Gas Welding Practice

[gauthier]

Mark,must not been around many code welds than,,if your welds look even close to dog poop you don't x-ray them,[you don't waste your time in other words],,,all welds[to any welding code] require that they first must pass a visual,,,than you do whatever to it,,and before the welder welds on job,he must pass a qual. test,,and,again,you got to pass visual before bending or x-raying the coupon. Don't really know what your trying to say,[weld looks like dog poop and passes x-ray,,than you say something about little shake of your hands causes not so perfect ripples],,big difference in those two...

And,I have a resume too,but not going to get into it unless your hiring:laughing:

Yeah,will agree,alot of opinions around,,but thats why they got code books,,it tells you in code books[api,asme,aws,and more],what is and what is not acceptable,,and no where in any of them does it say if your weld is ugly and looks even kinda like dog poop,that it could possably still pass.

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

I know code welds must pass visual. I have seen welds I wouldn't care to see pass visual, as long as there is nothing glaringly obvious wrong with the weld they will. Poor tie ins, cold laps, excessive undercuts are all criteria in judging a weld visually. Being "purty" may be the requirement of some inspectors, but that begins to get subjective at a point that certain asthetics are judged. You can quantify undercut, visual flaws such as entrapped slag, starting the arc outside of the weld, cold lap,etc. But when it comes to quantifying beauty, you begin a subjective evaluation, that cannot be judged the same way by two different people. The point of standards is to have something you can judge objectively. As I said, beauty is in the site of the beholder (inspector).

 

[k0ua]

well guess I failed the look good test again.. but sure didn't fail the knock the he** out of it test! the hole at the end was where I stopped, and wanted to fill the "weld crater" oops.. too long, blew a big hole in the little quarter thickness sheet-metal..

Welder: Everlast 160
Rod: US Forge 7018 3/32
Current: 69 amps DCEP
Sheet-metal: thickness of a quarter-dollar coin, No paint removal (we don't need no stinking weld prep). Actually I suppose weld prep is a good thing.. I was just too lazy to do it, and the pieces were very small. So not all that pretty, but strong, and I could have fixed the hole easy, but that would be cheating. Personally I am satisfied that I can make functional welds on pretty thin stuff with some care. and 1/8 or 1/4 inch stuff seems easier to me. I think I can learn to make pretty gas welds, given enough practice and gas:laughing:
but the arc welder is easier, and loads faster!
Thanks guys..
James K0UA

 

[Kays Supply]

While on the gas torch, have any of you used a Dillon gas torch? I sold them many years ago. I kept one for myself. They can do some pretty neat welding easier that most of the regular gas setups. They run at a super low pressure and burn almost completely. You can gas weld aluminum almost as easy as steel. I know a "good" welder can gas weld aluminum, but I am not a pro and with the Dillon I have done some pretty nice jobs on very thin aluminum and steel as thin as paper. The example they used when I sold them was to take a bread wrapper tie and strip the wire from the inside, then weld the two ends together. I always thought it was a pretty good test, even if there isn't much use for it.

 

[gauthier]

Mark,No its not[or it shouldn't be,lets put it that way],,if you have a weld,that meets code requirements,it can not be a gorrila weld or it wouldn't meet code requirements:laughing:

Lets say you have a spec or code that said[and most generally do say something about like this],no lack of fusion,or lack of penatration in root,no more than 1/8th inch internal reinforcement,no internal udercut more than 1/32 inch,,no more than 1/32 inch suck back[all this just for the root that you could see inside a welders test coupon on pipe or plate on full pen weld.

Than from root on out,no burn through on second pass[hot pass],,than on cap[final bead or beads],no more than a certain width,no more than 3/32 height,no more than 1/32 inch undercut,no arc strikes,no concavity,no single porosity over 1/16 of inch in dia and no more than 3,1/32 porosity spots in any inch of weld,and a few more I'm missing without looking at a code book.

Now,if a weld will meet all those requirements,,,it ain't a gorrilla weld,and it don't look like dog poop.

And than,you bend it or x-ray it,,on a code job I'm saying,,

You can bend them anytime you want at a school or in your backyard shop,,but your first priority if your trying to learn,is to get your welds looking decent,by making them look decent,you learn to weld,than if you want to see if they will bend without breaking into,bend them.

Speaking of bending,there are requirements for that too,,alls you need is an opening in say a 1 1/2 inch wide strap that is bent in the weld 180 degrees that is greater than 1/8th inch and you fail the bend test. They rarely break all the way into.