Wow, what a freaking tool! I'm a weld engineer and hearing this makes me cringe thinking of him inspecting ANY welds, even his own!
And in case you ready this Lucky, GMAW was invented in the 40's, and widely accepted in industry in the 50's. SMAW will produce spatter just like GMAW, the only reason you see it is because it wasn't cleaned properly... its embarrassing I have to tell this to a "CWI"...
On a different note, I had noidea the Seely's were Reynolds 531, that's cool!
I understand what you are saying about GMAW spatter etc., but I am 63 years old and remember when the first GMAW welding was used. I bought one of the first GMAW machines. It was way down the road after the CB750's were forgotten.
I cannot find any evidence of GMAW welders being used in the time period in JAPAN
that we are talking about. Remember WWII had just ended when Honda first started his first motorized bicycle factory.
It was a very small operation.
I am not saying it is impossible that Honda somehow got his hands on one of the very first GMAW machines for the CB750 but I searched for hours and cannot find any articles or photos to support that.
Also besides just spatters which I am well aware of I do not see any evidence of starts and stops in the welding bead similar to the GMAW process.
Of course they did not even have the internet available until the late 1960's yet so the photos could just be missing or have never been scanned and are in a cabinet somewhere.
Let me know if you find something.
Remember there is the invention of a process and then there is manufacturing of a machine that industry could use with certainty of reliability.
BTW....You do not have to be ashamed of any CWI that does not know what you expect them to know. CWI's do not know everything.
Also welding inspections cannot be performed after all welding has been completed.
