Welding Tips and Tricks

Stuff from tonight

Today...

Didn't have any proper work on so spent the weekend messing around in the shed doing the 'ol can and razor blade exercise. Had some trouble blowing through the cans until I got everything dialed. Pretty new to using a foot pedal so it felt like it was beneficial having to actually work it a bit.

Aussie beam cans... welding them is about the best thing to do with them

Looks like you did pretty good

Look again brother, those cans were Jim Beam whiskey pre mixed with cola. Can't get them everwhere.

sedanman wrote:Look again brother, those cans were Jim Beam whiskey pre mixed with cola. Can't get them everwhere.

Ummm yeah sorry Australian Jim Beam cans...

Decided to use the stainless box I welded up and posted a few pages ago and make a purge box similar to Jody's. At the minute I don't have a proper dual flow meter yet (on its way), just a little flow control off a pneumatic cylinder. I think I may be a little low on the flow, as I notice a lighter goes out before I weld, then after I can light a lighter in the Box? Does the weld burn the argon out? Never heard of that, maybe I am disturbing the air in the box moving around in it? Seems to be working to some extent but maybe not as well as I would like. Will wait until I have a flow meter on and troubleshoot. Also have some mesh to go over the top, just need to guillotine it.

The box:
Then some Stianless, Middle was on some copper, other two in thin air at 70 amps. Ignore the pin holes/craters as I had it set on my tack setting, no down slope.
Then I had a piece of material which I think is Titanium, it is from a anodizing line from my work. Seems very light and strong. The short side I didn't use much gas, out in the open and tried to get it real hot and pull the shielding away. I think the white stuff is contamination from being in service, however the metal didn't seem to color like I have seen titanium. Then heated the long side in the purge box it did seem to color out a bit and to me looked like titanium. Any experts on here know what it might be? I did get brittle on the side I burnt and didn't shield. It was just on DC, much like I would weld stainless and seemed like it would weld if I tried. Also seemed to stay red hot for a long time, yet cool rather quickly. Seemed to be able to file it slightly. interesting......
Cheers

nortical wrote: Then I had a piece of material which I think is Titanium, it is from a anodizing line from my work. Seems very light and strong. The short side I didn't use much gas, out in the open and tried to get it real hot and pull the shielding away. I think the white stuff is contamination from being in service, however the metal didn't seem to color like I have seen titanium. Then heated the long side in the purge box it did seem to color out a bit and to me looked like titanium. Any experts on here know what it might be? I did get brittle on the side I burnt and didn't shield. It was just on DC, much like I would weld stainless and seemed like it would weld if I tried. Also seemed to stay red hot for a long time, yet cool rather quickly. Seemed to be able to file it slightly. interesting......

Cheers

The white flakes or even somewhat like a powder on the Ti is from a (dramatic) lack of shielding as you discovered, the colors in Ti show different levels of contamination depending on the shielding, or lack there of.

For art work using Ti the colors can be used to the advantage of the artist, but for most weldments it's not desirable.

Looks like your box project is almost done, keep playing with it that's how we learn.

Fun repair first day back...all due to lack of following proper procedures for getting product off the sides off the hopper....a dead blow isn't in the procedure. Job security.....

Had to put my harness on and hang upside down and weld in a 1.50" pipe that was ripped off and about 30" of seam...316L 16g. All in all happy with the results....

Nice welds.
However the hanging head down bum up, we'll need photos to award the correct points on style

ex framie wrote:Nice welds.
However the hanging head down bum up, we'll need photos to award the correct points on style

I see a re creation in the near future

double Post

310 stainless tube, 2.875" OD welded with .045" dia 309 wire, using a rotator

LtBadd wrote:310 stainless tube, 2.875" OD welded with .045" dia 309 wire, using a rotator

Tube weld.jpg

Tube weld 1a.jpg

Must have some thick skin wearing no gloves.

Nice Richard! Chemie work? I just picked up a lathe chuck and I'm going to make my own rotator

Farmwelding- Its his feed hand, at times I do it also with that thin filler, makes it easy to feel. I will say my thin WELDPORN Tig gloves allow me to feed .035" filler with ease.

Rick_H wrote:Nice Richard! Chemie work? I just picked up a lathe chuck and I'm going to make my own rotator

Farmwelding- Its his feed hand, at times I do it also with that thin filler, makes it easy to feel. I will say my thin WELDPORN Tig gloves allow me to feed .035" filler with ease.

It's only 65 amps, no need for gloves, not chemical. I'm not supposed to have pics so I won't say anything else about the weldments.
Would like a link to gloves you use with .035 filler, never have used gloves on such small filler

LtBadd wrote:

Rick_H wrote:Nice Richard! Chemie work? I just picked up a lathe chuck and I'm going to make my own rotator

Farmwelding- Its his feed hand, at times I do it also with that thin filler, makes it easy to feel. I will say my thin WELDPORN Tig gloves allow me to feed .035" filler with ease.

It's only 65 amps, no need for gloves, not chemical. I'm not supposed to have pics so I won't say anything else about the weldments.
Would like a link to gloves you use with .035 filler, never have used gloves on such small filler

Gotcha

https://www.weldporn.com/product/weldpo ... ig-gloves/

I actually bought a pair of the HD tig and lightweight tig glove to try after going through 2 pairs of Millers that ripped in the thumb. I saw these on Instagram from a bunch of guys and figured Id give them a shake down. So far I am happy with them, they are made cheaper then the Millers but they fit my hands nice and they seem to be holding up well...time will tell. The gloves I find are a little large in size, Id recommend a size smaller then you normally wear unless you heat them a little to custom fit them to your hand.

I get the stuff of nightmares cut out of me every three months. Put your gloves on and stay cool man.

If you're making welds with wire that small then it's probably something delicate and that usually dictates short runs with a pause for cooling. No need usually to feed wire through your fingertips in that case. Just choke back on it and dip in and out of the puddle.
The leather on my gloves are soft and tacky, and grip everything well.

The genuine USAF goatskin/nomex versions of these ;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOMEX-FLIGHT-GL ... 0520952984

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOMEX-DuPont-LE ... 1984569284

were real nice for fine TIG work. These seem too cheap ...............

The originals fit like a dress glove.

I didn't weld anything, but I won a government auction for a DYNA-FLUX R1000SS 14K BTU cooler yesterday.

The prongs on the power cord are bent at a 90 degree angle. I'm hoping that's all I have to fix to make this work (after I buy a water cooled torch and goodies).
Dave

Knocking out some Saturday work...

Rick_H wrote:Knocking out some Saturday work...

Looks good Rick

I see you're using tube tacking clamps, would the clamps work on 90* elbows without a tangent?

LtBadd wrote:

Rick_H wrote:Knocking out some Saturday work...

Looks good Rick

I see you're using tube tacking clamps, would the clamps work on 90* elbows without a tangent?

With no tangent at all these will not work, I cheat them over to get them to clamp on these that have around 1/2" true tangent. I finally got a set of these after taping for years, they really are nice when your mocking up stuff or are in the ceiling. These are TIG tack clamps by Tech South. http://www.techsouthinc.com/pipeclamps/sanitary.html

Rick_H wrote: With no tangent at all these will not work, I cheat them over to get them to clamp on these that have around 1/2" true tangent. I finally got a set of these after taping for years, they really are nice when your mocking up stuff or are in the ceiling. These are TIG tack clamps by Tech South. http://www.techsouthinc.com/pipeclamps/sanitary.html

I always used precision vee blocks to lineup elbows and tees to tube. With the elbow facing up of course, it does a good job mating them for tacking. If the fitup is the least bit off it shows like a sore thumb.

I've purchased from TechSouth before, knowledgeable guys there.