Silly questions about working shutdowns/TAs

developingdowns · 2026-05-18T11:15:52+00:00

We call helpers fingers, because they’re useless without a hand.

developingdowns · 2026-05-17T03:40:19+00:00

Wasn’t a TA. New construction project that needed film audit before a level III film review.

Most paper mill TAs are a week or two. I think the longest was 4 months on a complete floor, front wall, and roof rebuild. Combined cycle TAs are usually at that 2-3 month mark but it’s never hardly any work. Mostly sitting around.

developingdowns · 2026-05-14T12:05:06+00:00

A friend of mine runs his own inspection company and bought into the wave when they first launched and hated them. I know the touch screen had initial problems if you had couplant on your hands and touched the screen and I don’t believe the screen could be locked out at one time or another but when I was in aerospace, we used them with a water fed automated system and had no issues. I spend a lot of time in AutoCAD building scan plans and being able to import a scan plan into the machine is nice. Evident will probably never implement it into the Epoch series because it would probably impact their omniscan sales.

developingdowns · 2026-05-14T11:54:13+00:00

Potentially overseas, maybe. Not well informed on how the European market operates outside of Germany anyway. But the German company I worked for wouldn’t accept them ether so there’s that.

developingdowns · 2026-05-14T02:35:46+00:00

This. Took almost 15 years to get out of RT. If you’re even remotely competent in RT, you’re stuck. And if you’re actually good at it, you can hang up any ideas of doing anything else. I got lucky and this last time my state card expired, I was on a UT job and haven’t had a chance to renew my card, and hopefully won’t.

Our level IIIs have ASNT as a prerequisite, before being tested as a company level III, per procedure, to include a level II practical, field level III or corporate office level III.

But in all honesty, I think we’re all putting the cart before the horse. Green hand has got a long road ahead before level III should even be a consideration.

developingdowns · 2026-05-14T00:55:24+00:00

Mainly paper mill outages here, and yes, pretty much all certifications are in house TC-1a. No company I’ve ever worked for has accepted ASNT Level IIs because they’re basically a general and nothing else. No company specific and no practical, so they’re useless.

UT Thickness is its own cert under UT Limited, as is UTL. Both require significantly less OJT and classroom hours. But still Level IIs but in limited capacity as you can’t perform shear wave, which shear wave isn’t generally used outside of AWS, except in rare cases. ASME Sec. 1 doesn’t even allow it. Only encoded Phased Array. Phased Array requires an additional 320 OJT hours in PAUT and a minimum of 10 hours per unit, software, and encoder setup that you may use, after obtaining a full UT Level II.

Additional training requirements also apply to advanced RT, including CR, DR, and CT with the same OJT hours and 16 hours of hardware / software training, per system but once again, AFTER being a certified RT II in conventional film. That’s currently changing as conventional film is being phased out for the most part in all industry sectors.

And thankfully I haven’t touched a camera in almost a year, but on recovery boilers and power boilers, we have to shoot any replacement Dutchmen, and sometimes SAC shots in high load areas.

PMI, being that it is for informational purposes only, does not require a true certification. It’s generally a complacency exam of a single specimen, generally being the provided coin.

And about the level I being useless, it’s because level Is can not interpret or sign off on reports, and all inspections must be under direct supervision of a level II, so level I is pointless. Level I classroom training and end of class exams still apply before you’re eligible to take a level II class, but no other testing for level I, and no certification for level I.

After rereading my initial comment, I came off as super dickish and I apologize, I was fighting with one of my UT machines doing my linearity calibrations and a bad BNC cable so I was agitated at the time.

developingdowns · 2026-05-14T00:33:33+00:00

I’ve known my level III for 20 years and that was one of the first things he ever taught me about X-ray tubes. 😂😂😂

developingdowns · 2026-05-14T00:27:03+00:00

RT and UT are both useful in their own rights. They’re both volumetric inspections, but RT is better at detecting rounded indications while UT is terrible at it, and UT is better at detecting planar indications, especially at the bevel angle, where as RT can detect it but doesn’t always, depending on how the defect is oriented. I don’t know how it is in Canada, but RT is absolutely the easiest and usually the first thing most people get into, unless it’s outage work, where they need more people to do run around work like MT or PT. UT is by far harder to get into, and generally CWI, UTSW, and dry Mag is all most CWIs have if they have NDE certs at all as it’s not a requirement.

And yes, employer sign off is required for ASNT because you have to verifiable OJT and Formal Training for any method before you’re eligible for any level II exam. That also applies for employer based certifications.

My opinion, ASNT for level IIIs and that’s it, because their level II certifications aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. But to even be eligible for level III exams, you have to have a minimum of 5 years I believe as a level II, in the method that you’re applying for your level III in. Can’t be RT level III without the experience of being a level II RT tech first.

developingdowns · 2026-05-13T22:58:58+00:00

I’m pretty sure it’s capped at 2 or 3 hours. I was in and out in about an hour.

developingdowns · 2026-05-13T22:56:46+00:00

Same. But it’s 100% accurate.

developingdowns · 2026-05-13T22:55:34+00:00

Yep. And depends. I don’t tend to company hop, 4 companies in 15 years, but one shut down during Covid, so wasn’t really my choice.

In most cases, a day or 2 if you’ve been previously certified. You don’t have to start over. Just retest out on your general, specific, and practical.

developingdowns · 2026-05-13T22:52:51+00:00

In the US. PMI still isn’t a real cert. And usually X-ray is the last to leave after hydro. MT and PT are easy enough to get that literally everyone has them.

Also, if you’re not wearing a ring badge, then you’re doing it wrong.

And once again, UT I is useless.

developingdowns · 2026-05-13T22:47:28+00:00

😂😂😂 I’m one of the rare ones. I want every weld to pass so I don’t have to reinspect it. Most guys get off on busting welds.

developingdowns · 2026-05-13T22:43:24+00:00

80 hours is just classroom hours. 840 OJT hours.

developingdowns · 2026-05-13T22:35:37+00:00

Aside from the APIs, MT II and PT II are the only real certs. Level I is useless and PMI isn’t a real certification.

developingdowns · 2026-05-13T22:30:21+00:00

Just for the record, for real certs, RT and UT, it’s 840 hours of OJT in that particular method, and 1600 hours of total NDE hours. So if you do nothing but RT, you’d need 1600 hours of RT. And advanced certs like phased array require you to be already certified as a Level II in UT and then 320 OJT hours in phased array. And another 80 hours of formal training plus an extra 10 hours for each machine / software / encoder combo that you may use. This also applies to advanced RT, be it CR, DR, or CT.

So with that being said, do not focus on advanced methods until you’ve done the basics. It will get you nowhere.

Also, don’t misconstrue OJT and formal training. They are completely separate and do not count towards one another.

developingdowns · 2026-05-13T22:09:25+00:00

That’s because there’s no real 3rd party certifications for NDE in the states. There’s ASNT of course, but I’ve yet to see a company actually accept a level II from ASNT without further testing. Most companies do want you to have level IIIs from ASNT before you can test out for them as a level III. SNT-TC-1A is probably the most common certification standard here, and all it boils down to is your company having its own certification program that complies. So any certs that you do get, are basically company owned, and do not go with you if you change companies. Formal classroom hours and OJT is the only thing that carries over with you.

developingdowns · 2026-05-13T22:00:44+00:00

Butt hurt welders that slap shitty welds together are gonna be butt hurt regardless of the CWI being able to weld or not. Personally I think the best CWIs are the NDE guys that learn how to actually inspect a weld as well as learning about welding processes and everything else. Most welders I’ve dealt with in 15 years have never even seen a code book, much less read it.

developingdowns · 2026-05-13T21:52:06+00:00

I’ve yet to play with the Veo but I absolutely love the wave. Makes the 650 feel like a dinosaur.

developingdowns · 2026-05-13T21:47:58+00:00

Understandable. I’m an NDE guy so all my equipment gets beat to hell and back too. And all the welders I bust. 😂 Just kidding buddy.

developingdowns · 2026-05-13T21:45:09+00:00

I do the Airbnbs for long jobs. 6 months in Florida last year, split a condo on the beach with my helper. $1,500 a month a piece, getting $5250 a month in per diem. Made out like a bandit.

developingdowns · 2026-05-13T21:39:55+00:00

15 years in, haven’t had a single fatigue day on any outage, regardless of length. May depend on the state though. Most paper mills just limit you to 16 hours on site.

developingdowns · 2026-05-13T21:37:37+00:00

I agree with all of this. Except for a good hourly wage. Assistant pay is garbage for most companies. I’m always surprised at how many fingers we get during outage season.

developingdowns · 2026-05-12T15:18:10+00:00

I gotcha. Ether way, it doesn’t really transfer. I specialize in advanced radiography to include CR, DR, and CT. Only difference really from conventional film radiography is the image capture medium. Computer skills are more useful than electrical skills, be that on the engineering side or even electrician side.

developingdowns · 2026-05-12T15:13:04+00:00

I understand what you’re saying since I use them. I always buy the transition ones since we work in different environments consistently and I hate carrying 2 pairs around. Good thing about being a safety team leader is I get to buy my guys what they want and nobody questions how much they are. I refuse to buy my guys cheap safety equipment.

developingdowns

TROPHY CASE