Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello,
I'm still green to welding (any arc welding) and am anxious to learn. I have two machines at home and operate one at work.

I will be asking a LOT of questions and I welcome any and every answer.

Welcome to the forum

Welcome, RocketSurgeon!

I suppose you and I may have common ground, since I work with rocket fuel... I repair, rebuild, rehab, and re-certify liquid hydrogen transport tankers. I also do LOX. (And some LIN and LAR.)

Driving 3 hours from Hammond? My first thought was Stennis, but that'd be "round trip" for three hours.

I'll be interested in your posts!

Steve S

Close. Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans East.
This is my second space exploration program (Space Shuttle External Tank and now SLS core stage).
This is my first time as a welder. I've been a structural and avionics technician my whole career. I'm not scared to say that welding intimidated me (especially TIG). I have a great mentor who is a career welder of all types.
I'm still learning and seeking every chance to get formal training.

RocketSurgeon wrote:Close. Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans East.
This is my second space exploration program (Space Shuttle External Tank and now SLS core stage).
...

Do you know Jamie Lord? He was there on the external tank program.

Not off the top of my head, no.
For ET (External Tank), I was on second shift and working integration (sub-structures, gaseous lines and main avionics) of the Intertank.
There a few welders and Techs from ET that are working SLS with me. Everyone else either retired or moved on.

Okay.

Jamie is on the "moved on" list, and is now my supervisor (for what that means, as I am pretty much autonomous). I currently do all the helium leak detection for vacuum vessels and vacuum-jacket piping. I also do most of the repairs, and (except for code welds) do my own QC/QA.

I sense you'll be limited in what you can share about your work, but I'll be interested in anything you "can" say.

Steve S

I CAN say that FSW (Friction Stir Welding) is not a national security secret (the Chinese are making FSW welding machines along side any Arc machine, lol). It's pretty impressive on the tolerance accuracy these machines can produce (within a repeatable .0001"). You would think that a 40' tall welding robot would be lucky to get within .01". Not these bad boys.

Even though it's a bad picture, you can see the robot tower and some of the turn table in the background (I post a pic to Rogue's Gallery). I'll be posting a better one soon.

As far as the program, what I can say so far is this: As long as Congress keeps the program alive, this rocket will be a monster.

I can talk about other details of the program, so don't be hesitant to ask. Though I might not be able to answer, the question isn't illegal.

My "work" neighbor is Friction Stir Link, so I get to hear the unpleasant sounds of stir welding on a regular basis...

Steve S

Steel?

RocketSurgeon wrote:Steel?

No, they stir-weld aluminum, primarily deck panels for Navy and marine contracts.

Still noisy, though!

Steve S

What type of tool is it? Ours don't get above 85db's (safety checked with a meter because they are over zealous).

In appearance, it resembles a huge (16X40?) CNC router-table. I assume the noise is greatly amplified by the shear surface area of the panels being welded. One section of our shop has a common wall with the welding table, and it's above 85DBa in our shop when it's running, AFTER we pushed them to seal the wall openings.

I've wanted for some time to see it in operation, but haven't gotten around to it, yet.

It somewhat resembles the last image on this page:
http://www.frictionstirlink.com/eqpmnt.html

Steve S