Bret,
Yeah, that is 3/8 plate (1020 steel).. that is the material that all my test were taken on...

You would weld the piece (in whatever direction your test was in front and back side... front side has the two 30° bevels together, and the back you have to relief cut where your burn through shows up and clean it up and weld it back), then get the instructor to inspect the welds and have him mark two 2" strips out of the center of the piece, and then you on both sides, take the torch and cut them and smooth out the weld and place it in a bending machine...( if you remove to much metal out and make the piece a 1/4 or less, you fail ) one piece goes in facing one way and the other gets flipped over and bent the other way... if it breaks or cracks or pits more than a 1/16 on each piece you fail.. and if you don't pass them both, you fail... and to make it even harder, you have to pass the same test again right after it to pass... and if you fail... you have to start all over again...


Anyways, I welded several radius' and 45° after 3 or 4 sets of that I finally got it down.. so I asked the instructor, what next? he said, wanna try tig... then he thought a minute and said but we don't have a machine open... so try this flux core machine. and so I did... and good lord, I love the welds a FCAW (flux core arc weld) makes... the flux in the wire basically makes the weld lay flatter and smoother than normal wire... with the same pattern weld that I was making before on GMAW, now the FCAW virtually shows no weld spot... it looks more like the metal just has a small arc or metal that blends at the joint now... where as on GMAW you can clearly tell that there is a weld there but the seration/transition between weaves... I will try and get some pics of that on next tuesday night...

I think I am going to try and pass all the FCAW tests and then jump on GTAW (tig) right after that... only reason I am not going straight to TIG is I am pretty sure that I can knock out FCAW and that will give me 2 types of welding on my resume.. where as I am pretty sure I will not knock out TIG quite as fast... that is a skill that takes quite a bit of time... anyways, my lazy butt needs to do more book work...

GNs-R-Slow,
You like my "weave" I just got them done, along with my new extentions...
But yeah, I watched a few of the guys doing TIG today and tried to pick up as much as possible from the ones that know what they are doing... and man, just watching them manipulate that rod and twist it and move the torch and push the pedal.. almost makes you get lost just thinking about it... I know for dang sure I would need new gloves I can barely feel my fingers in the ones have now, no way I could hold that rod and be able to feel how much I need to move it... LOL