Ultimate Guide on Welding Slang Words

It seems like that there has not been a nice list of slang words used in the field devoted to welding. That’s why I am posting this in an effort to help you compile a list of welding slang helpful enough and complete enough. 

In the welding world, newcomers often find themselves lost in the common phrases and slang words thrown around by their fellow workers. Here is the ultimate guide on welding slang in the workforce. You will find the categories in these subjects: People; Equipment or things; Situations, Phrases. And terms are arranged alphabetically.

People

1. Bugger: Welder’s helper, cleaning up and preparing weld in advance. Modern day welder’s helpers don’t like being referred to as being buggers. 

2. Drinking hand: A welder that drinks alcohol in excess. Welders are never called a wino, but a drinking hand. And being a drinking hand isn’t indeed all that bad a thing to be.

3. Golden arm: A really good welder (person with excellent technique and end results)

4. Golden goose: Internal welder

5. Green/ Green horn/ Rookie: Any welder new to the trade

6. Grunt: Helper or laborer

7. Meat hand: Derived from the term ‘bead hand’. A root pass welder on the pipeline job. Often, a good welder who can run slick root passes (stringer beads) in the X-ray pipelines in production mode. 

8. Pipe fighter: Pipe fitter

9. Potato face: Welder with flash burned eyes

In case you like reading:
Effectively avoid welding arc flash only if you understand those things
Welding Health Hazards and Prevention That Your Welders Must Know About 

10. ROMF: Welder whose services are not necessary any more. 

11. Shield arc’er: Person hired for SMAW welding (SMAW welder)

12. Stick welder/ Stick rider: One capable of doing SMAW (Shielded Metal Arc Welding)

13. Warm: A new person on pipeline

14. Zoro: Welder trying to un-stick the SMAW electrode

Equipment or Things

1. Alligator cut: A torch cut done so badly that the steel looks like it had been chewed through by alligator. 

2. Amperage: Heat, temp

3. Argon: Term used for any shielding gas no matter what actual composition

4. Bang board: Temporary power outlets

5. Bubble gum: Weld with lack of fusion and/ or porosity, weld with lumps and bumps.

7. Blue room: Portable toilet

8. Buckshot/ BB’s/ Dingle berry: Welding spatter

9. Bugholes/ Pinholes/ Holes: Porosity in welding

10. Burn rods: Weld with a stick electrode

11. Cap: Final weld bead in the weld joint. It may be completed in the form of stringer bead or by weaving motion back and forth.

12. Cellulosic: SMAW electrodes that have organic material – for example, paper, as the major component. These electrodes are inclined to have deep penetrating capabilities. 

13. Cheater bead: Extra pass running over the top of weld beads to better appearance or hide defects

Defects of welding and their prevention:
13 Most Common Pipe Welding Mistakes and Best Preventions 
6 Useful Tips for Preventing Flux Core Welding Problems 

14. Chicken scratch: Arc strikes outside of the weld area. 

15. Cold lap/ Cold roll: A defect that occurs when there is insufficient penetration on one leg of the weld. Also, called LOF (lack of fusion, incomplete fusion), it is most often caused by too slow travel speeds or too wide weaves. It also can eventuate from lack of heat input, which hinders the weld and base metal from fussing together.

16. Dogleg: Two pieces of long-run pipe welded together crooked

17. Electrode: Wire, rod

18. Fingernail: The shape of SMAW electrode when the flux burns off the end. 

19. Fisheye: The puddle shape while welding. Sometimes, this word is also used to describe the shape of crater at the end of the weld.

20. Fizzle: Welding or carbon arc sparks

21. Gorilla weld: Large ugly weld with lots of lack of fusion

22. Heli-arc: Old trade name for GTAW process that is also called ‘Tig’

23. Hot start: Function used on several SMAW power sources to simplify arc starting when using hard-to-start electrodes. It works by adding more current to help form the arc. 

24. Keyhole: The hole shape that is formed while welding the open-root joint. It allows for good penetration and connection in the completed weld.

25. Lumber rod: Very special SMAW electrode that is used to weld pallets or wood together

26. Pig tail: Electrode holder on the back of GTAW torch

27. Promotion pads: Knee pads

28. Quiver: SMAW electrode bag

29. Reach rod: Internal machine rod

30. Rig: Truck or trailer for hauling a welder’s equipment

31. Sizzle: Sound that GMAW makes when it is properly set

32. Stiff: Arc that give lots of drive into the weld joint. It is often connected with increased spatter.

33. Stinger: Stick electrode holder

34. Soft: Arc with less drive (dig) and potentially less penetration into weld joint

35. Tombstone welder: Common AC/DC or AC stick welder that looks like a tombstone in that its dials are on the front and it stands upright

36. Turd bucket: Lunch box

37. Wagon tracks/ Worm tracking: This weld defect results from hydrogen trapped by the freezing slag. The defect, commonly as the consequence of excessive voltage, appears when a bubble flows into weld puddle and evaporates into the atmosphere.

38. Wallmart weld: A weld with significant undercut

39. Wash: Moderate to large weave

40. Weed burner: Propane torch that is usually just used for pre/post heat

41.   Whip: The ‘gun’ on a portable Mig (GMAW-FCAW) box

41. Wowie: Any weld or material with one bend at least that isn’t supposed to be there

Situations

1. AB (Arc Burn): Striking of an arc anywhere outside welding bevel. This may result in the ROMF condition.

2. Dig: It is also called arc control or arc force. It is the ability to adjust the drive of SMAW electrode to get more or less penetration into the weld joint. 

3. Drag-up: Preemptively removing welder services before becoming ROMF

4. GP: Small to large holes in weld metal. Small GP on the cap may be ignored by welder or covered by putting mud on the weld strategically. This repair technique is also helpful for AB but may result in the ROMF condition. 

5. IP: Lack of penetration with the root pass. More than 1 inch on mainline welds and 2 inches on tie ins can is considered to be a defect. This may result in the ROMF condition.

6. Making popcorn: Power source (Machine) not set correctly (on Mig especially)

7. Pay day: Friday. Payment of services to welders for work done and living expenses. Failure by contractor can induce wobble or drag up. 

8. Poor fitup: Gaps in some spots whilst other spots are tight

9. Stringer bead: Just a simple weld made without using a whip action – just like decorating a cake

10. Unloading: The way a SMAW electrode, commonly an AWS 7018 classification, burns off whilst welding. It occurs as a large amount of SMAW electrode releases across the arc, often inducing additional spatter. 

11. Walking papers/ Bounced/ Snake eyes: Getting fired or laid off

12. Wetting-out: Ability of a weld puddle to flow evenly, enabling both sides of the weld to merge seamlessly with the base material

13. Wobble: Slow-down of work due to either inattention to the contractor to see welders are regularly paid or cheating welders out of .10/ hour. Also, this can be caused by the contractor requiring welders to account for all the welding rods issued to the welders.

You may also be interested in:
7 Easy Ways of Motivating Your Welders
How to Retain Your Experienced Welders
6 Sure-Fire Ways of Motivating Your Unskilled Welders

Phrases

1. Clamp it Jed: Put a clamp there

2. Dime wide and Nickel high: Width and height of the final pass on pipeline weld using the SMAW process. Utilizing these precision inspection tools is based on the idea that welders and inspectors are motivated by money. 

3. $10 on the truck, $20 on the arm, and they furnish: This statement means a non-union job (probably pipeline) and a rig job. The rig would receive $10 an hour and the welder would get $20. And they furnish – rods, gas, bottles, water and ice. 

4. Put me on Maxine and 100: Put both knobs on the engine-driven machine all the way up

5. Shoulder to the Holder: Welder who uses more brawn than brain for work 

6. Skate r in there: Smooth way to add one welding pass on another pass. Like when worm grinds the root pass to thin.

7.    W.A.S.P: Welders Against Stupid Pipefitters