Welding Tips and Tricks

rick,
hats off, not like comfortably sitting at a bench welding.
nice work
craig

Well done Rick. I like that purge fixture. I have seen too many people who just weld fittings like that and complete ignore the purging.

Markus wrote:Well done Rick. I like that purge fixture. I have seen too many people who just weld fittings like that and complete ignore the purging.

Its actually the bottom portion of a filter assembly, I saw it one day and thought it was perfect... Works well and has come in handy on quite a few projects.

Craig- welding on a bench is no fun...lol I have a kink in my neck this morning from laying down doing that bottom fitting.

A few random fit-ups and beads from the week.


Random by Zanconato Custom Cycles, on Flickr


Random by Zanconato Custom Cycles, on Flickr


Random by Zanconato Custom Cycles, on Flickr


0305151135 by Zanconato Custom Cycles, on Flickr


0306151636 by Zanconato Custom Cycles, on Flickr

Thanks for givin us deadly something to strive for

The wider beads on the ali frame, is that for strength or just the nature of ali? I find it hard to get small beads specially on joints like this.

Thanks, Anders!

The material on the aluminum frames in 7005. The reason for the larger beads is the manufacturers recommend large amounts of dilution with the filler metal (5183 in this case) to prevent cracking. The bigger bead accomplishes this. There are also structural considerations since the 7005 is much stronger than the filler metal.

Wow those are purty
Cheers.
-Eldon

Zank, who do you order filler metal through?

Through my local guy, Maine-Oxy. I'm not too picky about ER70S2. He usually has Harris. I use a lot of Weldmold 880 on the steel frames and AlcoTec 5183 on the aluminum frames.

zank wrote:Thanks, Anders!

The material on the aluminum frames in 7005. The reason for the larger beads is the manufacturers recommend large amounts of dilution with the filler metal (5183 in this case) to prevent cracking. The bigger bead accomplishes this. There are also structural considerations since the 7005 is much stronger than the filler metal.

Thanks, never used neither that material nor filler but what you say makes sense.
1/16 filler or smaller on the titanium? 3/32 on the aluminum?

Just went through your album, you make awesome bikes, not just the welds. I always thought such welds were done with robots on bike frames before finding this site.

Hi Anders,
That is actually steel, not titanium. If it were ti and those colors were present, something went wrong with the shielding. I prefer to use 0.035" (0.9 mm) wire on the steel. I use 3/32" wire for the aluminum.

As you can see I expose my ignorance I had a feeling it might not be Ti though

Was welding stainless yesterday. Did not fill enough with 1 mm wire and 1,6 was too much., more practice needed for sure.
I appreciate soo much that pro's like you and others here share the details.

This is what I weld at work. Dome bodies for cryo fuel tanks. The bottom is 27.4' diameter. Height is 13'. All Conventional Friction Stir. The welds for each panel are 110" on .375" 2219Al.

incredible!

Amazing stuff!

The picture I'm sharing is dull, by comparison, today. This is reassembly after another repair of corrosion stress cracking. All materials are 304SS, filler 308.
The TIG weld on the bracket came out particularly nice for my shaky hands.
There's a MIG downhand on the left, and at the top is the "root" side of an open-root MIG that was backed by ceramic tape. I'm beginning to really like that stuff for structure work.

Steve S

Steve, that's like seeing a rainbow through a storm cloud! Love it.

Thanks!

My TIG work rarely turns out that consistent, but I was having a good day...

Steve S

zank wrote: incredible!

Thanks. Yours is jealous worthy as well. Your work is my goal.

Otto Nobedder wrote:Thanks!

My TIG work rarely turns out that consistent, but I was having a good day...

Steve S

After seeing most of the pics you have posted (I'm only half way through this thread), I am relieved that you are doing such great work (especially if your work site is where I think it is ).

Agreed.

When I get a compliment from zank, I take it as high praise. I aspire to make my work look like his, but my eyes and hands conspire against me.

Steve S

RocketSurgeon, we are work neighbors, of a sort.
I work in Slidell, doing what APCI no longer does in-house.
I occasionally do work at their site in N.O. East, very near Michoud.
I treat every job as though this trailer will travel the same highway as my grandchildren.

Steve S

Additionally, I live about 20 minutes give-or-take from you.

Steve S

Which is why I appreciate your skill, work ethic and diligence to detail. We are your customer's customer and I know what those products can do. We use a lot of their products: Ar, GN, N2, CO2, He, GH, LH2, LOX, etc., ad nausea.

Still, your work skill is admirable.

Braehill (my father) works directly for them, and can normally guess what kind of trailer Steve is fixing based on a random component specific to that style trailer lol. He is an operator at a hydrogen plant in Butler, PA for them.

I do primarily LH2, but also a fair bit of LOX, LiN, and LAR. I also saw some recent prelim specs for LHe work come down the pipeline...

We are also now doing hydro retests on CO2, but I have minimal involvement in that, as they are not vacuum insulated.

I'm hoping someday to have a NO trailer roll up with product in it...

Steve S