“Reject,” he said. “Concave fillet. Undersized by 1/16th.”
This was CWI Part B: the practical, hands-on exam prep course for the American Welding Society’s Certified Welding Inspector credential. In a city built on film reels and freeways, this windowless warehouse was the unglamorous backbone of LA’s infrastructure—where the people who keep bridges from falling and pipelines from bursting came to get their stamp of authority. cwi training in los angeles
Mack dimmed the lights and handed each student a 10x illuminated magnifier, a V-WAC gauge (to measure fillet welds), and a set of undercut gauges. “Reject,” he said
The weight of the stamp became real. This wasn’t about skill. It was about liability. In a city built on film reels and
They moved outside to a mock-up of a structural steel frame—a small tower of I-beams, some of the welds deliberately sabotaged. Each student had to perform a simulated field inspection: approach the weld, clean it with a wire brush, measure the fillet leg size, check for undercut, inspect for crater cracks, and document everything on a CWI report form.