As a welder, much of my work straddles the line between art and mass production. I’ve made many, many beautiful welds that will never been seen by another person for at least the next 20 years, if ever. Some of the best that come to mind are stainless steel welds on industrial equipment that get buried under paint or insulation. I spent 3 years welding parts for US battleships and Navy cruisers as well as the occasional weird airforce part. Most of those welds will never been seen by living people after leaving my old shop.
Well that’s not true. It’s just a real bitch. As a welder, helium leak check is about the toughest damn QC to pass. Most welding QC has some reasonable margin for error during inspection, but the damn helium doesn’t care. You can have a beautiful weld with a tiny imperfection at the start or end and it’ll piss helium just as badly as an entirely scuffed bead.