"Eisboch" wrote in message
...


Are you trying to convince us that your union construction crew bent and
fabricated the SS tubes, and formed the "perfect" panels of curved glass
on site? I don't believe it.

Or did they simply install them, supplied by a manufacturer?

Eisboch



BTW Harry, I am in no way inferring that union welders/fabricators are
inferior to non-union.
I am simply stating that they are not necessessary superior to non-union,
which is the case you keep trying to present.

I have quite a bit of experience with requirements for high quality welding.
The stainless steel or aluminum vacuum systems we built had some of the most
vigorous welding requirements in the trade.
They had to be leak tight to atoms of helium, drawn through voids or
inclusions or diffused through the welds by vacuum. Helium is number 2 on
the periodic chart, meaning the atoms are very, very small.

Anyway, once in a while we would have a contract that required a "U" stamp
or in a couple of rare cases, a "N" stamp, meaning our welders were
certified for nuclear work. We didn't have any "N" stamp certified
welders. One project required it for a subsection (not the entire
structure), so we subcontracted to a "N" certified union welder in another
shop. The finished piece was received and, as required by the contract, sent
out for x-ray. It flunked.

So, we subcontracted another one. Same thing. It flunked. The union shop
attempted to repair it without success ... flunked x-ray again.

Meanwhile, there are excuses flying around like mosquitoes in July. Time
was ticking and it was costing money.

We then had one of our very good, non-union welders go to the union shop to
witness the welding process on the forth attempt to build the subsystem.
One thing led to another (old history, not worth bringing back up) but it
turns out that our welder was quite a bit bigger than the shop's union
welder. Our guy grabbed the torch and spent three days welding up the
assembly.

Shipped it out for x-ray.... passed with no problems.

Eisboch