Welding Ships

 I received my new issue of the Welding Journal yesterday and there was a blurb in the News of the Industry section that Marine Group Boat Works received from the Navy a grant to certify welders for the ship building industry. The graduates from the program will be certified to NAVSEA standards, which I was not at all familiar with. I did a search for the standards and the whole package is 137 pages long. As a former Certified Welding Inspector, I'm somewhat familiar with the certification process, at least as far as the American Welding Society Structural Steel D1.1 code goes. The American Bureau of Shipping code is quite similar in its requirements as is the Canadian Structural code. The Canadians offer reciprocity to American welders with the D1.1 certification. Also, when taking the CWI exam, you can use the AWS code book or the API book. So regardless of the code you would be certified to, there are a lot of similarities.

Keeping our discussion here to just stick welding, more properly known as Shielded Metal Arc Welding, the process has to be certified first thing. This starts with the electrode grouping and material grouping. E6010 and E7018 electrodes are in the same group, so they can be used either individually or together on the same weld test. Likewise, a material such as 1020 or A36 can be used. The code book specifies material thickness, edge prep and weld position. After the weld is completed, the parameters are recorded and the test plate has "coupons" cut and bent. If all goes well, the test is then used to certify individual welders.

The NAVSEA test is basically the same for mild steel but the plates are all subject to ultrasonic or radiographic testing. The welders must retest every three years or after a three-month layoff. Because ships use a lot more material types than just mild steel, the code lists most every other material and welding process that is required in shipbuilding, as well as requirements for groove welds and fillet welds, pipe welds, inspection and record keeping requirements.

Obviously there's a lot required for an individual and their employer to maintain NAVSEA certification. The article mentions Marine Group Boat Works has a 92% retention rate, so I would think the working conditions, wages and fringe package are good. I went to their website but didn't come across anything as far as employment. 

It is good to see the Navy is addressing the issue of bringing more qualified people into the welding trade in order to build and maintain their fleet. $633,005 seems like just a drop in the bucket if they are really serious about remedying the situation. However, things might be changing.

John C. Phelan
Secretary of the Navy

The Honorable John Phelan was sworn in as the 79th Secretary of the Navy on March 25, 2025. Secretary Phelan oversees the well-being, readiness and development of nearly one million Sailors, Marines, reservists and civilian personnel in the Department of the Navy and manages an annual budget of $263.5 billion and balance sheet assets totaling $922 billion. His departmental priorities focus on strengthening shipbuilding and the maritime industrial base; fostering an adaptive, accountable and warfighting culture; and improving the health, welfare and training of our people.

 I wish the Honorable John Phelan all the best. It's not going to be easy to erase that thirty-year backlog on fulfilling the contracts for new submarines. 

Long Neck

 I finished the bike radiator job Sunday afternoon. A little tricky but not near as bad as I thought it would be, especially after struggling with the radiator itself. The piece I machined up to make the transition worked as designed. I did get a little melt thru on the inside of the top piece, so I chucked it up in the lathe to clean it up before welding the completed part onto the pipe. Hopefully everything works, because I'd just as soon not have to fiddle with it again. However, I'm pretty happy that I'm still capable of doing this type of work.

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

 

More death and destruction started yesterday - when will they ever learn? If this is going to be the start of WWIII, I don't want to play. 

A shot of the bike radiator with the heat sink putty applied. I had to work some water into it first, but it did the job.

Not the prettiest job ever but it should work. There's a couple of spots that look a little iffy. The one on the bottom is a crater, not a hole. The other spot by the outlet might actually be a leak. I had one hell of a time getting things clean enough to weld. I sanded off the radiator tank with a flap wheel, hit it with some emery cloth, wire brushed it, and rinsed it off with some aluminum cleaner. Once the heat sink putty was on there I couldn't wire brush it any longer. Being able to brush it would have been a great help. The aluminum tank has been anodized, and I thought I had all of that removed but most of the trouble might have been coming from residual anti-freeze inside the tank or grit embedded from the abrasives. Anyway, it's done. I'm going to check it over real well today when I attempt to weld the filler pieces together. Hopefully, I'll be able to get that done with a minimum of struggle, but I doubt it. 

Aluminum Work

 

It's nice having a decent collection of CDs to play in the truck, especially for someone like me who enjoys a wide variety of music. I had this one going yesterday morning and then rehab had oldies playing as well. Hard to beat "The King" on a beautiful late winter morning.

I postponed machining up the parts for the bike radiator project due to the weather. When I saw there was a 60-degree day in the forecast, I decided to wait for it and work on my taxes instead - good trade-off. I finished up the taxes and machined the parts when I could have the big doors open in the shop.

Next up is the welding. I'm not too worried about welding the plugs in the radiator, but welding the filler neck is liable to be a stretch. Wish me luck on that one.

Brain Health

 I received an email from the Michigan Brain Study group of which I'm a member the other day. Nothing much exciting in it, mostly just an update for those of us involved. However, it mentioned there was an article in Welder magazine about the study with a link. The study itself is looking for commonalities between the environmental factors in welding, fabricating and metalworking occupations and brain issues such as dementia and ALS. The study is still looking for volunteers, by the way. Read the article if you get a few minutes. It just might spur you to volunteer, which in turn may help all of us metal workers with a better future as far as our brain health goes.

Pluggin' Away

 

Harley Shovelhead with a real "peanut" tank. I'm no fan of that tank, but otherwise I like the bike. If I was going to be real nit-picky, I'd change the seat - lower it down into the angle of the frame so the fender would stop your butt from sliding back under acceleration. Beautiful bike just the same. Probably can't tell from the photo, but the frame and fender are a nice color of green. 

I put the kill switch on the trials bike yesterday. If the pigtail that came with it was just a couple of inches longer, it would have eliminated a splice. No biggie, not going to be much wiring anyway - just an ignition circuit and a couple of wires keeping the battery charged up. I'll get the coil swapped out from the tractor in the next couple of days. 

I started on the motorcycle radiator job yesterday as well. I got the two fittings cut off and took some measurements for making the two plugs as well as what it's going to take to hook up the filler neck. All of the pieces will be easy enough to make but keeping everything else cool enough while welding is going to be the challenge.

Production has slowed down lately due to the cold weather, cardiac rehab and the fact the Missus has shingles. She's been dealing with that for a couple of weeks now, leaving me as chief cook and bottle washer. She's over the worst of it, thank goodness. The old girl's been miserable.

I've got a couple of other projects I need to add to the list. One's pretty easy, just a bit of lathe work. The other will require a shovel and concrete, in addition to some fab work. No hurry on either of them, just tidying up a couple of loose ends. 

Update

 It seems the video about the safe deposit boxes was bogus. I did a bit of searching and came up with nothing in the way of confirmation. I talked to my financial advisor on another matter and then asked him about it. He hadn't heard anything. Surly sent me an email and called BS on the thing saying it was AI generated fearmongering. 

So, sorry if I sent anyone down the wrong track. However, at this point, nothing would surprise me with the banking industry.