I went to do the weld test today and I don't know why the guy said metal-core. It was .035 S-6 MIG wire and a Millermatic 252. Huge difference between MIG and metal-core wire.
Anyway, he grabbed a piece of angle iron and a piece of flat bar to test vertical up and overhead fillet welds. There were no scrap pieces anywhere around the area. I played with the machine a little bit and got it where I could make decent enough welds. I could have played more and done a lot nicer job but didn't want a spend a lot of time since that might be used against me if the test took too long. It wasn't a bend test(thank god). He wanted me to use the same pieces to test my stick welding. There wasn't enough of room left but he must have liked my MIG welds good enough because he went and got another piece of angle iron.
I tacked the angle on the flat bar and there was a slight gap because the flat bar was torch cut on that side and not perfectly straight. I used that to my advantage(kind of cheated but not really). It made my vertical go in real nice and flat and the same with the overhead weld.
I was offered the job. They were only looking for an apprentice but since I haven't worked in a fab shop for several years I didn't want to be too choosy with a lot of other welders out of work. I said I'd work for 3rd. year rate to start as long as I could go up to journeyman rate if I proved myself. The GM said I could get a raise in as short as a month if they're happy with my work.
Of interesting note is that the GM said he had a lot of people apply hyping themselfs up like they were the best welders on earth. There resume's were super impressive and they talked his ears off. Unfortunately, when they actually had to weld, the results weren't as impressive as their resume's. My MIG welds weren't very good so I'm thinking these other guys must not have done too much out of position welding.
Overall it's great I got back into a welding shop. A couple of things that aren't so great is the pay isn't the best, hopefully just for the time being, and they work 4 10 hour shifts Mon.-Thur. and one 4 hour shift on Friday. I don't mind working the long hours, it's just going to take a while to get adjusted after not having worked in a big shop for several years. I'm going to be pretty tired for sure and I hope my back holds up OK. The shop builds oilfield equipment like mud tanks and other oilfield products. Dave
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