Want to become 6G certified

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I am tired of my current job. I have been TIG welding on my own projects for about 4 years now. I do MIG welding for the company I work for now from time to time when they need it. On a scale of 1-10... 1 being bird droppings and 10 being the amazing work I see on here. I would say I am honestly about a 5 with TIG welding and a 6 with MIG. I would like to become 6G certified so I can go get a decent paying job welding. I understand that the 6G cert is just a piece of paper. I also understand that it doesn't mean squat if you can't pass the test of the actual employer. I guess i just have some basic questions. I have a book by William Galvery and Frank Marlow Welding Essentials Questions and Answers. It seems like a very good book with tons of answers and information however, the book is fairly large. It tells me what 6G is, but I haven't found (YET) how the test is performed.I am under the impression that sometimes you will run a TIG root pass (walking the cup = instant fail) and then stick the rest of it? As of now, I have zero stick experience. I just went and bought some 5" pipe from the scrap yard today to practice on. However, I'm not just going to do what I think is best. I would like to know the actual test procedure so I can duplicate it at home. What materials, what filler rod, stuff like that.Basically, any help you could give me so I can practice correctly would be appreciated. Or any advice on how to go about it. Maybe I am going about this the wrong way? I don't know.Lincoln Precisoin Tig 1851980's Miller plasma cutter.Used to own...Hobart Tig Mate.
Reply:6g is just the position of the pipe.  There are about a billion different TIG tests, everything from a tig root and stick the remainder to tig 100% out.  Walking the cup does not mean instant failure.  I have been looking around for work/interviewing.  One place said they never walk the cup on anything, their fab specs did not allow it and it was 100% freehand, another place said that walking the cup is about the only thing they do.  Also, a 6g pipe test might not have anything to do with TIG.  It might be 6010/7018 or MIG all the way out.
Reply:I dont know how it works in the US, but I dont think you can go from never welding in a process and practice the process at home, then go for a test and expect to be hired. You need a few years of experience in the process working as a helper. Here we have apprentiship which gives a worker experience.You might want to look in to a welding school, if there is none in your area, you would have to go somewhere where there is.
Reply:I think a good instructor could have you in less then 2 weeks to pass the test, but the test is easy comparing to what they will ask from you in the field, close to perfect welds in crazy positions, then if you say you're a 5 you will go home the first day even with your 6g cert.Another thing, you can have all the papers in the world and weld better then anyone, if you don't know the right ppl you will not get the big money.--------------------------------------------------------------www.becmotors.nlyup, I quit welding.. joined welder anonymous
Reply:i agree with dantheman. In canada, and i would presume the states is the same. You must acquire a journeymen status. Which usually entails blocks of schooling in both theoritical and practical practices. Levels 1 to 3 require certain amount of hours working under another certified journeymen/high pressure welder before you can attend the schooling. Once you pass and have your journeymen status only then your allowed to test for a pressure ticket.Now as for the testing i have 4 pressure tickets 2 of which require tig roots w/ stick fill and cap all on 2" sch 160. Those being 2 1/4% chromoly, and 316 stainless. It takes a great amount of time to acquire the skills nessecary to produce xray quality welds, and generally alot of guys hiring want asthetically pleasing welds. When tig rooting its generally wise if conditions allow to always purge the pipe with argon, stainless of course always requires a purge. When i test the tester does not allow a purge on the chrome due to him wanting to provide a "real world" scenerio as if i were in the boiler doing a repair. Generally you do your root and he will check your root over thoroughly and if he approves you continue and fill/cap your pipe. Then in my case all my pipes are sent away for xray testing, but alot are cut into coupons ground and bent. Tig roots arent somthing you learn over night, becoming a good pipe welder takes years.
Reply:Well, I want to become 6g certified because as I understand it, it will also certify you for anything below that level as well i.e. 1g 2g 3g 4g 5g...Also, I'm not trying to go to school to work under a Journeyman to get my apprenticeship or anything like that.  I am looking for a job. The places I am looking will not even consider you unless you are certified in something. If I am 6g certified, that will at least allow me to get my foot in the door and interview, in which I can take their particular test. So lets say I go to someplace that offers 6G certified testing. Will they ask me if I want to do the test in TIG or ARC or MIG? Or will it be up to the guy grading the test to say what process I use? I guess this is where I am confused. Will I have to bevel the pipes, or will everything already be set up and I just have to run the beads?Lincoln Precisoin Tig 1851980's Miller plasma cutter.Used to own...Hobart Tig Mate.
Reply:That's not how it works. 6G is just the position of the pipe being welded.
Reply:AWS has a 6G pipe certification that you can get, you just need to schedule a testing date at a local testing facility. You don't need to work under a journeyman or anything like that...if you can pass the test you obviously have the ability.You can't just show up and expect to pass, it took me years of practicing to pass my section IX.
Reply:DiaboliczIam not sure if you understood me correctly. By all means someone chime in and correct me if iam missing somthing but this is how canada works, I presume that the united states standards are equal to canadian standards in regards to pressure vessel welding. In order to even be able to test for a pressure welding ticket you must climb the ladder no matter how old/young or amount of talent you already posess. The ladder being this: Acquiring your journeymen welder status which entails you to complete the levels of nessecary schooling AND out in the field time working under a certified journeymen welder, then and only then you can test for a high pressure ticket. You cant simply work in a manufacturing shop for 5 years and figure one day well i think im going to go and try for my pressure ticket, its just not that simple. You have to put the time in.The reason for schooling is they essentially prepare you for pipe welding. It may be slightly different testing procedures but when i did it we had (2) 6" x 3" wide 3/8" plates with a bevel on each of up to   37* you had to run a perfect 6010 root/fill/cap and then bend and pass all 4 positions being flat, vertical, horizontal, and overhead. All while doing this we had mountains of theory from math, blue printing, codes and standards, metallurgical sciences of materials... i could go on. Also in canada the department of labour welding test center requires you to do an inital high pressure welding test which is a 4" schedule 80 mild steel pipe in the 6g with 6010 root nad 7018 fill/cap. Once you pass that your able to move onto 2" schedule 160 with 6010 root, and 7018 fill and cap. THEN once you pass that one your able to move onto tig roots if the company you work for requires such a ticket. So as you can see theirs a fair amount of time required to be able to weld high pressure. I think its great and very nessecary their so strict because it forces people to become aware and knowledgeable that high pressure welding is not a walk in the park, if you screw up theirs peoples lives at stake. I deal with some lines in excess of 5000psi of superheated steam. Iam sorry but i can tell you right now if i had you along on a job in the plant welding a 6" 2 1/4% chromoly pipe with a 2" wall thickness could you tell me the correct procedure and steps required to make a sucessful weld? I could garuntee you'd miss 3 steps before you even struck an arc. THIS is the reason for school, i cant stress enough how important knowledge is, TIME = knowledge.essentially what i am trying to say is if the states is anything like canada in regards to strictness in their training programs you will have to do the work like everyone else has to become a journeymen and then high pressure welder. Trust me its far more rewarding to do all this work and then KNOW your going to pass sucessfully on test days. Rather than hope youll sling your root properly. Christ for my crew now test day is just an excuse to have an outing and chat with the inspector, the pipes are cake now, only because we were trained like we were. Do your time and work hard youll be a sucessful pressure welder if you desire it. But you have to want it.Last edited by Pressure_Welder; 09-17-2011 at 07:08 PM.
Reply:Originally Posted by Pressure_WelderDiaboliczIam not sure if you understood me correctly. By all means someone chime in and correct me if iam missing somthing but this is how canada works, I presume that the united states standards are equal to canadian standards in regards to pressure vessel welding. In order to even be able to test for a pressure welding ticket you must climb the ladder no matter how old/young or amount of talent you already posess. The ladder being this: Acquiring your journeymen welder status which entails you to complete the levels of nessecary schooling AND out in the field time working under a certified journeymen welder, then and only then you can test for a high pressure ticket. You cant simply work in a manufacturing shop for 5 years and figure one day well i think im going to go and try for my pressure ticket, its just not that simple. You have to put the time in.The reason for schooling is they essentially prepare you for pipe welding. It may be slightly different testing procedures but when i did it we had (2) 6" x 3" wide 3/8" plates with a bevel on each of up to   37* you had to run a perfect 6010 root/fill/cap and then bend and pass all 4 positions being flat, vertical, horizontal, and overhead. All while doing this we had mountains of theory from math, blue printing, codes and standards, metallurgical sciences of materials... i could go on. Also in canada the department of labour welding test center requires you to do an inital high pressure welding test which is a 4" schedule 80 mild steel pipe in the 6g with 6010 root nad 7018 fill/cap. Once you pass that your able to move onto 2" schedule 160 with 6010 root, and 7018 fill and cap. THEN once you pass that one your able to move onto tig roots if the company you work for requires such a ticket. So as you can see theirs a fair amount of time required to be able to weld high pressure. I think its great and very nessecary their so strict because it forces people to become aware and knowledgeable that high pressure welding is not a walk in the park, if you screw up theirs peoples lives at stake. I deal with some lines in excess of 5000psi of superheated steam. Iam sorry but i can tell you right now if i had you along on a job in the plant welding a 6" 2 1/4% chromoly pipe with a 2" wall thickness could you tell me the correct procedure and steps required to make a sucessful weld? I could garuntee you'd miss 3 steps before you even struck an arc. THIS is the reason for school, i cant stress enough how important knowledge is, TIME = knowledge.essentially what i am trying to say is if the states is anything like canada in regards to strictness in their training programs you will have to do the work like everyone else has to become a journeymen and then high pressure welder. Trust me its far more rewarding to do all this work and then KNOW your going to pass sucessfully on test days. Rather than hope youll sling your root properly. Christ for my crew now test day is just an excuse to have an outing and chat with the inspector, the pipes are cake now, only because we were trained like we were. Do your time and work hard youll be a sucessful pressure welder if you desire it. But you have to want it.
Reply:Most folks think the 6G pipe test is some holy grail, its not...if you cant pass it you cant weld pipe, THE END! What can you do to prepare for it? Well, weld pipe!! Go away if you dont have the patience to practice and get better...Dont think that if you pass a 6G test you will instantly be a badass welder, you still have to pass Xrays, MT's, dyepens, etc...its not like once you pass your test you have a pass to weld as you will..if you suck it will show in your xrays, and you will lose your certs.Last edited by SR20steve; 09-18-2011 at 09:02 PM.
Reply:Originally Posted by DiabolicZwelds4d - That is how it works man. If you can weld in 5G, you obviously know how to weld 1g as 1g is the horizontal position. Welding 5G you also have to weld vertically, that would be 3g. You also have to weld the bottom side of the pipe, that would be 4G. 6g is the same as 5G, but the pipe is in a fix 45 degree position.  [.
Reply:I agree with SR20steve, 6g is not a holy grail at all, sure its a nice feather in your cap but do you think in the field welding pressure pipe is like it is in the booth on a stand? Youll be practicing on pipe in a perfect enviroment. I think SR20steve will agree in the field is a different story im sure he has some ****ty position stories of his own, ive been hanging upside down in a superheater section of our coal fired boiler mirror welding with a 100' drop to the wetbottom below me. Or welding on a chromoly pipe thats got heat blankets on it making it to hot to even touch, are you prepared to free hand a root with a tig torch all of which is 100% xray/ dye pen / and mag partical tested on EACH pass as its exposed piping? that all comes with schooling and an apprenticeship... working under someone who has pressure welding knowledge. If you test/pass your 6g youll be automatically thrown into these situations having to know what to do, not looking around asking well.... now what? Well thats unfortunate if thats how it works in the states, if any joe blow thats been a mig monkey for 10 years and thinks his tig welds are "ok" can walk in and attempt to acquire a pressure ticket thats scary. By the sounds of things you dont have a "god given talent" as you dont seem confident enough in your tig welds. I tend to doubt that the states dosent require a journeymen or industrial welder ticket before your able to test for pressure. I find it hard to believe the states would just allow guys with no experience running around attempting to do succesful welds. Wow. Ive been welding pressure for alot of years on many different alloys, its no joke, swallow your pride and go to school before you kill someone.i posted two pictures of 2 out of the 4 tests i have to do annually. This is the final fill pass before capping, just cooling after a mag partical was done. One is 6010 root, 7018 fill/cap, second one is chrome tig root no purge/ 9018-B3 fill/cap. In my particular plant their are no room for errors, your root has to be perfectly symetrical the whole circumference to prevent irregular turbulance inside the pipe, not allowed anything over 1/8" reinforcement. The other two i do are stainless and inconel which is a whole nother ball of wax. We as welders have to know the sciences of the materials and how its going to react. For instance if you overheat stainless which is easy on a root you encounter carbide precipitation and you lose the corrosion resistance characteristics of the material, and you will fail your test as it comes up on xray. Rooting on inconel is tricky because its prone to hot cracking do you know the science of inconel? what pre/post heat treatment is required for the different grades of chromoly? why does chromoly when welded create so many stress risers?Again... your going to be expected to know this and have experience with the science of materials. Its not as simple as flipping your helmet down and figuring your golden. Theirs a reason for apprenticeship. Attached ImagesLast edited by Pressure_Welder; 09-19-2011 at 09:16 AM.
Reply:Nice PW. From the pic, it looks like it needs another pass, could just be the camera though.Nice Speedglas Where's the guard for the grinder and did those rods come out of a oven J/K, nice pics Semper FiJesus may have been a Carpenter, but his dad was a Millwright" A grinder and a can of paint, will make a welder what he aint' "I've done so much, with so little, for so long, that now I can do anything with nothing!
Reply:Oh definatly needs another pass, both of those pictures are of my final fill pass's before capping. During our testing we do mag partical on every pass for QC. Basically set it up as if we were doing a critical weld in the plant. Its alright, have a 2 or 3 min window between passes and have sip of coffee and bull**** with the inspector for a bit. The only pass that isnt mag'd is the cap. A visual is all the inspector does. The speedglas is ok that is my fresh air unit, i have a 9100fx that i prefer to use but it was out for repair as the lens was buggered, haha yep the 9018 did come out of the oven, i just keep them in a box when im doing the test. With my tig roots, all my tig rod is emery clothed to get any contaminants off, and always use a brand new, clean gloves is a good practice for any sort of tig work on pipe.Last edited by Pressure_Welder; 09-19-2011 at 12:38 PM.
Reply:Nice, I always clean my tig rods and break out a new pair of gloves also.Welds look great Semper FiJesus may have been a Carpenter, but his dad was a Millwright" A grinder and a can of paint, will make a welder what he aint' "I've done so much, with so little, for so long, that now I can do anything with nothing!
Reply:Skelly,Nice to see yet another fellow who knows how it is in the real world. Cheers to a fellow pressure welder!
Reply:Most certs, in th U.S.A. at least, are only good for the employer/job at hand.  You can take a test at most tech schools and they will hand you a pretty piece of paper.  You walk into a shop looking for a job and they will test you to their standards in a situation/set up appropriate to what goes on in that shop.  For something like pressure-welders shop you will be tested with every gizmo in the book.  You come into my shop and it will be ragged, rusted, nasty 2 7/8  drill pipe probably make you cut saddles  and weld a T six inches off the ground.  Some body will look at it, love on it with an 8 pound hammer, if it holds then you can do it again on good steel and we will saw it up and see what the press has to say about it. Every operation will be different, every cert unique.  The real test is in every bead you lay AFTER you get hired on.When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know," the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives.