The CWB Association Welding Podcast
The CWB Association Welding Podcast
Episode 234: Aerospace Precision with Joshua Hren
The CWB Association brings you a weekly podcast that connects to welding professionals around the world to share their passion and give you the right tips to stay on top of what’s happening in the welding industry. Subscribe, listen, and stay connected to the people who keep the world welded together.
Sparks fly when precision matters with today's guest, Joshua Hren from Long Island, New York. Joshua shares how a career that began with laser welding under microscopes in medical devices took him through an eight-hour 6G TIG test on nuclear pipe and into the tight tolerances of aerospace heat exchangers. We dig into the skills that separate hobby work from production-grade welding, from joint preparation to gas coverage.
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Welcome to the TWP Associated Welding Podcast. I'm your host, Kevin Walker. Let's click up to Lib and sparks in conversation. Attention welders in Canada. Looking for top quality welding supplies? Look no further than Canada Welding Supply. With a vast selection of premium equipment, safety gear, and consumables, CWS has got you covered. They offer fast and reliable shipping across the country. And here's the best part. Podcast listeners get 10% off any pair of welding gloves. Use code CWB10 at checkout when placing your next order. Visit Canada Weldingsupply.ca now. Canada Welding Supply, your trusted welding supplier. Happy welding. Welcome to the CWB Association Welding Podcast. I am your host, Kevin Huat, and I have with me Joshua Hren. Absolutely. So what do you want to be called? Do you want to be called Josh, Joshua, Henny?
SPEAKER_03:You can really just go with Josh. That's fine. That's no problem. No big deal. Right on. So Josh, is this the first time you're on a podcast? Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's usually a big rush for me too after working a day and then trying to get out to the shop and do this stuff. But thank you very much for uh being a guest.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, definitely. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you and I have known each other. Yeah, you and I have known each other on Instagram for like I want to say almost I don't know, 10 years maybe.
SPEAKER_03:10 years, yeah. It was 10. I was thinking about it. I was like, I was in Nashville in 2017. I was like, I knew him before Nashville. I was like, so it's been 2016 or something. Oh maybe even 2015. I don't remember. Yeah. You know, like we've just been talking and talking.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah, usually talking each other over DMs, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, definitely. So yeah, I don't know. I just thought it was cool. And then like I thought about everything I was like known Kevin for nine or ten years.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, literally the first time that you and I like talk face to face, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, literally. Like we were just talking on text messages or DMs or whatever.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. You know? Just to watch to think about it. It's kinda yeah, man, it's kinda cool how social media like Instagram for real, like um helped helped, I guess, welders connect with each other and like share experiences, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, definitely. Definitely. Well, it's kinda wild. So like when I first met you, I was doing medical and stuff, and then now I'm in aerospace, so I can't literally cannot take any pictures of anything. I can't even tell people what I'm doing. We have to go under a new program to where we have like we have to put sheets up over parts so other customers don't know what we're doing.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. It's kind of wild. That'll uh that'll that'll halt, yeah, that'll halt your uh internet welding career pretty quick.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So like we do it and then they just start uh I guess I knew it wasn't able to happen because they have you sign a waiver or whatever, but like now it's getting serious. Like they're talking like, yo, not in even Lockheed can't see whatever part. You know what I mean? I'm like, it's Lockheed Martin, why can't they see him?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, can't can you even say onus?
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so it's pretty wild. Yeah. So Josh, where where did you where did you get your start in welding? Are you um like a professionally trained? Did you train yourself?
SPEAKER_03:So, alright, so I'm gonna give you a real quick, like real easy lowdown. So when I was a very young kid, before I got my first turn bike, my dad borrowed a weld or to weld something on his four grain shirt. So that like kick-started it, and then when Monster Garage hit the scene, like 2000, whatever it was, like I was like, oh, that's so cool. That's really cool. And uh so then my junior year in high school, you could sign up for welding engineering. So I started my junior year welding, and my senior year, um my first week of my senior year got me a job at a medical facility.
SPEAKER_02:Wow, that's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_03:So I've I've had my D17.1 for almost 20 years now, like working with laser welders. I never owned a hood for like eight years because I was always using a microscope. Oh that's pretty sweet. Yes, it was wild. So like got mad at my dad when I was a very little kid that I couldn't hang out in the garage, you know, and then uh junior year in high school, they had it was like a separate school. I would drive over to the separate school, I would grab lunch at like Wendy's or whatever, and then um then I would weld. And it was crazy because my teacher was like, Oh, you got a hand for TIG. I'm like, Okay, cool. Because you know, in the first weeks they have you, they kind of spread you around. You do stick, mega, tig, and uh did TIG, got my first job at 17 at a medical facility, and here we are.
SPEAKER_02:That's crazy that's a crazy story, just right out of high school. Not even like you're 17 years old and you're working in a medical facility. So what do you if you can tell me, what are you welding in this facility?
SPEAKER_03:Uh so I'm doing aerospace and defense products. I'm actually doing heat exchangers right now. Um, so that's where I'm at. I'm actually one of 16 welders, but only able to do one job because nobody else passed it. Like the old timers, bro. We were meeting. They pulled all 16 of us welders into a meeting, and they go, um, so your 2014 part when we first produced this product did not pass, but Josh passed it two weeks ago. They were actually like CT scanning the parts and the old timers looking like I'm in a union or whatever, and the old timers look at me like I don't know what to do. Like, don't you engineers stop calling me out? Like, yeah, show up. Why did we have this meeting if I'm the only one allowed to hang out? You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02:Like, yeah. Maybe they're trying to motivate the old timers to to try something new, maybe.
SPEAKER_03:That or retire, like, you know.
SPEAKER_02:That's crazy. So that's what you're doing. Now, so when you were back at the medical facility, what kind of stuff were you welding in the medical facility?
SPEAKER_03:So, like, think about um, so we did hip reamers. So when they go to replace your hip, I can send you those pictures, but when they go to replace your hip, they cut you open, whatever, pull out your hip, but they have to ream out inside where the ball of your hip goes. So I would laser weld the actual reamers that they were putting, you know, 100 foot pounds of pork on or whatever, you know what I mean? So we did those, and then some of them were Teg welds. I mean, they were as big as a pen, and you know, but you had to have 100% penetration. So it was just it's just crazy.
SPEAKER_02:Some super small, intricate stuff, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, it's just so can I ask you, uh, what what area are you in? Like what state are you in?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I'm on Long Island.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah. Yeah, Long Island, New York. Have you lived there most of your life? No.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, that's where we're gonna begin.
SPEAKER_02:No, let's go all the way back. Yeah, I skid my knee. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. Skin my knee at three. Uh born in Mississippi on the Air Force Base. This is kind of like a weird circle around for the aerospace and defense, what I'm doing now. Uh born in Mississippi. Uh, we moved to Indiana. I live like I did my most life in Indiana, like high school. That's where I learned to weld. Because I actually, like I said before my junior year, so they had like a welding competition. And you got like farmer dudes that can weld, that can really stick weld. And I'm like, I came in like I think it's like Isma or something. I don't even know if it's istma, but I came in like sixth place. I'm like, my tick welds are good, bro. Like, what are we doing? Like you had to do flame cutting and this and that, you know. So it was down to like ten pe or ten or fifteen kids. You know, junior year my teacher's like, ah, you're gonna do it. I'm like, Oh no. So did that, and then my senior year within the first week, whatever I got my job, and like I literally have not looked back. Like, I tried going to college when I was in Nashville for like three months, got a call. This recruiter goes, Hey, I got a nuclear job that you would be really good fit at. And she goes, Meet me at Shoney's. Like, Oh, free breakfast, I'm not gonna say no to that. So I zoom over to Shoney's the next day and she got me in with the nuclear company. And that's that's kind of where I started traveling. So like I started in medical, you know, tried going back to college, and uh yeah, just had a good time.
SPEAKER_02:Like were you not like a college kind of guy or did you absolutely not? I was not a school guy. Absolutely not. Now what were what were you uh what were you uh studying in college when you were there for those three months?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I was trying to do diesel mechanic.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Well, that's alright then.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. I mean I could fix the metal on them, but I can't fix the engine.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, don't get me started on electrical. Actually, I did all right in electrical. That's the weird part. There must be something something a little bit weird with you then, hey? Yeah. So yeah, so you so you got you got recruited. How how did that process go? Like, how did they get your name, or were you already in some kind of system?
SPEAKER_03:No, I think I just was in some kind of system, like I was an indeed or monster or something. Like she showed me the resume, and I was like, wow, this is old. And she's like, Well, I know you're here, and I'm like, Oh, okay, thanks for breakfast. You know, like, and got me the job. And that's like I did medical, medical, and then I went to nuclear because I tried going back to school because nuclear is big in Tennessee or whatever. And uh I was like, all right, cool, let's try it out.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. What kind of what kind of tests or tickets do you need to to work in the nuclear industry?
SPEAKER_03:So I it was a 6G test as pipe. I'm not used to that because you gotta remember I came from medical, so I'm looking at D17.1, and my CWI at the time, here's a really cool. Coolest C one of the coolest CWIs. And uh so I had to do a 6G test. It it was the it was the C for coupon or whatever. I can't remember what schedule the pipe it was, but it was 140, 160, I don't know, one of those pipes. Took me eight hours to do. Literally, because he had your interpass temperature, so he would come down and check the temperature of the actual pipe. And the crazy part was about that test was he's like, Do you want to use one sixteenth or three thirty second? I was like, ah, just use one sixteenth, you know. Wrong. I would use three thirty second on that bad boy.
SPEAKER_02:Step it up to one eighth. Like, I'm pretty sure that coupon scalp, it's like one inch thick. I'm pretty sure the wall thickness is on that extra, extra heavy pipe.
SPEAKER_03:I think it was actually a little over much because I was looking at all the pictures and I was like, yo, this pipe is freaking thick, you know, like I got hours, I eight hours in it. I mean, I don't really know because I don't do nuclear pipe anymore, but yeah, it was wild. Yeah, so that was Tig all the way out? Tig all the way out, TIG root, everything. Wild craving. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So you go from welding with lasers and microscopes to welding some heavy, heavy, heavy pipe. So how long did you last with nuclear? Are you still doing some of that stuff?
SPEAKER_03:No, I'm not doing any more of that. Actually, the company got bought out and I got laid off. Um met some really cool dudes there, you know what I mean? Uh traveled, traveled a lot. So traveling for work? Yeah, so we would go to South Carolina, to Iowa, to Kansas, to wherever. So they had a bunch of sister companies. So they would call me and my foreman in, and then we would travel and you know, get the whole per diem jig or whatever, you know.
SPEAKER_02:So were you ever rig welding? Did you have your own truck?
SPEAKER_03:No, I never did rig welding. No. Uh but when we traveled, I mean we took everything with us except the welder. You know what I mean? We had all the tools, we had everything except the welder.
SPEAKER_02:So So when you'd show up on site, would would it be the company that's supplying the welding machine? Yeah, the company would supply it. Yeah. What did you uh would you like using the most? What do you mean? Like for for I I don't want to get brand brand specific here, but yeah, how like what what brand of machine did you like the most?
SPEAKER_03:It was blue. But it was weird. I put it on AC so I can load some aluminum or whatever, you know, like little like I don't know, brackets for doors or whatever, and uh I'd sit there. Whoop, womp, womp, womp, and it wouldn't fire up, and then it would so but like now, honestly, I have like one in the top of the line blue machines, the 400, but it's kind of weird because I had a 350 and it all like the uh high frequency is different between the two machines because I've never welded with a machine that was the same, right? Like they all have like those little tiny differences, and like I noticed that between this high performance versus one where the water cooler went out and I had a cooler on top of it. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, give me the one with the cooler on top. I don't care.
SPEAKER_02:So those were dynasties in the dynasty 350 and the 400. Yeah, those those are those are nice machines. I'd I welded most of my TIG career with a dynasty 350, and like I I couldn't complain.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, no, the three well, because in the medical we use the 200s, but the uh the 350 I had for five years, and now they move my booth and I got a new 400. I'm like, man, that thing kind of sucks. So they changed that like yeah, it's like a weird high frequency, like when I go to tack very little things, you know, inside of the product I do now, um, it'll actually arc out from the gas lens. I'm like, what is going on? Oh, am I new again? Yeah, I'm like, am I new again? Like I can show heat marks from the gas lens.
SPEAKER_02:What that's weird.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it's very weird. So it's a nice setup. Like, don't get me wrong, like very nice setup, everything's great, but like I'm like, what is going on? Yeah, first time I've seen this in 18, 19 years.
SPEAKER_01:Ever.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so then you get to study, right? You're trying to trying to figure it out. You reach out to any yeah, you reach out to anybody with uh the blue guys.
SPEAKER_03:I actually have not. Um I have not. I'm kind of just trying to figure it out on my own. And probably isn't the best thing, but you know, we got a new CWI there. Tom, he's a great guy. He's he's actually very funny. He's a very cool CWI, you know. He's some of the things he says, I'm like, wow. Never would imagine you would say that.
SPEAKER_02:No, it's good. Uh yeah, being a certified welding inspector is uh it's a it's a different gig. I'm actually starting to go get my level one right now, which uh there's a lot of there's a lot of code understanding that you need to be uh aware of, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I literally just had the Tom printed me the book like two months ago.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Are you starting to do that?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Honestly, 19, 20 years under the hood, I'm done. I love welding, love it to death, but you know what? I want to sit there and look at x-rays and be like, you Yeah, it's a big flex.
SPEAKER_02:No, I understand that side too. Like, how's how's your body holding up after 20 years of welding?
SPEAKER_03:Uh well, I I mean I already had back surgery. I had hernia surgery, so I've actually been doing pretty good. Like, there was a couple jobs that I had they were rough. I'm like, how like I look at the older dudes, old timers, I'm like, how are you alive? Like, I just went in an ore dryer for 10 hours, and I can barely bend my knees. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, probably a lot of ibuprofen. Well a lot of or a lot of whiskey. What are the two? Yeah, yeah, probably the latter. Yeah, like my knees, my knees are definitely hurting me now. Like I'm 40 now and my knees are just hurting. So yeah, like I can't, I can't, like I can still do all the jobs I used to be able to do, but maybe a little bit slower, and I gotta think about yeah, I gotta think about what my next move's gonna be, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, right, right.
SPEAKER_02:Left, right, left, just count the steps up. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And we'll get there, and then we'll put some welds down.
SPEAKER_02:So are you pretty far into studying for your CWI? No. Just hey, I'm I'm in the same boat. Like I I got all my stuff about a month or two ago, and I just gotta find time, right?
SPEAKER_03:Right. Literally. That's all it is. I started reading that and I'm like, what is this?
SPEAKER_01:When you haven't? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, when you haven't opened a textbook up in like 20 years, like myself, um it's a little scary.
SPEAKER_01:It is.
SPEAKER_02:There's a lot of pages. Front and back. Yeah. Then you start procrastinating, right? Like uh, yeah, yeah. Oh totally. Totally. So so when you're not studying, when you're not welding, what do you do and how do you spare your how do you spend your spare time?
SPEAKER_03:Uh I spend all my spare time with my girlfriend. Um we do we do a lot. Like we're literally just on the go, you know.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Doing this, hopping on a train, let's go to the city, let's do this, let's do this. We're very close to New York City, so it's you know, it's like an hour train right in with doing this, or we're going out, you know, picking pumpkins, which is great. You know, because you have the city, but then you have farm.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So it's it's pretty wild, you know, like and you can make it from north to south of the island in like twenty-five minutes.
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm. That sounds nice.
SPEAKER_03:So yeah, so you could go to the ocean or whatever, and it stays decently warm. It's not like it's not like Minnesota when I was there for a year.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I live I live slightly more north of that. Yeah, I know. Yes, so uh I understand the cold. It's uh it's not it's not fun. We have about I don't know, three months of warm weather, the rest is all hit or miss. It's like Indiana.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, it's great. It's great, yeah, because like you'll get like your one or two snow days, but then you can still go outside in a sweatshirt when the snow is melting the next day.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_02:That sounds nice. Here, your skin, like in the middle of winter, January, February, um, your skin will freeze in about 12 seconds of being exposed. So just yeah, imagine the guys and yeah, the ladies working out there in that kind of weather.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah. Well, when I was in Minnesota for that year, I was uh it was negative 50 with the wind with the wind chill. Negative 50 wind chill. Yeah, yeah. It was that for a week. Minnesota or Minneapolis shut down. I'm like, we're an hour north. Why isn't this shutting down?
SPEAKER_02:Why do I still have to go to work? Yeah. What are we doing? That's because you work in the trades, you gotta keep the little going, right? Literally. Ridiculous. Yeah, the reason I asked you uh about what you do with your spare time, because I myself, a lot of people out there, they've got the side gig, you know, I weld all day, I weld all night, and you're not you're not one of those guys, hey?
SPEAKER_03:Um so I have a buddy, but um buddy, his name's Dominic. So he's got a shop, it's called the Layoff Shop or whatever. So we're doing Harley things. Yeah, but he's still young. He's ten years younger than me. So he just got married and now he's gonna have his first kid in February. So like that's awesome. Like, let's do Harley sh then it's like to a minimum. You know what I mean? Like, it's like, uh Yeah, let's do this this week, not next. You know, tomorrow or tonight. So it's kinda we're we're kind of fine on that fine line. Because he's you know, he's a boilermaker, so he's not he's not a tig waller. So like I went over there and showed him different things, and he's like, Holy sh, he got full penetration. I'm like, I do this for a living. Great. Uh that's really cool. You know, like and yeah, like he stick wobbles and stuff, but we've definitely we I've been helping him out with an exhaust and doing this or that or whatever, and he helps yeah. It's like a scratch my back, I scratch your back.
SPEAKER_02:No, exactly. Like it's cool to work with someone who's got a different skill set than you. I noticed it myself. I do some work for uh uh a motorcycle friend of mine too, and it's like you know, he's good at this stuff, I'm good at this stuff, and all of a sudden it just meshes and uh get kind of uplifts everything, up it uplifts the shop, right?
SPEAKER_03:Right, yeah. No, it's definitely really cool that we can, you know, he we just bought had and then we figure it out, you know, it's really cool. Because I'll be like, oh try that. He's like, You're wild.
SPEAKER_02:I'm like, no, I'm not, but I am, you know, like I'm wild because you think I am, but I don't yeah, I actually know what I'm doing, and this is gonna work. Right, right.
SPEAKER_03:And you know, I show him and he's like, Oh, that's so cool. And I'm like, ah yeah, that's just so cool too that you do this. So, you know, like it's like meeting of the minds when you see your managers walking together, but like actually progress happening because you have two welders together, you know. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like you like you guys are actually doing something in start instead of talking about moving chairs or something.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, actually doing something instead of talking about doing something, and like it comes up a lot. Like I've done I've done a few episodes now, and like it comes up a lot is is knowing your machines and knowing what the knobs do and how the gas affects your arc and all this stuff. Like, if you if you're not playing around, how are you ever gonna find out?
SPEAKER_03:Exactly, exactly, and that's where I'm going back to the 400 and 350, they're completely different. It's weird, like the 350, my arc truck, you know, with n point two, and then I had the wireless pedal and it really fed me up. I was like, get rid of it, throw this on the ocean. I don't need this. You know what I mean? Like, there is like there's no two machines that are in the same.
SPEAKER_02:No, they could be the exact same machine and the two would act different. All depends who built it and if it was a Friday or or a Monday. Oh, Monday, okay. Yeah, definitely. We're gonna take a small break here to listen to our podcast sponsors, so stay tuned. JosephGases.ca, your one-stop welder superstore. Whether you run a welding shop or are just starting your welding journey, JosephGast, the Welder Superstore, is the best place for everything related to welding. Come to the site and browser topics of welders, helmets, and welding supplies specific to your industry. Even filter out the items eligible for manufacturers to have rebates. Our intuitive search tool puts everything at your fingertips. And check out is a breeze. Pay securely with your credit card. If you are ready to streamline your welding supply shopping experience, visit josephgasses.ca. That's Joseph with an F. As in family. Start filling your cart with welder confidence. And we're back with Joshua Hren. Unless you want me to pronounce that differently. I have a I have a hard time with my last name, too.
SPEAKER_03:Nah, the H is silent. Just think of Ren, I guess. I don't know. Like the bird.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, there you go. Oh, it's all good, man. So yeah, we touched a bit about like old timers and and young guys learning on their own and and machines being different. So this kind of a broad question, but what is wrong with welding today? What grinds your gears when it comes to the trade?
SPEAKER_03:What grinds my gears is these classes are so short, like say college classes or welding classes. You know what I mean? And these kids jump out and they're like, oh, I can weld that. Alright, here's here's a 116 T plate. Do it X-ray style. You know what I mean? Like, and then they fail it, and then they fail it, and then they fail it. They just I don't know, I feel like it's like a humble thing. Like I'm not trying to say that, you know, I've done it for a while, but you I for a year I ground tungsten. For a year, I tacked something. I was never allowed to weld it. You know, so there was those three to four years of growing that I don't feel like the newer I think they just want to jump into it and be like, ah, I can weld I'm like, oh I just chill.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so do you think do you think the schools yeah, do you think the schools are not training them enough or is it I are the yeah, are the instructors not trained enough? What is it?
SPEAKER_03:I I think it's the schools slash instructor slash money. I feel like some of these schools are trying to come out for a quick buck. You know what I mean? Like like I understand you want to wild, like you need to learn how to grind tungsten. You need to know how to set up a joint, you need to know how to, you know, bend stuff or you know, finish stuff. I feel like but I can't say anything because I'm only in like manufacturing, but I did see it when I was doing pipe and stuff too. So I I'm trying to float along the lines of like I understand you want to weld, but just please listen to us. Because there's not many like me, you're in our age, there's not many welders of us. It's all old timers and now you got the new kids jumping in. And it's like, yo, just just chill. Just sit down. You know what I mean? Like I will show you, but we have to learn something. First, and it's not like I'm trying to force them to sharpen tungsten. But if you don't have a good tungsten, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so it's it's baby steps, so they could they come out of school, they come out of school just rare in the go, but they haven't put in the do's, they haven't done right, yeah. It's kind of it's it's it's an apprenticeship, right? It's like tattooing.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, right. Like I love the enthusiasm, and it's like, yo, yeah, no, that's I I see it too.
SPEAKER_02:I see it too. And like, you know, like we talked about social media earlier. Yeah, uh a dark side to the social media is you have all these schools popping up that say they're the best, and they tell you right off the bat, you come weld here as soon as you leave, you're making a hundred grand, you're making two hundred grand, you're gonna jump into a pipeline, you're gonna be a millionaire within two years. Yeah, so yeah, yeah, it's kind of tough.
SPEAKER_03:It's almost like a lot of a ticket. I feel like you scratch that bad boy off, and you're gonna become a millionaire. You know what I mean? Like, like, yo, like you gotta learn how to put a chamfer on something. Or, you know, say you're doing a corner of something. Where's that material going, bro? You know what I mean? Like, I'm so used to X-ray. I'm like, there's no, like, that's not going anywhere. Like, we're gonna fail that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. No, that's true. Like, if you don't if you don't learn the ins and outs of your trade, like all you're good at is doing this one weld. Well, what happens? What happens when that's that fit up's not perfect? What happens when you're uncomfortable? You're yeah, you haven't learned you haven't learned how to deal with that.
SPEAKER_03:Right. And I feel like it's just kind of like a lot of these schools just trying to get their money from them and say, Oh, you do Welder. And I'm like, No. Because you know, it came one uh my best friend at work, he's Welder, like he was an aerospace and defense, his dad was the supervisor, so like he learned he was there for 15 years or something. And it's like, yo, we were holding five thousand on these parts. I don't know what can he do. Five thousandths five thousandths of an inch. American. American. Yeah, five thousandths American.
SPEAKER_02:Don't worry, up here we can use both.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, just make it. Yeah, so like I would have to do these reamers at the medical place that we would have to CMM, you know, whatever it's called for you. And then he had to do like plane engine mounts. I had to stay within 5,000. So like I'm like, yo, we had to do this. I would put it in a lathe and bend it, bring it back, and then lout this side, because you know, it's got your X, Y, and Z reports and stuff. And so he's like, Yeah, well I just do that on engine mounts, you know, and like it's like I can see the D17.1 come out in both of us. You know what I mean? Like you like anything with pipeline, I'm like, oh, okay, cool, just make sure the roots are good and throw in your hot pass, you know. But like when you actually get down to like manufacturing, it's more than just like sheets of stainless, I guess. It's like you're having to hold that consistency for a hundred parts or fifty parts.
SPEAKER_02:You know, like in the all have to come out the same. They all have to pay literally. Yeah. So so at your workplace, uh, are you part of a team or just each guy does their own thing?
SPEAKER_03:Um, so we have it's kind of different. So we're in the union, right? Um, so we have welding and then we have our mechanics. So we have actual mechanics. Like a guy will build the part for me and just push it into my booth. So and then like I'm training him how to weld, and he's been my mechanic for like two or three years. You know, he Haido has been, you know, he's been very humble, he's learning. He'll go into somebody else's booth. If like say if somebody's sick, he'll go into the booth and go and weld. Like, like he's you know, he's sticking to the small stuff, and like I'll be like, hey, and I'll show him something different, or be like, hey, when you do this part, do this. You know, and he's totally getting it. Sweet.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah. He's gonna he's kind of stepping up, he's trying to move up from the mechanics position.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Because he actually started out, so we have like five different departments. So we got brazing, uh, and they make the fin where they, you know, think of a radiator where they the fins. So they do that. They have the fin machines, brazing, um, and they have assembly, uh, heat treat, and then uh oh, machining. So that's another big one. You know, uh machining goes hand in hand with uh what we do a lot.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, every machinist needs a good welder, right?
SPEAKER_03:Literally. It's kind of it's actually like I've you know, I've worked in this industry for however many years, and like, you know, you're not a grinder, you're a welder. You know what I mean? Like they can't be good on the inside and outside. So I don't know. There's a lot of it it depends which way you go. Say if you go rig welding, you don't need a machinist. You got a grinder, you know that's your mechanic. You know what I mean? Like, but we have machinists, we have inspection, and we have this and that. So it's uh it's definitely uh very I guess it would be more precision than anything. So I'm just kind of keeping it with that. That's how I draw it up. That's how I learned, and I'm sticking with it.
SPEAKER_02:Well, that's really cool that you taking time out of your day to help somebody better themselves.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, like I helped him pass with D17.1. Like he's certified. It's just his skill level for the stuff that I do or say my buddy does isn't quite there. He can definitely do other things, but it's I'm noticing like what he can and what he can't.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah, I mean, yeah, some people can't do it all. It it it is what it is, right? So I've heard I've heard you mention D17.1 quite a lot. So for everybody else out here, what is that? What is that and what kind of test do you have to do to to have it?
SPEAKER_03:So that's the aerospace and uh medical certification. Um, like say if you're out pipe long, you have your 6G, do your pipes, whatever, you know, different sizes. But I'm on the other end of the spectrum spectrum. I'm doing T plates, butt joints. I mean, I think we even did like a half-inch tube that we had to have x-rayed. You know what I mean? Like just it's manufacturing things. So like we're t we're tig welding in a controlled environment, right? And it's all stainless, it's purged or half-teloy or inkanel, it is what it is. Like, so I had to do I guess it was ink and all test. I had to do a butt joint, T joint, uh, pipe, and then it was like pipe to plate. It was weird.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so you just different different joints just for a certain part of manufacturing.
SPEAKER_03:Right, right. So like say you will I don't know how the best way to explain this stuff. Think of like they hang your certificate up, right? You're like good from like say fifty thousandth to two hundred and fifty thousandth. That's what our D17 point one is good for. So there's a certain range, but we did it at 116 on Incono. So like we're certified from a certain thickness to a certain thickness and different positions, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Because we had somebody watch us do it, you know. So it was uh and then they send it to NADCAP and do this and that, you know. You do the usual cut it up, x-ray it, you know, looking for anything.
SPEAKER_02:So yeah, it's your so your typical weld test. It's similar to structural, just a lot a lot thinner. Right, right, right, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Cool.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so that's a lot of. I mean it's I mean it definitely takes a little bit more skill to like you gotta pay attention more. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02:You can't you know You can't you can't fake it till you make it. If you fake it, you Right, like right.
SPEAKER_03:Like we're not sticking a weld rod and yelling at somebody and just ripping it off and going back at it. You know what I mean? Yeah. You know, you gotta brush it and be good with that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean that's that's the uh aerospace world, right? Like you don't want airplanes and spaceships uh falling out of the sky.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Like you can't pull over at 30,000 feet.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you can only pull over in one direction, and that's not a good one.
SPEAKER_03:So yeah, so that's uh that's yeah, that's what I'm doing now.
SPEAKER_02:So Josh, if you if you weren't in the welding world, what would you have done? What would be your career path? And we know you didn't like heavy-duty mechanic, diesel mechanic.
SPEAKER_03:I don't know. You've you've never thought about it.
SPEAKER_01:Oh no.
SPEAKER_03:Just because of the way I fell into welding. Like I got mad at my dad when I was like a young kid and couldn't see it. And then I saw Monster Garage and I got into it. You know, my junior year got into welding. My teacher is like, Oh, you have a hand for it and got me a job. Like, I haven't really even actually diesel mechanic, I haven't thought about it at all.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's crazy. Like myself, I wanted to be a mechanic, kind of like you, and uh it honestly it didn't work out for me. Like, I had three months in the trade and I hated it, and it was the same thing. Like, I had an instructor that was uh in auto mechanics, he's like, You're really good at welding. You ever think about that? So, yeah, I I fell into it too, but like here we are 20 years later. But like, I guess I put you on the spot, but like what the hell would I do? I think I don't know why. Yeah, I want to say professional snowboarder, but like my my knees today couldn't do it, that's for sure. Right, like we're old. Like I was like, ah, I'll race dirt bikes, but I'm old.
SPEAKER_03:Like it doesn't you don't bounce.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you don't bounce, you don't bounce back quite as easily.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, like you just don't it's you're not young anymore. Well, I don't know. Yeah, I really don't know.
SPEAKER_02:That's fair. Yeah, yeah. That's fair. So um what's next for you then? Since you're not quitting welding, you're gonna you're gonna do your CWI. Is there anything else exciting happening in your life or in your job?
SPEAKER_03:Well, yeah, just like I said before, I'm the only one that's allowed to weld a certain product for a certain airplane. Um so I've just been kind of you know throwing the dice on that. And actually last week they go, you got too much penetration. I was like, I've never heard that before in welding. Like, so you're telling me, but what it is with the heat exchangers, you block the vents. So it's actually I was like, well, I can't decide on how much I get or not. You know what I mean? Like, so it's really like been bobbling my mind. Cause I'm like, wait, I'm like, I got way too much, like I need to tone it back. Because the the customer actually came in and I worked with their welding engineer, and they're like, Yeah, this is great, you know, blah blah blah. I'm like, oh, alright. So now I've been trying to achieve that over 100% penetration, and I failed. So I'm like, I'm still learning.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so you got a bit of a challenge. So you're you're the only guy welding these parts, so you're working on getting a big raise, and uh and you're working on you're working on yeah, you know, every welder wants complete penetration, but you're getting too much, so now you got some you got something to learn.
SPEAKER_03:Right. So like it's actually kind of like I'm like, huh, I'm learning something now because I can only go halfway. You know what I mean? I don't know. I'm so used to running my welder's hot and you're throwing the rod in, and then I'm like, wow, so you don't want me to keyhole it. You know what I mean? Like, what am I like where's my happy medium?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and that's a tough spot because when you're used to doing something all the time the same way, and then like, oh, I'm doing it a little too good. Like, yeah, what it what variable do I have to change to do that?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. I'm doing so good, I'm doing bad. You know what I mean? I'm like, wait, way too much. You know, so that's that's where I'm at. Like, I don't wanna like I I feel like I did that today. Yeah because I had I had to do one of those parts today, and uh my CWI came by because we're we're doing pipes for an oven, and uh he's doing the pipe or whatever, and I'm like, ah it looks like sh come look at this. You know, like you know, just giving him a and then uh he comes back, you know, and he's like, Oh, you want to add a boy? Like, yeah, actually I did.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's actually yeah, it's actually okay to tell a guy he's doing a good job. It's kind of like the it's a thing in the welding world, right? It's uh no news is good news, right? Right. Yeah, if you never hear that you're doing bad, you're doing good. But like some people you gotta you gotta pump those tires up, right? Gotta hear it. Right, right.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and that's because I did too much on the last round. So now I'm like, I'm not letting this go through unless somebody looks at it with a second pair of eyes. You know what I mean? Like what are you doing?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. So you may have you may have touched on this throughout this episode, but um what is what is a piece of advice that you would give to someone that's just starting up and welding or trying to learn a new process or whatever.
SPEAKER_03:Um, I would just say stay humble and just practice, you know. If somebody tells you, hey, you f that then just look at us and pay attention. I don't know how else to say that, but like just don't get upset. Just look at what actually happened. Like, if you got undercut, why did you get undercut? Just look at it. Like, you know what I mean? You look at every weld and you can be like, oh I f up, or this or that. You know, because we have dye penetrant at my job too. So they'll be like, they're not welders, and they'll be like, oh, you gotta undercut. I guess that's just more of staying humble and just listen. You know, learn, definitely learn because after almost 20 years, I'm still learning every day. It's always a learning curve. Because like even with the full penetration, like you see puddle drop. Well, how far do you let that puddle drop in your eyes? You know, uh that bad boy's not, you know, it's not certifying. So you gotta learn it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, keeping your your ears and your eyes open and your mouth and your mouth and your mouth maybe a little bit more closed.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. No, keep that bad boy open, just talk.
SPEAKER_02:That's the welder's way.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. But I mean, you know what I mean. Like, if like even the old timers, like I talk a little about them, but it's like if I hear something, I'm like, hmm, I'll think about it or whatever, you know, and like maybe give it a little test run. Kind of one of those things. You learn everything with welding. It's something new, I feel like, every day. Something different is always gonna happen with it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's very well put. Well, Josh, I think that this is uh this is a good time to wrap it up. So thank you very much for being my guest. I mean, we we're gonna keep going. You wanna keep going?
SPEAKER_03:So we can uh I need to relax for a little bit.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you worked a pretty long time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Had a day, no, did everything. Shout out to Katie for feeding me dinner.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. You gotta shout out the girlfriend.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, definitely. She gave me dinner, had everything ready. It's just like I know you have your podcast. I knew I had it because I was thinking about all of like my teacher stuff, how I learned how to weld. You know, I would do a weld, he would break it apart and throw it out and goes, do it again.
SPEAKER_02:I'm like, yeah, you know, yeah. So for yeah, for those who can't see it because we didn't share the video yesterday. Yeah, thumbs up. Yeah. Okay, well, thanks again, man. It's been a great time. And uh make sure you stay tuned to the CWB Association. We got tons of episodes dropping weekly, so stay tuned. Thanks very much.
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