Speaking of quality control...

[Arc weld]

I was in Home Depot yesterday to pick up some new castors for a bed frame. The associate had to bring a big rolling ladder over to grab some off the top shelf. As I was standing there with the ladder in front of me, I couldn't help noticing the welds on the ladder. To say they were horrible would be a compliment. They were MIG welds that didn't completely go around the tubing and were so concave they looked like someone had tried to gouge half of the weld out. Just about anybody with an ounce of experience could do better welds than that.

 

[Shield Arc]

I don't know how true the story is, but my brother-n-laws swears his welding partner told him this. His partner was at Harbor Freight, he seen a towing stinger setting on the floor, the welds didn't look right, so he bent down to pick it up and get a closer look. While looking at it with disbelief, he dropped it. The plate broke off the square tube! :shocked:

 

[jwmorris]

You should look at welds on old Ferrari's, all of their effort went into engine and body. I think their welders must have been drunks.

Even a just a few years ago when I was swapping out the original FIA approved roll cages and building SCCA approved ones for a couple of 440's, if it was not a weld that was out in the open for all to see, it didn't look very good.

 

[oldhippy]

Sometimes it works the other way. I was at a scooter show and there was as pretty a Cushman Eagle as you have ever seen. It was restored and every part was original including the correct bolts (not having the right bolts will count off) . There were a lot of nice Cushmans at the show but this one stood out from the rest. But the judges counted points off for the weld splatter that had been removed from the frame. The Eagle won the show but removing bad weld practice counted off. Life is grand big dan

 

[crazyal]

I can remember when most people would refer to a mig as a bubble gum machine. The sad fact was that as the machines because less expensive they were being bought by companies who didn't know or understand that the only people who knew how to use them were trained welders. Even to this day with the current machines being as good as they are companies still insist on having people with little to no experience use them. OJT and welding should not go hand in hand.

 

[yomax4]

Look at some of the top line Aluminum trailers. Even now with push-pull and synergic pulse, the welds look like turkey crap.. Funny they hold together if they ever hit a curb.

 

[jwmorris]

8 years or so ago one of our customers picked up a trailer from aluminumtrailers.com. It would hauld two full size race cars, over the next year and a half he spent more money on keeping the trailer together than his race cars.

 

[DT86]

...I think their welders must have been drunks...

Hey man, one of the best fabricators/weldors I know is just an old drunk!

 

[Scooby074]

Hey man, one of the best fabricators/weldors I know is just an old drunk!

Amen to that!

And in my case, Id add that he was half blind too

 

[bcp]

I worked as a mechanic for a while at an IH truck/tractor dealer in the 1970's. They were talking about two new trucks they had to repair in the past year. IIRC, one had a piston and rod missing and another had a transmission gear missing.

Bruce