Give me your welding experiences

[Mith]

thakns for the heads-up taylor
i had just used the rod with flux to give a real nasty weld
now they should look better, thanks
i am told that downhill welds are hard, i suppose even more so on thinner metal
thanks

 

[Mith]

come on then tom - you havent posted for a while
watcha been up to, done much welding
werent you gunna be welding up some implements - got round to that yet
pics?! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[texastomtom]

I have not gotten to it yet !!!!

Lots of away time lately,,, fixed plumbing saturday and was to rainy chilly to want to go out Sun.

Probably be a while now as I have to go out of town for 8-10 days starting this weekend...

 

[Taylortractornut]

Mith actually downhill welds are easier on thinner material that might be a bit harder to do a verticle weld on. On my friends work barge we welded the wheel house compartment out of 14 gauge metal. It would have been murder trying to uphill it so we set the welders up at about 200 amps and ran downhills with 6011 rods. They turned out prettygood. The landfill I run for a private company often disposes of old rods in the trash so when a get a box I usually keep them to make sheetemetal welds or to use to cut up scrap iron. I get alot of old combine harvestors and other sheete metal coverd things that i rob the guts out of. The old rods make a good quick and dirty cutter for this type operation. It saves Torch fuel and recycles bad rods. and make the parts fit into the scrap bin better.

 

[Tollster]

I am a nuclear plant welding inspector by trade and after the final process is completed I do visuals, Mag particle, dye penetrant, or ultrasound depending on the application.
I check the root visually when applicable, ensuring good fusion in the root, no suck back, minimal drop through. I then check for undercut on the OD (outside of the weld) <1/32" is acceptable in most cases. Also pay attention to the cap, look for good transition between passes, pay attention to start/stop points as these are hard to tie in and this is where most crater cracks develop. The idea behind good transition between passes is it will maintain a higher level of integrity lessing the likelyhood of stress risers which weaken the weld. Surface blending is acceptable to achieve the final weld. Keep your reinforcement to a minimum.
Most of all practice, before you get to the real thing.