Carbon-Arc Gouging (Video)

[ChuckE2009]

Goodafternoon, everyone!!

Heres another video that I just thought I'd share...

Recently, a buddy of mine drove down and we made a bunch of videos together, including this one, on Carbon-Arc gouging. It was a commonly requested video and not one I was setup to do, so I was really glad when we made this video with his Arc-Air setup.

Anyway, we ran this off a MIG welder (HTP-brand) and it was a blast. Pete explains a little about carbon-arc gouging and cutting, then demonstrates it on a piece of scrap metal... It was awesome! Its loud, messy, and it moves a lot of metal in a hurry. I ran it some in High-School (and again in another video I'll post as soon as its edited), and I really liked it...

Well, heres the video. Hope y'all like it

 

[Arc weld]

At higher amps a constant voltage power source can be an advantage when gouging because there is nothing to limit how many amps are used. I read somewhere it's over 400 amps. Then you get some noise! You can actually see the cables jump when you strike an arc. Air arcing works great but there's one important thing to remember; It is almost a direct short and very hard on a machine. People that say it doesn't affect a machine are either sales reps or paid by the manufacturer. Old Lincoln SAE 400 motor generators are often the machine of choice for shops that do a lot of gouging. You can find them cheap and you don't have to risk damaging your new machines. You also need a good size compressor with a gouger.

In the right hands you do some precision work with an air arc. When I was building large skids for oil and gas production equipment, we used air arcs a lot. You cover the whole skid in checker plate and then you gouge out sections over the beams to weld 1" thick plates on that the vessels bolt to. It's not that hard to cleanly go through the checker plate and not leave a mark on the I beam it's sucked down to. It's very fast and would be difficult to do with a standard cutting torch. A gouging tip in a torch would work but be a lot slower.

 

[AgriStoreUSA]

Sweet video. Thanks for the info.

Any recommendations for catching the liquid metal running off the edge of the surface?

-Arec

 

[Arc weld]

Don't catch in your coveralls.

 

[Cami]

Nothing beats it for chasing cracks. I've seen gouging setups that need less air in catalogues but I've always done fine with a 13hp truck mounted compressor.

Does anybody have experience using it with a smaller welder? I've done tons of gouging but only with 500A machines. Would a 200A machine stand up using smaller carbons?

 

[yomax4]

200 amps is a tad low for carbon arc. 300 is better but 400 is the norm. Most Inverters don't hold up with carbons either. it is a very demanding process that only a large Transformer would love.

 

[Arc weld]

A lot of welders turn the amps up hotter than even Arcair recommends. I've heard manufactures(and others) claiming that gouging doesn't hurt a machine anymore than welding. Interestingly, in the manual for a Lincoln 255 TIG/stick welder, it specifically says not to use it for gouging. I've worked in shops that had SAE 400's sitting in the corner burned out from gouging. Gouging is close to a direct short and most shops will have older big welders just for gouging.