Tinman

I work for a small company that builds giant puppets for themeparks (disneyland, etc). Most of our larger frames are MIG steel tube or TIG aluminum. We are going to be getting into some Chrome-moly tube frames, and are trying to figure out if we can get our main welder officially trained for chrome-moly welding. He is quite good with TIG on most metals, but largely self trained. Some of our clients want to see welding certification.

Do you have any intensive training sessions that could chrome-moly train and certify an already good welder?

The Timan Respondeth:

If your man can TIG and MIG that stuff, with some education he will pass certs on 4130 easily. Find a structural test lab, maybe Kleinfelder?

Write up drawings of structure, joint types, and thicknesses. Get certs on design, welding, and welder. Then find a CWI (certified welding inspector) for your man to test with. Cost: $200-300 for testing. A little more for dialing your man in. Easy.

You might also try contacting a local community college for help, it would help keep the cost down. As far as training, it isn't any more difficult than welding on mild steel. You do need to be aware of minimum and maximum pre heat, post heat and consumable alloys (100k+ psi.)

I would also recommend getting a certification on mild steel first. In many cases that is acceptable unless the job, customer or owner require specific testing or code requirements.

Good luck!

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