The shop I mentioned was a shipyard. We did work directly on board for repair work and new construction. It's all hand welded so the welder sets his machine as best he knows how which in my opinion, most or all of the welders hand never had any training in a weld school. Just on job "training". The power supply and wire feeding "suitcases" were erroneously ordered with dual functions. One for constant current (CC settings) and one for constant voltage (CV settings). It's been a few years since I left that job so I kind of forget which was the legitimate setting without looking at the machine but in one case you would be welding at a bench and use a foot peddle to control the voltage. I think that's the constant current setting. In our case you manually set the voltage and the machine controls the current. That's for welding with a "gun" wire feeder. You can move about your work within reach of the length of the "gun" cable system. You simply move your "suitcase" box when needed. Using the proper setting the weld flows out smooth and clean and has good fusion to the base metal. The force of the arc provides penetration and creates a nice puddle that the flux can float to the top while the gas cover keeps oxygen away from the molten metal as is cools. The setting the other shop welders were using incorrectly meant that the puddle was too small and the arc didn't create the needed fusion or penetration so the welds were weak, had major problems with cold roll on the edges and the welders were then forced to grind out those cold rolls and "fix" the defects. So, I could look out on the shop floor and see maybe half the welders at any given time working with their angle grinders repairing defects, basically reworking welds. Obviously this is a huge extra cost in labor expenses with zero benefit to the weld quality. A huge production negative. Sure, the shop can get this garbage to pass inspection but what a waste of effort. Having a kind heart I stopped by one welder and had him switch his machine over to the correct settings and reset the voltages. As I remember it, they'd been setting the machines on CV which was correct and setting the wire feeders on CC which was incorrect. If you just set the wire feeder back to CV it doesn't work either as the machine needed to be set to the correct voltage to run properly so people got the incorrect idea that the CV/CV settings between machine and wire feeder was not correct and had been setting the two systems as CC/CV which provided welding power but poor quality. Anyway, I showed the guy the correct settings without taking him to school on the specifics. I just told him to use that and stood by while he tried it out. Voila! I created a professional welder guy. He was very pleased with the results and I walked away feeling great. Saved at least one welder from a life time of being a grind whore instead of a professional weld whore. I stopped by an hour later on my way to the water fountain and what do I see? He's back to the incorrect settings, welding crap welds and then fixing them with his grinder and rewelding all the defects. Saddened and disheartened I stopped him to ask why he reverted back to the incorrect settings. He replied that the supervisor had reset his machine and told him "That's the way we do it here so keep the settings as I've told you". Because he was shop trained he meekly complied. Spending six months in a trade school they obviously can't teach you the basics of every machine that has been invented and which will be later modified by manufacturers with new bells and whistles, etc, but instead teach you welding basics so you know how a weld bead should look, what defects to avoid and some basic ways to adjust any machine. Beyond that a professional welder might need to do some homework and contact the manufacturer if he has an issue he can't resolve to get good results. Some basic USA manufactured machines and equipment are Hobart (good when new but not the best or reliable over time), Lincoln (Very good basic machines for shop and field work) and Miller (Widely used, quality machines but catering also to home welders with some cheaper crappier versions). Large purchasers can order variations for their specific applications which is where this shipyard in question ran into problems. They should never have ordered machines or suitcases that can be switched. They would never need the other settings. I've never seen any other shipyard or shop with such a function as they get them for the correct settings and if they are doing the type of welds that need a foot peddle they order them that way and keep them out of the rest of the yard. It's for specialists who know how to use a foot peddle as they are welding. One type of machine specifically built for this is a TIG welding machine which is used with a foot peddle in the shop to control the voltage. I have no idea what sort of machine would use a foot peddle with flux cored wire and have never seen such an application in a shop or in the field. Anyway, when I went back to the supervisor confronting him on what he told my coworker the whole controversy got kicked off and went on for two weeks until I just gave up trying to convince him that he was wrong. I kind of lost some respect for him when he got his thumb clipped off while working with a huge turnbuckle that fell over on his thumb because he couldn't look forward into the future a couple minutes and realize those things can flip on you. Construction safety basics. Anything that can go wrong WILL go wrong when you least expect it. Oh, I got stories, lots of stories. Broken cables that drop five tons on top of a man, lady falling to her death because a hatch was cut into a deck with poor lighting and no safety cables, falls with broken ribs, leg crushed because the "pros" put a kid in line of travel and pinch point, beam falling over and separating a careless foreman from his foot, worker sitting on unstable beam which fell over and removed his leg. Guy bled out in a minute while ambulance took 15 minutes to pick him up. I guess that's where they got the new rule to not eat lunch in the work area. Oh, and then there's the guy who pulled his suitcase down on his head and got his neck shortened. And my funny chubby coworker who broke his neck when he fell but powered through the day in pain because he's not a quitter. The man told me after he fell that his neck hurt and felt all crunchy. My thought, "gee, that's weird, maybe you should get a doctor to check that out tomorrow instead of coming to work" He did. They did a great surgery and installed a vertebrae from a dead man. I had no idea they could do that. So, one of my greatest frustrations in the welding industry is a serious lack of disciplined training and guys who seem more interested in pecking order, status and general bullshitting than a love of the craft and always learning something new to improve their trade. One of my greatest satisfactions is taking a smart young coworker who has shown a willingness to learn and on the sly and on the side quietly taking him aside to explain some tricks of the trade and instilling in him the idea that he can go far beyond the rest and become an expert. Taking a guy who is struggling in his first year and showing him a few things and watching him take that and blossom to be a real tradesman is so rewarding. One guy I found a few years later on facebook by accident I dropped a line to tell him hello and how are things going for you. He thanked me profusely. Just showing him how to run a mud rod and leave nice uniform welds, how to set up a complete circuit by checking his grounds for size and solid connection, how to lay out his excess welding lead to avoid magnetic interference with his voltage and amps, (never coil up a lead you are using, duh!) and things like that. He didn't believe me about the coiled cables and thought I was bullshitting him. Being a smart ass he coiled my cable up where I couldn't see it. I was pissed as hell and had no idea why my welds were so difficult and asked him to go check my power supply settings. He bent over laughing his ass off and then showed me what he did. Damn kids, right? After that he took everything I said as more or less gospel.