back together with some gap and burn a 5/32 6010 around it. Man, I was sittin there when he come back about 10 mins later wonder why I am not looking like a busy beaver, I said, its done. Guy looks inside and out, says, how many passes? I said 1 of course. Ha His eyes bugged, I could see the figurin going on in his head. His guys did a fine job but slow as the second coming. He then made some mistake like it was common practice to try to chew the pay rate down, I spose out of habit, dumb, dipstick should have offered up about 5 bucks more on the spot instead of screwing around, I just got up and walked.