Welding Tips and Tricks

Clean earth, nup.
Clean metal where weld will go, nup
Correct setting on mig, nup.
Good to go, apparently.

WerkSpace wrote:If you happen to have 300 hours of spare time, 7,000 American nickels
and the desire to make 35,000 welds, then you can make a nickel couch.

This is what you call "Art Nuvo". I think it is quite good. There is an artist in Spain welding thousands of nuts (as in bolts) and selling it for mucho denario. This one starts with mucho denario and should be worth quite a bit more.

The line in the picture is a copper line ( crazy support ). It's the main line off a double tank set up that feeds a regulator station in a food plant. That line leaves the pic goes about 8 ft unsupported and is then tied to my ammonia condenser. Just a little vibration. No one else sees a problem.

Miller ???

Thats just a slap in the face to professional welders

I just realized... That piece of uni-strut the copper is sitting on is galvanized...

Triple-whammy! Metal on metal, dissimilar harness metal without padding, and copper on zinc in the equation.

"What the hell were you thinking" indeed!

Something tells me Praxair would shit to realize that uni-strut was welded (or just set directly on) to the vacuum-jacket of their customer station.

Steve S

Agreed. Worst part is all the SS tube on the skid is welded nice and pretty. And they used a standard hardware store compression fittings for a couple of the copper joints.

But the rubber cap on top is awesome

Some great pictures. I especially like the trailer hitch on the pickup towing that heavy flatbed. John.

This thread is giving me panic attacks.

Steve, could you inform me what's so bad about copper on galvy? I've not yet encountered this, and would like to know what to say when I do.

nathan wrote:This thread is giving me panic attacks.

Steve, could you inform me what's so bad about copper on galvy? I've not yet encountered this, and would like to know what to say when I do.

When water runs off the copper piping to a zinc surface it will react and corrode. Galvanic reaction I believe is the term...

I've heard something like that happens between stainless and aluminum, right?

Yes - exactly - that's why when you see a crimped ferrule on a wire rope it will have an aluminum one on a galvanized wire but a copper one if it's a stainless wire.

I. Love. This. Site.
There's so much to learn!

All metals that are not the same will erode from this process. There is a chart for the metals and there galvanic points the farther the numbers are apart the greater the reaction. It's a form of electalisys. Like electro plating in reverse. I'll look for the chart later and post it on its own thread.

nathan wrote:This thread is giving me panic attacks.

Steve, could you inform me what's so bad about copper on galvy? I've not yet encountered this, and would like to know what to say when I do.

Voltaire invented the modern battery cell using copper and zinc disks with a conductive fluid (vinegar, I believe, but I forget and don't feel like looking it up) saturating paper placed in between. The same reaction happens without the paper, but more quickly degrades the materials. Be aware that acid rain is enough to begin the reaction. You can use galvanized uni-strut with copper lines, if your uni-strut clamps are insulated, and protected from weather.

Steve S

Yeah.. Galvanic corrosion can be nasty as it can rapidly erode and eat away materials that people expect to 'not rust' like alu or even stainless steel (eg. when mixed with titanium parts).

Also something to look out for on structures when using alu or stainless parts on a steel frame as water, especially mixed with (road) salt, creates an electric cell and this starts the reaction between the dis-similar metals where the less noble one gets eaten away if they are in the same quantities.

Relative size difference is important though. A galvanised big I-beam (less noble) with some stainless bolts (more noble) through it won't react much on the contact area, but if you were to fasten a stainless beam with some galvanised bolts then the bolt heads will rot off in no-time flat when exposed to water regularly.

When attaching dis-similar metals together in potentially 'wet' conditions it's good practice to use some sort of insulating material (eg. nylon spacers or sheet, paint/powdercoat, etc.) or a special coating or jointing compound like Tef-Gel or Duralac to prevent or delay the onset of galvanic corrosion.

Bye, Arno.

Otto Nobedder wrote:

nathan wrote:This thread is giving me panic attacks.

Steve, could you inform me what's so bad about copper on galvy? I've not yet encountered this, and would like to know what to say when I do.

Voltaire invented the modern battery cell using copper and zinc disks with a conductive fluid (vinegar, I believe, but I forget and don't feel like looking it up) saturating paper placed in between. The same reaction happens without the paper, but more quickly degrades the materials. Be aware that acid rain is enough to begin the reaction. You can use galvanized uni-strut with copper lines, if your uni-strut clamps are insulated, and protected from weather.

Steve S

That Steve is SO DARN SMART! To think ... I taught him everything he doesn't know
Gary

Poland 308 put up a galvanic chart in it's own topic. A good read, here:

http://forum.weldingtipsandtricks.com/v ... f=2&t=8241

Steve S

Boomer63 wrote:

Otto Nobedder wrote:

nathan wrote:This thread is giving me panic attacks.

Steve, could you inform me what's so bad about copper on galvy? I've not yet encountered this, and would like to know what to say when I do.

Voltaire invented the modern battery cell using copper and zinc disks with a conductive fluid (vinegar, I believe, but I forget and don't feel like looking it up) saturating paper placed in between. The same reaction happens without the paper, but more quickly degrades the materials. Be aware that acid rain is enough to begin the reaction. You can use galvanized uni-strut with copper lines, if your uni-strut clamps are insulated, and protected from weather.

Steve S

That Steve is SO DARN SMART! To think ... I taught him everything he doesn't know
Gary

The stuff I don't know would fill a book that makes the OED look like a pocket reference.

Mortal man will never know it all. Ten lifetimes won't take two pages out of that book.

Steve S

The real trick is to learn more than you forget.

Poland308 wrote:The real trick is to learn more than you forget.

"like"

I feel a day where I didn't learn something new was a waste of what they pay me, and a waste of my time.

Steve S

Voltaire invented the modern battery cell using copper and zinc disks with a conductive fluid (vinegar, I believe, but I forget and don't feel like looking it up) saturating paper placed in between. The same reaction happens without the paper, but more quickly degrades the materials. Be aware that acid rain is enough to begin the reaction. You can use galvanized uni-strut with copper lines, if your uni-strut clamps are insulated, and protected from weather.




The stuff I don't know would fill a book that makes the OED look like a pocket reference.

Mortal man will never know it all. Ten lifetimes won't take two pages out of that book.

Steve S[/quote]

It's clear to me you haven't met my brother in law.

Bill, I love the "know it all" types. I get great entertainment from them. Often, their "knowledge" is simply belief based on something they've heard. It took me a long time to learn to nod and smile, as listening is usually more entertaining than arguing, and you can't win the argument with that type anyway. As Mark Twain said, "A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion, still."

Steve S

A couple they sent me to fix last summer.