Criticize my welds please

[flingwing1969]

How I might tell the difference between mild steel, cast steel and cast iron?
Thanks!

You do a grinder spark test. Cast steel and mild steel will give of a lot of sparks whitish or yellow and cast iron only a few and more reddish to yellowish.How To Weld: Basics of Spark Testing - YouTube

 

[Tractorguy24]

You likely did delay failure with your welds though.

Unfortunately, it seems that I did not. I had the stabilizer pad sit outside for two or three days, did not use it at all, and the weld is already cracked right in the middle where tho old crack was. I doubt that it is just plain mild steel as my welds usually look better and dont break from sitting outside for two days

 

[flingwing1969]

Unfortunately, it seems that I did not. I had the stabilizer pad sit outside for two or three days, did not use it at all, and the weld is already cracked right in the middle where tho old crack was. I doubt that it is just plain mild steel as my welds usually look better and dont break from sitting outside for two days

Hmmm. Well, sorry to hear that. I welded two pieces of 3/4 in round stock onto one of my legs as a mount for the angle adjusting tube on my BH's thumb and the welds held perfectly. I suppose there might be some sort of alloy in the base metal that could be causing a segregation crack, again, Hmmm.

 

[daugen]

I welded two pieces of 3/4 in round stock onto one of my legs

This sure is a manly group! :thumbsup:

I learned stick welding this past summer as some of you know and as globs of my mower deck dripped onto the floor,
I realized a serious amount of skill goes into welding. The OP's weld here remains in my dreams, I made awful welds, somewhat improving,
and wore my arms out grinding off mountains of slag. So to me the OP was looking pretty good, and a motivation for me to step up my welding game from stick.
I have a combo Everlast, just have to get the gas. And since I showed my very first welds to you guys, I remember that the group was kind. Eyerolling was hidden...

I admit to wondering where the welds were done by the newbies on the Zumwalt, hopefully above the hull. I bet there are a lot of inspectors,
but as a boater who has done a little blue water, geez when you are away from the sight of land, you sure do depend upon the hull beneath you doing its job.
Watch the YouTube videos of warships out there in Pacific typhoons and as some of those folks are hanging on in their bunks, all those good welds done by caring welders
are sure appreciated. Folks say thank you for your service, those sailors say thank you for those good welds. And good chow.

I think of the guys welding the huge round pipes of pipelines hour in hour out. How does one stay sane/stay focused doing exactly the same thing all day long?
I'd start talking to myself...you're in your own little world there with a giant sparkler in front of you.

I went too fast too, just like the OP. After the bottom falls out a few times I tried to go quicker...

 

[Rock Crawler]

That weld you put down is completely bad, it is full of crater cracks. You did not move to fast, what you did was made many little spot welds and you started/stopped welding over and over. The stop points are all crater cracks that made your weld... not a weld. It is a perforated line. I am an ASNT NDE Level III inspector at a nuclear facility, I suspect that I may know a crater crack when I see one :thumbsup:

If I saw that weld, I would stop immediately and not even bother to pretend that there is an inspection to do.

I would say to grind that all out, all of it. Mig it again, but this time start once and stop once if you can. Your heat looks decent, wire feed is close, maybe a hair fast. If your welding vertical, and if the weld is trying to run down on you, try making your path down in never ending Z patterns or figure 8 patterns. But you have to get rid of the 100 or so crater cracks before this weld stands a chance of doing any work.

If you can remove the part and lay it flat, you will always do a better job with a MIG. Don't even attempt to weld straight up with a mig! Only the best welders can make that work, and even for them it takes some serious though and practice.

Godd luck. Learning to mig is fun for sure!

 

[flingwing1969]

That weld you put down is completely bad, it is full of crater cracks. You did not move to fast, what you did was made many little spot welds and you started/stopped welding over and over. The stop points are all crater cracks that made your weld... not a weld. It is a perforated line. I am an ASNT NDE Level III inspector at a nuclear facility, I suspect that I may know a crater crack when I see one :thumbsup:

If I saw that weld, I would stop immediately and not even bother to pretend that there is an inspection to do.

I would say to grind that all out, all of it. Mig it again, but this time start once and stop once if you can. Your heat looks decent, wire feed is close, maybe a hair fast. If your welding vertical, and if the weld is trying to run down on you, try making your path down in never ending Z patterns or figure 8 patterns. But you have to get rid of the 100 or so crater cracks before this weld stands a chance of doing any work.

If you can remove the part and lay it flat, you will always do a better job with a MIG. Don't even attempt to weld straight up with a mig! Only the best welders can make that work, and even for them it takes some serious though and practice.

Godd luck. Learning to mig is fun for sure!

Thanks for all of that. I think by saying "too fast" folks were really talking about what you said better, "keep a steady motion forward" would have been a better way of saying it, as you said, one start, one stop.

 

[lennyzx11]

That weld you put down is completely bad, it is full of crater cracks. You did not move to fast, what you did was made many little spot welds and you started/stopped welding over and over. The stop points are all crater cracks that made your weld... not a weld. It is a perforated line. I am an ASNT NDE Level III inspector at a nuclear facility, I suspect that I may know a crater crack when I see one

I would say to grind that all out, all of it. Mig it again, but this time start once and stop once if you can. Your heat looks decent, wire feed is close, maybe a hair fast. If your welding vertical, and if the weld is trying to run down on you, try making your path down in never ending Z patterns or figure 8 patterns. But you have to get rid of the 100 or so crater cracks before this weld stands a chance of doing any work.

Godd luck. Learning to mig is fun for sure!

What shows you that you are seeing crater cracks?
Is it the "blob" edge not melted into the one below it?
Im looking at image 907 mostly up close.

Forgive my ignorance. I'm a learner and haven't heard that term.

 

[Rock Crawler]

You see each weld termination, at that termination there is a bullseye like indication. Many are not a typical minor/shallow indication, instead you will notice a sharply defined bullseye with depth and sharp edges. If you were to do a magnetic particle exam on that weld, almost each one of those would light up like beacon in the night.

Everyone who welds fights the stop point flaw, even the very greatest Union shop welder will once in a while get bit. Heck, if there was 1 or 2 stop points with flaws, on this non critical weld.... It's likely fine. The issue is that there starting/stopping every quarter inch created a massive line of pre stressed stop point crater flaws that together act as a zipper. Go to Google images and your in weld crater crack, you'll see a mess of them in aluminum where the effect is even much more fantastic because of the much more rapid cooling of aluminum that stresses the material higher and more radically cracks the cooling weld, often forcing a very visible star like flaw that in carbon steel is much less pronounced.

 

[lennyzx11]

You see each weld termination, at that termination there is a bullseye like indication. Many are not a typical minor/shallow indication, instead you will notice a sharply defined bullseye with depth and sharp edges. If you were to do a magnetic particle exam on that weld, almost each one of those would light up like beacon in the night.

Everyone who welds fights the stop point flaw, even the very greatest Union shop welder will once in a while get bit. Heck, if there was 1 or 2 stop points with flaws, on this non critical weld.... It's likely fine. The issue is that there starting/stopping every quarter inch created a massive line of pre stressed stop point crater flaws that together act as a zipper. Go to Google images and your in weld crater crack, you'll see a mess of them in aluminum where the effect is even much more fantastic because of the much more rapid cooling of aluminum that stresses the material higher and more radically cracks the cooling weld, often forcing a very visible star like flaw that in carbon steel is much less pronounced.

Thank you! Perfect explanation and the Google/youtube tip showed me the phenomenon.

Thanks for taking the time to explain to a newbie.

 

[sandfs]

Non padded stabilizer pads could be one of the wear resistant AR grades. Not the easiest material to weld anyway. Grind a deep V on the one side, run a nice hot stringer. Flip it over and grind out clear into the weld bead then fill that, one or two passes, whatever it takes. Complete joint penetration that way. Allows for the compression of the weld bead shrinkage. Partial pen on a crack is usually pretty shaky.