Welding Tips and Tricks

First up, I am just being dumb? I have never heard of anyone TIG welding galvanized steel. Secondly, I have a customer that has done thousands of these before I showed up, they said for 30 years to be exact. What is the purpose of not adjusting their laser program to actually fit the radiused profile? Once I fit the first one up and saw it I texted them and asked if it was normal and should I continue, I got a reply of "yes it's normal".

i'm only a hobbyist and even to me thats manky.
sounds like customer just doesn't give a crap.

welding galv is a pita.even after cleaning it off i find a bit i missed and it pops and splatters all the over the gas lens screen.
highly recommend ck gas savers that have the replaceable screens for dirty work.
maybe have a quick grind setup to take a bit of the galv off around the edge.

You need to grind off the galvanizing top, bottom and edges of areas will you will weld. This ensures you aren’t vaporizing the zinc and inhaling that, and for TIG welds especially, getting to clean, parent metal is necessary for good long term welds.

If the fit-up is wonky due to their cuts, that’s life. You might try to tack directly in the middle of the arc to help keep the alignment flush.

cj737 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 02, 2022 8:42 am You need to grind off the galvanizing top, bottom and edges of areas will you will weld. This ensures you aren’t vaporizing the zinc and inhaling that, and for TIG welds especially, getting to clean, parent metal is necessary for good long term welds.

If the fit-up is wonky due to their cuts, that’s life. You might try to tack directly in the middle of the arc to help keep the alignment flush.

Can't be ground on, it gets powder coated and I don't have the time in these to grind nor do they grind (it's electroplated). I made the fume extractor you see in the background, nothing coming off the box gets to my lungs.

As for making the radius and flat fit in that one corner, I can't and keep the sides straight, make the tabs and slots match up on the sides and takes too much pressure to clamp diagonally just bent the end (takes about 100 lbs of pressure) since I would have to pull the excess from the shorter radius and push out the straight edge by the larger radius which there is no place to anchor to, while keeping the proper radiuses, to do that. That's what I don't get. All that time waisted instead of inside the 30 years of making these just change the programs, (laser cutting, breaks that make the radiuses, all of which are CNC) so it would be a drop in fit.

I feel like only a few of these possible scenarios are likely.
The previous contractor did a sweet mig verti down or back and forth and let them think it was tigged.
The previous contractor took the energy to soda blast the edges or similar or was just a wizard who liked ruining torches etc.
Or what has happened to myself previously that they are testing you out, most guy will either tell em theyre wasting thier money tigging it, I do. or they go with option A and mig it quietly.
How many are there, give one ago, come up with a better way if it isnt going to work and put it to them, they may be looking for an honest problem solver.
They could also have no idea aswell.
Let us know how it goes mate.

I've found silicon bronze filler rod is great for TIG on galvanized. It's not as strong of course, not for a part that is going to be repeatedly stressed, but it's surprisingly strong, and welds nicely right through it. I've accidentally welded a ton of electrical boxes that we made just for explosive testing (whoops... I could've sworn my foreman said use silicon bronze!), and they survived the tests perfectly. And silicon bronze beads just look great too. Also, if you're doing a ton of stuff, hold your breath as best as you can if you're bench welding and don't have some fancy PAPR system, metal fume fever (re: zinc oxide fumes), is a little unpleasant, but not too bad... and it goes away pretty quickly. Nothing compared to the morning after a friday night out with your friends.