I was recently working for a jeweler in the San Francisco Bay area, doing repairs and a small amount of custom work. I studied at Revere Academy and AAU in SF, and logged about 4 hours total on a laser welder. When i started working for this jeweler he had me laser weld EVERYTHING and it honesly kind of pissed me off. I felt like the welds i was making were 1/2 as strong as what i could do with a torch. I had to weld the shank on someone's 3 stone ring back together as it had cracked all the way through. Personally i would have just soldered it but he made me meticulously zap a relatively thick shank back together which took me almost 2 hours. I could have soldered it in 10 minutes.

Do you think some jewelers lean on their laser welders to do way too many things?