[TamJeff]

I always see these done really ugly. 99% of the time, it is from taking the prep for granted. Many people want to leave the crisp miter as cut and burn the point in. More often than not, this ends up looking like pidgie poop on the outside, and wider and flat in the crotch.

I have better luck prepping them like this. It sets the joint a more consistent size all the way around to start with. It's obvious in the photo at a glance where it should end up considering what the burn in will end up at on the outside. I start these from the tack, to the outside corner first, before it gets too hot and washes the works away. By the time you get to the crotch, it is hot enough to penetrate the extra material.


Ends up looking more like a uniform band with controlled penetration and is more user friendly with regard to no sharp edges.


A neater, overall picture. All welds are 'nearly' flush with the pipe so you don't have to have additional slack elsewhere for such allowance. This is sched 40 pipe. The welds with the inclusive interior penetration, end up at somewhere around sched 50+ on the outside corner, and more like sched 60+ in the crotch.

[TamJeff]

While I am at it, here is a semi-flush butt weld on sched 40 aluminum.

It has a "hot dog" backer tube. Basically a smaller diameter tube with a section cut out, squeezed to fit the ID. It is gapped between 3/16- 1/4" to easily accommodate a submerged, 1/8th balled pure tungsten. These were manually pulse welded at 250 amps AC with a 250 syncrowave. Instant wet out of the "hot dog." with the filler being added nearly simultaneously. You can fluff it in there with the switch to control the heat. You can set the cup to where it contacts the shoulders of the butt equally, forward travel. Use the undercutting portion of the arc stream to leave smooth ripples.

[Otto Nobedder]

That,I can relate to.

I did a project in PA, all 6061 T6 pipe, mostly 3", with backing rings. Filler was 5386, which I'd never used. It was mostly bench work, so, while the machines had pulse features, I did it manually with the pedal.

I DID use the pulse features when they kept me on for the instrument tubing, all 3/8" 6061 T6, .069 wall socket-weld. THAT was a challenge, as they couldn't find couplers for the job, and had 1/4" pipe couplers machined for it. It was kind of like welding foil to an ingot.... Not quite, but...

It wasn't difficult at first to overheat a joint and have the whole thing bounce off your boot!

Steve S

[TamJeff]

The tack is the giveaway. You can kind of see how the land I have on the outside will end up at about the same size as the tack. This was a rush job, welded as it stands in the photo. The welds could have been neater but this came in on a Thursday. Monday, I have a boat coming in that will only be there for 2 days for a major fit up so I couldn't let this job overlap. You can see where the welds are slightly rushed. As small as that item is, it was a super tedious affair. We don't have that specific radius on our bender. I shaped that 3/4" on a 2" sched 40 pipe die and tweaked it the remainder with the hip bender. Admittedly, I got lucky with nailing the radius to fit the tank like it grew there. I was really over it by 8 pm Thurs night. Friday, the round mounting flanges were supposed to show up and they didn't, which is why I ended up making the 1/4" x 2" strap mounts in the photo. It does help tie all the legs together at least.

I have to fit this bad boy to the boat Mon/Tues.

[ajlskater1]

Another awesome job! Awesome work Jeff.

[TamJeff]

Steve, that still happens to me at times. Usually it's while doing an overhead at arms length in a new boat. In those situations, I really have to concentrate on every puddle. It gets intense at times.

Thank you, AJ. I haven't welded as much anodized this year like usual. Somehow, the economy directed us towards a lot of industrial govt projects with mill finish material. At least they insist on domestic materials, which is a joy to work with compared to the crap coming out of China.

It's also apparent in the photo that I need to redress my ground clamp lug on Monday before I do anything else.

The dies we have for our bender is sched 40, 1/2, 3/4, 1, 1-1/4, 1-1/2 and 2" with only one set radius for each size.

I like to match radii when the different size pipes are parallel. This 3/4" pipe was bent carefully with the 1-1/2" die to match the 1-1/2" pipe below it. I haven't seen anyone else do this. I don't think they know that they can. The result may not be as round as it is in the proper die holding the pipe wall shape, but overall, it just looks more custom to my eye. I even bent the 1" seat ring under the large ring on the 1-1/2" die.


It used to irk me to see radii so different in size up against each other like that. It just looked so proportionately wrong.