opinions needed on weld re-repair

[Dargo]

Okay Mr. Thingy,,, I'll give you a great "do" with a MIG that I just discovered this last week. I've burned about 40 pounds of wire in this last week working on a project at night in my barn. I'd just tacked a piece in place, staggering the tacks on either side, and sat the MIG down to reach for my measuring tape. Well, you know how you can sometimes get a nice glowing red BB on the end of the wire? I found a great way to get it off. Reach for your tape measure and stick the inside of your forearm down firmly on that little red BB. When you jump, that glowing red BB breaks off just under the skin of the under side of your forearm.

You see, that way you don't have to use your MIG pliers to trim it off and possibly waste some wire. Heck, when the little BB is glowing red, you don't even get any blood at all when you use that technique. But, at the end of the day you do end up with a bit of blood when you use a box cutter to get those little globs of metal out from under your skin. Try it, it works great! Hey, I was just wondering,,,,,could you use a really strong magnet to get those BB's out from under your skin??

 

[john_bud]

Well,if you just spent the day fixing cracks with a short circuiting mig,,I shouldn't have to tell you the dos and don'ts,,,

{But you do! }

[if you fixed them],


{Don't know if I did!}

sounds like you might know as much or more than me about it.

{No where close}

Why don't you tell us some dos and don't when it comes to mig welding? Cause,there certainly are some dos and don'ts,,,and most of your backyard type wire burners,don't have a clue about them,or care,,,,,your turn,,,,thingy

Thingy,

I don't have much more than a clue. Didn't stay at Holiday Inn last night, but took a class at the Tech School.

How about I tell you what I was doing, you can tell me how I did.

But this thread is for Soundguy. Will start a new one.

jb

 

[thingy]

Yeah,been there,done that,about 25 years ago,,,ran the end of the red hot wire maybe 1 inch or so in my arm,pulled it out,it didn't bleed a drop,,,seems like it was pretty sore for a while,,remember it cause there was a couple of guys around making fun of me the whole time,,,I've got scars all over me,,had my eyes burnt shut 2 or 3 times,,,kinda like bull fighting,with out the bull,,,,,,magnet,,don't know,,,unless it gets infected,leave them there,you can impress your friends. thingy

 

[Dargo]

seems like it was pretty sore for a while,,

Uh, can I say "understatement" there?! Holy crap, that mother is sore today!! I guess no MRI's for me in the future.

Hey Soundguy, all fixed and re-assembled now? If so, was there an easy bake oven in the recipe?

 

[thingy]

John,the biggest thing people do wrong when mig welding is not burning hot enough,and not moveing their gun [weaving their gun tip back and forth],to tie in the sides of parts being joined,it lays down metal so fast,its hard to do this.,another thing probably would be cleaning right,you also need to clean between passes.
MIG is great for sheet metal and thin stuff,but when you start welding multiple passes on thicker stuff,it gets more difficult to make a good quality weld.
I have welded sch 40,6-8 inch gas line pipe with it,in postion,so it will make a good weld,lot of others have to.
Cold lap and lack of fusion is the main problems with mig welding,,on thicker stuff.
A good weld test to see if your getting good penatration,and tieing in good,is a tee test,,get two pieces of about 3/8 inch steel,and set one edgeways on the flat side of other one,[looks like a tee],,,weld it just like you would anything else,,don't do it any different,,,[or you won't be proving anything to your self],,don't weld both sides,,,,than after your done,lay it over on a hard surface with your weld facing up,and hit it with a big hammer in a way to try and break the weld,,,,,the weld WILL break,if you hit it enough and after it bends,thats the idea,,,ideally it should either break in the weld after bending,,or if it breaks off the side of steel,it should take some of it with it,,,if it just breaks off the side of steel and didn't take any with it,,you got lack of fusion/no penatration,,,
Yeah,wonder if soundguy has his after picture about ready,,,,,thingy

 

[Sully2]

thingy: My hat is off to you sir! As a beginning welder...I read almost every post I can find both here and on the welding BB about welding...stick of wire fed methods. I read all the time about "critical welds" and how one has to have a welder of "X" size to weld "properly"...yadda yadda yadda..and this is the FIRST time Ive read about thing about the RIGHT WAY to check for cracks and such on "critical" welds.
When one speaks of "Zyglo" or "MagnaFlux" it seems that people act like your describing the backside of the moon at times!

I'll follow your postings more carefully in the future for more GOOD info!

 

[thingy]

Thanks Sully,not no expert here,[no matter how I come off],just trying to help when and where I can. Yeah,,ndt,,[non destructive testing],,,dye penatrant,,is one of the simplest ,and oldest methods out there other than visual,,,,the directions are on the cans! Anybody who messes with cracks in steel or just about anything else,,,needs to know about this,,,go to your local welding supply place and tell them you need a visual[they got different kinds] red dye penatrant kit,,,,it will consist of [at least] three spray cans,,a solvent to clean,a dye to soak into crack,a spray powder to draw dye out of crack,,all you need to add is rags to wipe with,,idea is to apply dye,by brush or just spray,,,let it soak in for maybe 5 -10 min,,,wipe off excess with rag,,wipe again with a rag with a 'little' solvent on it,,get all the red off,,,don't spray the solvent on or you'll wash it out of crack,,,but wipe,all,, the red off,,,than spray your powder on,,lightly,,,so now you got a white surface,,the powder will draw any red dye out of a crack,[if you leave it on there about 10 min],,thats your crack,or void,,,,you gotta get all the paint off first,,and any oil,water or grease so the dye can get in the crack,,than you grind,,and re p.t.,,grind and re p.t,,,till you get crack out,,than weld it back up,,,but like I say,directions are on cans,,don't know what the set costs,,[to much],,but not much,,,never bought any,,who ever I'm working for buys it,,any back yard crack fixer oughta have some,,,,thingy

 

[Sully2]

Thanks Sully,not no expert here,[no matter how I come off],just trying to help when and where I can. Yeah,,ndt,,[non destructive testing],,,dye penatrant,,is one of the simplest ,and oldest methods out there other than visual,,,,the directions are on the cans! Anybody who messes with cracks in steel or just about anything else,,,needs to know about this,,,go to your local welding supply place and tell them you need a visual[they got different kinds] red dye penatrant kit,,,,it will consist of [at least] three spray cans,,a solvent to clean,a dye to soak into crack,a spray powder to draw dye out of crack,,all you need to add is rags to wipe with,,idea is to apply dye,by brush or just spray,,,let it soak in for maybe 5 -10 min,,,wipe off excess with rag,,wipe again with a rag with a 'little' solvent on it,,get all the red off,,,don't spray the solvent on or you'll wash it out of crack,,,but wipe,all,, the red off,,,than spray your powder on,,lightly,,,so now you got a white surface,,the powder will draw any red dye out of a crack,[if you leave it on there about 10 min],,thats your crack,or void,,,,you gotta get all the paint off first,,and any oil,water or grease so the dye can get in the crack,,than you grind,,and re p.t.,,grind and re p.t,,,till you get crack out,,than weld it back up,,,but like I say,directions are on cans,,don't know what the set costs,,[to much],,but not much,,,never bought any,,who ever I'm working for buys it,,any back yard crack fixer oughta have some,,,,thingy

Yepper. The place where I work for way too many years..lol...designing jet engine hardware...we had to go out onto the shop floor to smoke...and when we went out the door we were right in the middle of the "inspection area". They used a "fluorescent" material that went thru the process you described and then "read it" with a "black light"..GEEZE...you could see the "indications" ( not allowed to use the term CRACKS in jet engine business..lol) from 20 feet away. Definately a mind blower!

 

[thingy]

I did that for a short while,,worked at pratt whitney,,contract type job,,didn't want to move to work full time,,,experience for me,,jet engines,,any other place I ever worked at,,crack,,no go,,gotta get crack out,,,but here,,cracks,[tiny tiny cracks detected by fluorescent pt,using black light,was acceptable],,,now,,these were on jet motor parts,turbine blades,,exotic material,,,they logged growth rate of cracks,they knew, how long a crack needed attention,,,some cracks were not all that tiny tiny if I remember right,,,,but they had determinded that this perticular crack in this perticular componant,,was good for this many more hours,[or not],,,you checked it,but you wasn't the final say on what to do with it,,you passed it on to a whole nother department,,like I said,only place I ever worked where a crack was [maybe] acceptable... Was scared of flying before this,,,, but you got to admitt,you hardly ever hear of one blowing up,,but when it does happen,,birds gets mentioned alot,,lotta people don't know they are flying in jets with known cracks in the motor,,,,thingy

 

[Soundguy]

Uh, can I say "understatement" there?! Holy crap, that mother is sore today!! I guess no MRI's for me in the future.

Hey Soundguy, all fixed and re-assembled now? If so, was there an easy bake oven in the recipe?

I put the repair on hold.. too busy. I did however find a way to virtually guarantee the repair will work, when i get to it.

I found a NOS bracket.. thus my 'broke' one is a spair... thus.. when I fix it.. it will be perfect.. cause ya know.. once ya got a spaire.. you don't have as many problems any more.

In reality, yes.. I still plan on fixing it as discussed.. it just got moved way down the list... like.. after getting the new-old tractor home.. building a leantoo-extension to park it under.. get laoder installed.. locate a hyd valve and do some plumbing... weld a floor in the loader bucket..... refurb the tractor and paint it.... THEN I can repair the old bracket!

Soundguy