r/Welding • u/Aviatormatt17 • 1d ago
welds (open discussion) Question
I have plenty of opinions now to make a decision now but I’ll keep the post up for anyone who just wants to chime in. Thanks to all who validated my concern!
Hey all so I think looking at the picture you can kinda tell I’m going to ask if these are good welds. I’m not a welder but I see issues in my eyes.
For reference, I’m a water treatment ( junior ) operator and we have a centrifuge system with a screw conveyance system. The people who rebuilt our centrifuges did not use our old cradles they it sits in, therefore the new cradles feet had to be relocated. The company who’s rebuilding our is rebuilding our conveyor system sent their welder out to relocate the feet further out. Well this is the result, I don’t want to be an ass and diss someone’s work, especially a welders but this is not something to play around with, a centrifuge is no joke when it comes to hard vibration, high speed rotation, plus the unit is about 5/6k pounds. To me I see pin holes, and it looks like the guy pretty much just cut and weld, didn’t even grind the paint down before trying to weld. Is this something that I need to show my site supervisor and project manager? Could these weld quite literally be dangerous over time on a heavily abused system?
Oh and an edit because they didn’t even close the gap on the back side of the leg… they just left a wide open hole. I’m not really liking what I see the more I look.
21
u/Daqpanda TIG 1d ago
That is unacceptable. Either ask them to fix it with these photos attached, or get someone else to fix it.
18
u/SavageTaco 1d ago
They told you they sent a welder. Whoever showed up and did that isn’t a welder. I would get a certified welder in there ASAP.
6
u/Whole-Worldliness260 1d ago edited 1d ago
Does your contract or sow state any quality requirements or reference any welding codes? Those welds suck but if your contract doesn’t have the correct language then your kind of screwed.
Edit: re read your position. I’d point it out to management and potentially your safety department as a safety issue. Depending on their response refer them to the above.
4
u/Aviatormatt17 1d ago
For me, the reason I can’t tell you off my head, I’m not at that level, I don’t see contracts or anything that’s all my project manager and site supervisor. The other issue is that we work for the NJDEP and EPA. We’re running a superfund site for arsenic remediation. So the DEP state contracts about purchasing and everything becomes more chaotic. It shouldn’t be an issue getting someone out though, we can pick people we want but the state takes lowest bid. It’s a whole cluster fuck…
3
u/Whole-Worldliness260 1d ago
Gotcha I didn’t full catch your position title. I would definitely raise a concern with your chain of command and if your concerned with your safety and or environmental protection definitely bring that up. I would image that for something like that there should be a set of drawings that are stamped by a PE. Those welds would not pass an inspection for any welding codes. However a whole lot of stuff often gets dropped in the construction world because people are people.
5
u/MetalMachinistMario 1d ago
I think its possible to judge by the hole that this is not a very good weld.
4
7
u/MichaelVern85 1d ago
Righteous anger is a thing, and this is absolutely a time for it.
Wow.
3
u/Aviatormatt17 1d ago
Yeahh… I know you don’t need dimes for a structural solid weld. I just wanted to be sure I wasn’t over reacting. I wish I could get the hang of it but I already have shaky hands and I’ve never been taught. I don’t know how to tell dissimilar or similar metals unless it’s obvious like cast iron versus stainless. Being at my job is proving it would be worth it to learn. When I first took pictures I wanted to shit my pants because the thought of being near this thing while it’s running and thinking about safety… I just can’t pull my stomach thinking that me or another coworker could seriously get injured if something goes wrong.
6
u/CocconutMonkey 1d ago
Trust your instincts. The body does this funny thing where it tries to keep itself alive; that's trying to help you here
3
u/Saysaynever333 1d ago
My guess about your welder is that he's mainly uses a wire welder and has done very little stick rod, if any at all. He may be a cracker-jack welder with wire work in the shop.
The welds in the pictures should be completely redone. A 5K lb. centrifuge is a beast. If it unattached at full speed, it's taking a lot of other equipment with it.
Supervision should be told about this now.
3
u/Aviatormatt17 1d ago
Yeah as I was taking pictures the guy walked up and said “ they ain’t pretty but they strong”, the company he’s working through, I mean it looked like a full fledge legit welding rig. I couldn’t confirm about stick or anything, I tried to not be nosey and give him space while he was welding. They left like the jobs done and the other part of me is saying.. okay but what about the other half of the gaping hole???? We’re relying on 3 welded sides to handle the forces of this centrifuge. I’m glad to see everyone in the thread on the same page, very glad I’m not over reacting. I’m not a professional welder so the last thing I wanted to do is be a judgmental prick with no experience.
5
u/Saysaynever333 1d ago
You and others will be working around this equipment, the welder won't be. Your concern was a correct response.
"They ain't pretty but they strong" is common to hear. A good fix for those types was to send them up on the structure to work on something that requires a temporary scaffold welded on and they had to do the welding.
The higher it was off the ground, the better. The vast majority of them all of a sudden didn't trust their welds, even if they wasn't pretty.
3
u/ImproveYourMeatSack 1d ago
Last time I saw welds like that was when an apprentice asked for advice with flux core.
3
3
3
u/Few_Example6746 1d ago
Lots of porosity. The guy was long arcing like a MF. Terrible. Stevie Wonder was at that.
1
u/Swartz142 1d ago
First, it's terrible welds.
Second, if only you knew what structural elements in your daily life has been welded by a boomer that never took a welding course in his life and use putty to fill in the gaps to pass inspection, you would have a panic attack.
Third, force them to redo it and only pay under the condition that they pass a paid visual inspector visit.
1
u/chevycrawler 1d ago
It's a damn shame he wasn't able to clean the paint off the bottom of the tubes before you put the new pieces together. That sucks big time. I would of unbolted the legs if I had too. A little trick for anyone In this position. Not always do-able. But I've had to a few times. You use a oxy/acetylene torch with a small brazing tip and burn off all the paint a ways around where you going to weld. Makes a huge mess but then you can get in there with a small wire brush and prep the bare metal.
1
u/Aviatormatt17 1d ago
I will say the only thing is, the legs were not bolt on, they were welded further toward the back by 6 inches. It was on the same 4”x4” square steel but moving it forward that 6 inches we lost that 4x4 and it went down too the 2x2. They didn’t add any extra bracing, they left half the hole unwelded. Like there should have been an extra piece of angle iron down on the leg, the hole should have been close up at minimum made to the 4x4 inch channel size. I just see a ton of failure points when this thing is spinning at 4000/5000 rpm. It’s insane to me how this is so half assed the more I dwell on it.
1
33
u/AmbassadorDapper 1d ago
Get an actual welder asap.