First welding class tonight

[Anonymous Poster]

I did a junkyard stint when I was a teen. I worked for a guy in a VW junkyard. The coal mines used VW stickshift transmissions in some piece of mining equipment. The junkyard owner wanted every transmission out of probably 150 Beetles, Busses, and Things. A helper and I got plenty of torch time that day.

 

[gmason]

Gary, Our instructor calls this overlaping, "splitting a bead" and he says to watch the 12 o'clock position of the puddle should be right at the center of the bead your overlaping.
He says it's to demonstrate control vs any real practical welding application.

It's fun burning up all those rods on these 3/8" plates.

gary

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

That makes a lot of sense on the 12 o'clock thing. I'll have to pay attention to that and see how it works for me. Thanks so much for the tip. /w3tcompact/icons/clever.gif

As to your 3/8" plates, we have a unique deal on the metal we use. It's all donated by a local metal production shop. It's in all sorts of sizes, shapes and thicknesses. The different thicknesses are interesting because it teaches you 'hands-on' what you need to do with machine settings for those variations when you go from plate to plate.

What the company does is take a bin full of their cut offs and end pieces and deliver it to the school for it to use. When we're done welding on a piece, we simply toss it into another bin. When that one gets full the company comes and picks it up and replaces it with another full bin. We get free metal with which to play and the company gets more weight to scrap after we've put all the welds on everything. It's a really nice system.

Our instructor explained that day one and said he didn't care if we took home something like our first weld, our first seam, etc., but didn't want us to use this as a source for project materials. In my case, I was happy to get my first weld under something and out of site in the scrap bin. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

I'm thinking my first joining weld or my first 90 degree might be a keeper but definately not the first piece I used. The sooner that was forgotten, the better. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[bgott]

"He says it's to demonstrate control vs any real practical welding application."

Practical welding applications for this technique include surface build up and hard facing. A lot of companies that deal with rock, dirt and abrasives will hardface the wear surfaces of brand new equipment before it's ever used. You also need to be able to do it to fill gaps and build up fillets using multiple passes on thick material. I'm sure Harv can come up with a few uses that I forgot or didn't know in the first place.

 

[gmason]

This thread has been quiet lately...
Last night I help weld some 16" knee braces for the instructors project.
We used 1" sq tubing cut at 45degrees and welded some flat 1/4" flat plate to the 45's. We used the 7018 3/32" rod right out of the oven. I've only welded a few passes in class with this rod and have found it not at easy as the 1/8" 7014 rod.
A bear to start the arc, and it's so flimsy, it's hard to keep it in the puddle at times.

Anyway, we tacked 2 oppisite corners of the tubing/plate and then ran beads along the edges. I only had on place where I long arc'ed it and gouged the sq tubing with a small hole. Knocked the slag off and made another quick pass along that part of the weld and filled in the hole nicely.
Well the 3 sides were pretty easy compared to the 45 angle "under" the tubing. It was real hard to get the arc started, because the sides of the plate and the tubing came together before the rod could touch the metal. We had to angle the rod more tward the 1/4" plate since it was the thicker material and didn't want to burn holes in the tubing. The first pass I made I went too fast and didn't get good penitration.
Tried again and it came out great.

The instructor gave us a B+-A- for the cutting and welding which I agreeed with and knew after I finished that the next time I could do a better job, but for the first time doing anything like this, I'm happy with how it came out. Learned a lot, and that's why I took this class!!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif


gary

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

<font color=blue>"The first pass I made I went too fast and didn't get good penitration</font color=blue>sic

That sounds exactly like me. I tend to go too fast and/or not keep the rod tip close enough to the work. It does get better with more time doing it, though. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I'm curious as to what level of eye protection you're using and what the consensus in your class is. That's been quite a topic of conversation during the breaks at our class. I have an adjustable helmet but still haven't found the perfect mix of enough protection and good visibility of the work.

Truth be told, one of the biggest problems I have is wearing bifocals (OK, needing bifocals). The instructor warned a couple of us "seasoned" students that would be a problem and it is. Unfortunately, in my case, I couldn't find the bench without them. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I guess it's just part of the process. As my 83-year-old Mom says, "Getting old isn't for the weak. It's sure not easy but it beats the heck out of the alternative." /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[gmason]

gary
It's not really been discussed too much that I aware of. I have a auto darkening one that I got off ebay, that is pretty good. Welding is SO much easier with it. It has a plastic lens protector that is pretty well scratched from my 30+ hours of class welding.

Unfortunately most everybody has the regular helmets and are constantly flipping them up and down. Looks like a good way to get wiplash/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

gary

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Actually, Orthopedists and Chyropractors call it Welder's Fracture. Prevention of this condition is the only argument I've ever found for an autodarkening helmet. Then again, I'm an old fart who learned to weld 40+ years ago, before big window helmets and flip up lens helmets.
If the friction screws on the headgear are properly adjusted, it's unnecessary to snap a helmet down.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

I'm not so concerned with flipping the helmet up and down as I am with the proper darkness setting for the job. Any thoughts on that when using 7013 rod?

My owner's manual lists 11-13 but I was hoping for some real world insights as even the 11 setting makes it difficult for me to see what I'm doing. The flip side, of course, is that I don't want to endanger my sight in any way just for this, either.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Pretty much a matter of age and eyesight. When I was in my 20s, I welded with a #13 plate in the helmet, that was a long time before MIG or Gold filter plates.
When the gold plates came out, I dropped back to a #12, and loved it. I also have a different hood for MIG with a lighter plate because MIG produces less light than a 3/16 rod or 1/8 rod.
"Difficult to see what I'm doing" is more a function of lack of experience than it is a function of plate shade. Truth be told, once you've burned a few hundred pounds of rod, you don't really watch as close as you did starting out, cause you don't need to. At your stage in the welding process, I recommend you spend a little more time pre-planning the weld and positioning yourself to make the weld, and stick with the darkest filter plate you can see the deposit thru.
If you wear glasses, a big part of your problem could be the focal length of the glasses isn't the right distance for welding. I've watched a few [censored] good weldors go half nuts adjusting to new glasses/