Welding Tips and Tricks

motox wrote:ill send zank some of mine to post the next time i weld pipe,
then there will be plenty to bust him about
craig

-Jonathan

Did a little stick welding today which isn't very often, I'm 98% tig....lol

I'm moving a 12 pipe manifold system and I'm reusing the mount so I fabbed up a quick steel mount so I can start fabbing and making all the new pipes....then I'll move the old stainless mount in place

Used 309L since its what I had.

Hey man, it looks way better than mine would look. I haven't stick welded since I was about 10 or 12!

Otto Nobedder wrote:Been a while since I posted one of my shaky welds, so here goes...

Much of this was done in the mirror, since it was tight quarters.

I tested this to 225 PSI, and got the outer jacket done and helium leak tested. It was a good day.

Steve S

Steve, where was the torch in all this? Where was the mirror? Multiple pass? Wow! New camera for xmas?

deleted

Soon2GetIt wrote:

Otto Nobedder wrote:Been a while since I posted one of my shaky welds, so here goes...

Much of this was done in the mirror, since it was tight quarters.

I tested this to 225 PSI, and got the outer jacket done and helium leak tested. It was a good day.

Steve S

Steve, where was the torch in all this? Where was the mirror? Multiple pass? Wow! New camera for xmas?

I'm not even "allowed" to have a camera at work, since a buyout. I'm taking a risk posting pictures at all. If you search my past posts, you'll see plenty of mirrors, but no arc shots, as I'm the cameraman in each case.

BTW, the mirror "sort-of" appears in the third pic , and the clip holding it shows in the first pic.

Steve S

and I was bored so made a mascot for a friend of the family.



before it got doctored up with some paint.

Awesome!

DSM8 wrote:and I was bored so made a mascot for a friend of the family.

Very cool!...love your imagination

My implementation of a Weed Wrench, used to pull weeds and scrub out by the roots. I wish I could say this is my design: I copied from the patent I found on the web. (The original designer and patent holder sold these but then stopped manufacturing.) This is all TIG welded because I need the seat time, and guess what: I still need the seat time, so don't inspect too closely. I learned a lot about fabricating with this build.

Photo 1: Push the handle forward to open the jaws; photo 2: pull the handle back to close the jaws and lever the plant out of the ground; photo 3: 11-y-o daughter pulling a nuisance tree up by the roots.

Today and other days, I've been welding up a new TV table. The table frame is sand blasted ASTM A500 1.5 Sq x .062 wall Square Tube. Here is an account of my welding experience so far on this first somewhat complex (for me) GTAW project.

Tacking
Tacks were a challenge. The tube was cut with my HF 14 inch cutoff wheel. The square of this tool is marginal at best. I had to shim work pieces as I had no interest in shimming the saw at this point. The bottom line that I'm trying to install tacks across .06 inch gaps. Not pleasant on this tube. Tacks with .06-.08 inch gaps have to be made using filler rod. This runs a bit opposite to my GTAW experience to date which has been limited to tacking practice coupons set up for success. Minimal gaps, bright shinny metal, table support for both torch and filler hands all done with foot pedal.


Working on the floor- If I absolutely had to make this work I'd keep at it. Happily, there are options here.


Working at getting the rectangle square and, flat. Paying the price for cutting errors here. Setting pieces up with minimal gaps produces a parallelogramed non square with a twist. Tourniquet used to square the corners here. I needed to pull it in .19 per side. I got about .19 total. Worked on the .25 twist by fixing one short end to ground and twisting free end. I got adequate flatness, but then of course, part to part gaps grew. To me this points to the need for a better cutting tool than my cutoff wheel or a shim job for my cutoff wheel. .


All tacks in.

Welding
For me, this is turning out to be very challenging. Having to find hand guides, deal with part positioning, clamping, distortion, straightening, the real world challenges.



Power Source
The Everlast DV200 is like a box of candy. I run it on 110 VAC. For the mild steel work I do, this is adequate so far. I can't do any pedal work on this project as moving it around would be too much like work, so its all 2t switch on the torch. The down slope control lets me do a manual pulse that helps me the prevent melt through of .06 steel. I find that 1 amp per thousandth of thickness is a bit too much at my skill level. I'm welding at about 50 Amps DCEN using .060 2 pct lanthenated and .060 filler. Argon is set at say 12 CuFt/Hr. I ran pluse at Jody's rule of 33 settings. This worked great. In fact, it was like cheating. Like not having any substantial skill but having a tool that would get the job done in spite of the user.

Set Up and work positioning
I started out on the floor and found this to be No Bueno. Knees said no. eyes said no, no space to move around. I don’t have the skill for working in prone position. Started finding ways to get work closer to eye level using jack stands and other similar items. Once the work piece was at a more comfy height, I made a mess trying to weld sitting on a bucket looking right down the line of the weld joint. Looking head on. The tungsten took a beating doing this. Any movement other than right towards me produced a dip. I'm not used to watching the arc from anything but an eye level side view. Looking at the weld from end on makes things difficult.

Seat time
To me, this is great seat time. No tests to pass or boss to please other than me. If the table holds my bouncing weigh, it will hold my TV. Did I mention I'm enjoying every minute of this?

Ta Daa- Finished Product
A few more wires to hide, but there it is. What I'd do different: I made the top first welding up the mitered corners. Next time I will build the front and back, then join with the sides. Got the MIG welder sold. Can't afford both and kind of don't see the need for both.

Good project.

Soon2Getit
Looks like you are on top of things.
Accuracy can be difficult to control and get out of hand way too quickly. It sounds as though you have kept on top of this from the start, and as a result, are getting the accuracy you need.
Nice

Trev

I made this when I was seven. I thought it was lost years ago but found out today that my dad kept it.
Cheers.
-Eldon

Eldon,

Dads are like that.

Cool!

My first day back to work. I left to visit NJ the day after Christmas and didn't return until 01/03. First time off since 2012. This was waiting for me. 48" worth of open root 3/8". It needed to be just over 6" wide and we did not have enough of 8" and they needed it before the day was out. It gets covered so there was no need to present any of those dollhouse quality welds.

1/4" gap, no bevel, held apart by 1/4" shims as I went. I left them an inch longer so I can just trim the ends and not fuss with them.


The glory is not so much the weld, as it is that they are perfectly flat without using any hold downs or strong backing. They were welded clamped onto a chunk of 4" x 4" box tubing as a heat sink, by a single R11 framing clamp.

ETA: I used the tig finger. I was able to ride the corner all the way to the end without wiggling too much.

xwrench wrote:I made this when I was seven. I thought it was lost years ago but found out today that my dad kept it.
Cheers.
-Eldon

Born to Weld, obviously...

TamJeff wrote:My first day back to work. I left to visit NJ the day after Christmas and didn't return until 01/03. First time off since 2012...

TamJeff, you mean to say you haven't had any time off since 2012 - and then had the nerve to take a week off? (!!)

TRACKRANGER wrote:

TamJeff wrote:My first day back to work. I left to visit NJ the day after Christmas and didn't return until 01/03. First time off since 2012...

TamJeff, you mean to say you haven't had any time off since 2012 - and then had the nerve to take a week off? (!!)

The funniest part was the boss saying. . ." I will have to check the schedule," as if he had a say in the matter being I was giving a month's notice. As it was, around the holiday and the included weekends, it only amounted to about 3-4 actual work days off. I often have to remind him that slavery was abolished back in 1865.

TamJeff,
I think we may have the same boss. I normally work a 3/12's one week and 4/12's the next week schedule. Every time I put in for vacation, he calls me in on my normal days off and says 'but you still got your vacation days in', even though I seldom get a full week off. It backfired on him a couple weeks ago and I ended up with a day of double time on top of 84 hours of pay.

Len

tamjeff
i have to ask before len does, why NJ for
your first action in years???
craig

Craig,
I can't say anything about going to NJ for a short vacation, last 2 times I went with my wife for a vacation it was to LBI, NJ and to her friends in Haddonfield. Those were in the summer and at least one involved a trip to the Ocean, but I did go to Atlantic City one year around New Years.

Len

len
i'm just up the coast from LBI.
as for AC my wife will sure miss when we move
to Delaware.......
craig

motox wrote:tamjeff
i have to ask before len does, why NJ for
your first action in years???
craig

It was for a girl.

I actually enjoy going there. If I could find a gig close to where she lives, I'd consider parking my hat there and vacationing in the South a couple times a year.

some tig today on the clamp part of the box/pan brake project I've been working on for the last month!