Welding Tips and Tricks

Yea, any time you do work for someone else you take a chance of being sued. It's great motivation for doing the best work that you can do. You might want to look into liability insurance.

Thanks for the info guys. John

More practice. Started building a new tank for an old genny . Got a bunch of 12" box bins from my buddys scrap yard, 5052 , gauge says it's 0.128 " 3.3mm . I had to do a lot of this left handed and contorted ...sometimes difficult to see . Welds aren't too pretty and the beads are too big ! I did add extra filler at the ends of the long seams, I figure it'd add strength and wont see it anyway.
I made some ugly welds but I don't think I've got any porosity ...and it holds water .
Gonna try to make nicer looking welds on the outside corners. IT IS TOUGH welding inside something !
I also had some trouble with butterfly distortion soon after starting the long bottom seams.
--------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------
I haven't welded the outside seams, outside corners or top yet . This was my test piece for when I weld the outside corners
This was a lot easier than welding inside the thing !

Nice work, Sub.

Admire the way you always have something happening. And agree - welding the inside of a part is tough!



Kym

Hi
it's nice job, deal with the butterfly distortion welding backstep forward or chill bars (use both for best result)

Hi,

I remember that day, it was a big panic I have to do the job ASAP but life shows something different
It meant to be for some water treatment plant, at first there was not enough of material (shitting), then I found out there is missing parts like sockets and flanges, despite it my boss wants me to do whatever I'm able to do with the materials we have because there is customer coming in two days... and guess what...
nobody came to see it ever and it is steel sitting in the workshop... about 4 mts hehe. and some pipeing
It's another usually story in my workplace and the life is still going on

Slawkos wrote:Hi,

I remember that day, it was a big panic I have to do the job ASAP but life shows something different
It meant to be for some water treatment plant, at first there was not enough of material (shitting), then I found out there is missing parts like sockets and flanges, despite it my boss wants me to do whatever I'm able to do with the materials we have because there is customer coming in two days... and guess what...
nobody came to see it ever and it is steel sitting in the workshop... about 4 mts hehe.

and some piping

IMG_2805.jpg

It's another usually story in my workplace and the life is still going on

Looks good, did you also do the layout work?

Hi,

LtBadd no I haven't this piece came already prefabricated I've done rest of it

Sheet metal throttle body adapters:

How do you prevent distortion ? How thick are the sheet parts ? Real nice stuff man !

subwayrocket wrote:How do you prevent distortion ? How thick are the sheet parts ? Real nice stuff man !

Thanks, the gasket surfaces warp about .015"-.030", so they get face-milled flat after welding.

.375" flanges, .125" sheet

Beautiful work, Aaron.


Kym

Aaron@6061.com wrote:Sheet metal throttle body adapters:

...weld porn at it's finest.

Gorgeous stuff Aaron.

Yes Aaron, that is beautiful. Are you using a pulse setting for that?

Mr.Aaron congratulations very impressive , I don't think welding can be better than this , could you please tell me how you do it a, all of your settings and if you manually grind the tungsten tip or you grind it by hand please . This sample is the best I have ever seen

My educated guess is '10 years constant practise + lots of natural talent.'

You don't get that good without working hard for it. Impressive stuff.



Kym

That's artistry right there. Really beautiful work Aaron!

As the others have said Aaron that is beautiful work! I would put that on a shelf as a decoration. But I'm sure it looks awesome under the hood as well!

Nice work indeed....hope to finally make one of those later this summer after I finish my sheet metal intake for my 4.6 with a 100mm Accufab. I've done a lot of testing with TBs over the years Accufab is right at the top, the Wilson Manifolds pieces did well also.

Beautiful work I'm assuming those are done with an newer Dynasty setup

big gear head wrote:Yes Aaron, that is beautiful. Are you using a pulse setting for that?

No, the only time I ever use the pulser is on stainless tubing (exhaust headers) when no filler rod is used.

ESENTI wrote:Mr.Aaron congratulations very impressive , I don't think welding can be better than this , could you please tell me how you do it a, all of your settings and if you manually grind the tungsten tip or you grind it by hand please . This sample is the best I have ever seen

I chuck my tungsten in a handheld drill and spin it as slow as possible while grinding it to shape on a bench grinder with a 6" wheel.

Weld settings:
60-350 hertz. Doesn't really matter... I get tired of the same sound so I change it around. Just make sure your puddle isn't shaking around a lot. One time I had it at 145 hz and it did not like that for some reason... The puddle was shaking all over the place. I changed it a few HZ and it stabilized.
200A EN
150A EP
80% balance
15CFH gas flow (for indoor welding with zero air movement)

Other than maximum amps (and hertz for the reason mentioned above), I honestly never change from these settings. I think people over-complicate all the settings. I use these setting for all aluminum projects. Thin, thick, dirty cast, clean, etc...
If I'm welding thin stuff that only requires 20 amps, I'll set the max amps to 20, but all the percentages and ratios remain the same:

1/8" aluminum projects, 120 amps:


If I am welding really thick stuff, I set the max amps to 350 and keep all the percentages the same and bump the gas flow up to about 18 CFH if I'm having any issues with weld appearance:

Aaron
do you fab all these beauties as well?
craig

Aaron
also what machine do you use as sometimes
these setting may not apply
craig

Rick_H wrote:Nice work indeed....hope to finally make one of those later this summer after I finish my sheet metal intake for my 4.6 with a 100mm Accufab. I've done a lot of testing with TBs over the years Accufab is right at the top, the Wilson Manifolds pieces did well also.

Beautiful work I'm assuming those are done with an newer Dynasty setup

Thanks. Yeah, I use a Dynasty 350. I can make them look just as good with my old Syncrowave 180 other than the white etched area on the sides of the weld is much wider. I think a lot of people get discouraged and think they would be a much better welder if only they had more expensive equipment, but I don't that is true for the most part.

Accufab makes the highest quality throttle bodies in my opinion... I have seen all brands and that's why I am a dealer for only Accufab. Oh, and I think you must mean some other size than 100mm. To the best of my knowledge, they don't offer a 100mm. I sell a ton of 90mm and 105mm ones in the old 5.0 Mustang bolt pattern. Hit me up when you are ready to purchase one if you haven't already.

motox wrote:Aaron
do you fab all these beauties as well?
craig

Yeah, everything you see on the website is my fabrication work. I cut and fit all the parts myself. But about 2 years ago, I had a friend start machining all the 3/8" thick flanges. He has a much more accurate mill that leaves a cleaner cut (and he's a much better machinist than me).