Getting certified question

admin

I work full time for a nuclear power plant. I like what I do but I would much rather be in the maintenance department instead of operations. I need to be a certified welder to meet the requirements. The local college occasionally offers a class that meets 3 nights a week for about 3 months. I work shift work so I would only be able to make half the classes. I can weld. Currently have a stick and a mig machine. I have grown up around dirt track racing so had to learn how to weld or stuff wouldn't be ready every week. Is there anyway to go about getting certified with a shift workers schedule?
Reply:I would go talk to the teacher at the collage.  I bet he will take the time you are able and teach you what you need to know.  Tell him what tests you need to pass and see what he says.
Reply:

Originally Posted by Racer394

I work full time for a nuclear power plant. I like what I do but I would much rather be in the maintenance department instead of operations. I need to be a certified welder to meet the requirements. The local college occasionally offers a class that meets 3 nights a week for about 3 months. I work shift work so I would only be able to make half the classes. I can weld. Currently have a stick and a mig machine. I have grown up around dirt track racing so had to learn how to weld or stuff wouldn't be ready every week. Is there anyway to go about getting certified with a shift workers schedule?
Reply:First find out what code you need to be certified to: asme, D1.1, ,etc then find an accredited testing facility to take your test. Also talk with the faculty at the school and find out if they can work with your schedule
Reply:Get yourself some coupons and learn too weld them up. That's how you get certified, is going to a welding shop where you use there machine and weld out what ever you need to get in nuclear plant. It's about 350$ or more if I remember right.  Ask at your work what certification you need. You will need to practice on the coupons and I can bend them for you for free.
Reply:Bend tests are child's play. If he's welding in a nuclear powerplant application, it should all be x-ray quality welding. Any two-bit clown with a welder can pass a bend test.
Reply:It's a good starting point tough guy. I've seen several brake on YouTube and Aluminum bending aluminum is not child's play. Send me one and let's see your bend?
Reply:I don't have pictures of bend tests. I haven't taken a bend test in a long time. I'm x-ray certified to AWS, API, and ASME standards, to include duplex stainless TIG.
Reply:That's good for you!
Reply:Thanks. I do alright.
Reply:

Originally Posted by Hillbilly Welder

Bend tests are child's play. If he's welding in a nuclear powerplant application, it should all be x-ray quality welding. Any two-bit clown with a welder can pass a bend test.
Reply:I like clowns......


Of all the things I lost I miss my mind the most...I know just enough about everything to be dangerous......You cant cure stupid..only kill it...
Reply:Bend tests are very easy actually to pass actually. When I took my first test for NAVSEA and ABS roughly five years ago.  IIRC my ABS 6g had a concave root and my NAVSEA 2G had undercut on the top plate but not more than a 1/32. Grinding the root and face down of these coupons they looked very bad, at least for the standards I set myself. It was plane as day that there was ressesions in the weld metal. I was almost certain I was going to fail this combo cert for employment. They bended flawlessly, even with small undercut and a concave root pass with 6010.My butt hole had never been so puckered in my life when those two coupons entered the press. It was either I passed the combo test or stay a helper for another year and take it again the year after. At least in my experience bend test are very lenient. Minor surface defects usually don't open up. As long as everything in the center is solid.Passing X-Ray for certification dual shield flux core ceramic backing and smaw on 1" × 14" × 4"  plates definitely was more stressful. But by then I was a better welder. It's just the fact that you never really know until they shoot, no matter how hard you focused on the weld.For nuclear power plant work you better practice your 2 inch by ridonkulous wall pipe and probably with a restriction ring. I'm gonna guess TIG root and hot pass and stick it out. Maybe even TIG it all the way out then X-Ray or some other unforgiving NDT. I haven't had any experience in the nuclear field but it has the reputation of only hiring the best of the best of the best.Last edited by Jase90; 01-03-2016 at 05:58 AM.