Welding Methods

Charlie_Iliff · Oct 5, 2001

One of the manufacturers' websites is:
http://www.aros.net/~spedglas/intro.html
I have seen reported reaction speeds of 1/25,000 sec, which is faster than the cheapest Speedglas. Most go to 10 or 11 shade. MIG and TIG are gas shielded arc welds. I haven't seen any restrictions in auto-dark ads which would exclude ordinary stick welds. The shields are designed primarily for arc welds, although you can get lighter shade that probably would work for oxy-acetylene. You don't really need auto dark for gas welding, however, since you can see the work by lighting it with the flame itself.

Charlie Iliff

StanInCalif · Oct 5, 2001

Tony-
For oxy-acetylene, I use a tinted face shield, made for the purpose- I think it is a shade 5. For stick and wire feed arc welding, I have a Huntsman AutoView VS. I paid $160 or so 3-4 years ago at a welding shop. It is adjustable for delay, sensitivity, and shade (9 - 12). It has a full size window (2" x 4") and uses common (AAA) batteries. Jackson is also a good brand. Dunno what the story is with the guy you talked to- I think I would go to another shop.

stan

Youare · Oct 5, 2001

Where I learned the most about welding was by spending some time with a good welder, watching what he did and asking him why. I like a wire feed arc welder best of all for joining two pieces of metal together. A gas welder is handy when it comes to bending things and heating up stuck nuts and bolts.

Practice and patience is the name of the game. Placement of the ground wire is important. If you are welding on anything that has a bearing in it make sure the bearing is not in between the ground and the area you are welding. The heat from the current going through the bearing can cause the balls to be welded to the races. They don't turn well after that.

The local college in my area offers a weekend course and more for anyone intrested.

Randy

Molerj · Oct 6, 2001

You will find that mig welding is the easiest. Once you get the machine set right it is alot
easier than stick welding. If you are welding light stuff in the garage, can't beat it. There's
nothing more frustrating than having your rod stick & stick & then you turn the machine
up & you blow a hole thru your work. No hunt & peck with the mig. I have an AC/DC welder
but the local service station lets me use their mig when I need to. Don't do enough welding
to justify buying the mig yet. That's on my list with the hundred other tools I want to buy.
BTW I took a class at a vocational school. I wouldn't say I'm great but I can get by.

JATO_RaT · Oct 6, 2001

I was waiting for someone to tell him what rod to use. Your right Kevin, 6011 is probably the most used rod. If you want a real nice fill rod like 6011, 7018 does a beautiful job as well. 6010 is great for dirty, rusty metal, weldds like crazy but does not leave behind a pretty bead no matter what condition the steel is in. Remember to, when its a real important weld, don't butt your pieces tight. The general rule is to gap your parts the width of the unfluxed rod. Break the flux off a rod and insert it between parts for correct spacing. Never weld one side and then the other or you will have a very warped out of alignment product. You need to spot weld one side, weld some of the other side and go back to the other. The differece in heat will break your spot welds and warp like mad.
Be sure to cover your hands and arms with something. ARC burn will hit you in only a minute or so of welding. While I rarely use my ARC anymore in favor of MIG, there are times I prefer ARC. For simplicity sakes, you can't beat it. Rat...

Estif · Oct 6, 2001

Welding for Dummies

There's a Haynes Techbook that is pretty good for how the techniques work, if not for detail on how to do it WELL. Learning to do it well is a matter of (sigh) practice. The Haynes book is with all the other Haynes books at auto parts stores.

Can't remember the title and publisher of the one at HD and Lowe's, but I leafed through and thought it looked pretty good.

My dad was a machine shop and welding teacher, so I got an old textbook from him that has been really good for detailed descriptions along the lines of "tilt the rod this far in the direction of travel..." But again, I mostly figure that stuff out by playing with it.

Try Lindsay at www.lindsaybks.com for some decent-looking basic oxy-fuel and arc books, maybe even a video or two. Don't have my catalog handy.

I've been playing with oxy-acetylene for a few years. Can braze pretty well, weld just well enough to make things stay together. For that I just use a grade 5 lens in goggles. Bought a stick machine recently and been working too much to do more than run one rod. But I found that to be much easier than gas.

My helmet is a wide view - the big lens - and I haven't had any problem flipping it down and then striking the arc right about where I meant to. I was a bit afraid of that after giving a MIG a try in Guatemala and having lots of trouble with the helmet. Of course, that was a small lens, beat up helmet, and this one was brand new...and the clerk was kind enough to point out that it's ADJUSTABLE.

MIG, by the way, was a lot easier than stick, but a MIG machine that will handle the size of stuff that a garden variety stick machine will do is...pricy. Besides, I want to learn stick just because that's what I'm most likely to encounter in my travels.

Finally - ooo la la - I got to watch a guy TIG at work the other day. Beautiful. In aluminum, no less. First time I'd ever seen TIG in action. Didn't get to try it. My understanding is there's a bit of coordination required, but once mastered, you have to really try to do a bad weld.

Steve

bgott · Oct 7, 2001

I can't find my welder's handbook but I can remember some of this stuff. 6011 rod is general purpose fill rod for AC and I think DC welding. 6010 is the same classification rod for strictly DC. 7018 rod is low hydrogen rod rated for AC/DC. The numbers on the rod break down as follows: The first two numbers are tensile strength, 60 is 60,000 psi and 70 is 70,000 psi, etc. The third number is position, 1 is all position and 2 is flat or horizonal. The fourth number is current ( AC or DC or both) and polarity. If you are going to use 7018, which gives a better looking, stronger weld you should first make a pass with your fill rod to keep air from getting to the backside of the weld. As a farm boy bird s**t welder I've used 7018 by itself with out any problems but it wouldn't pass an inspection and isn't the proper way to do it. 6013 is a low heat/ low penetration rod used a lot by sheet metal and HVAC contractors. Most of them I know are going to MIG welding because it doesn't take as much skill to use. If you have any more questions I'll have to dig out my old welding school textbook.

Knight9 · Oct 7, 2001

The fourth number is current ( AC or DC or both) and polarity

Oh, oh..../w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif...I thought the 4th number indicated the type of coating on the rod. Guess I better pay better attention in class /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

Kevin

TWINKLE_TOES · Oct 7, 2001

Brad,

Your memory serves you well/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
I have "Thomas Glover's, Pocket Reference" which is really handy for just about everything including welding. It has everything in the attached link, plus a manufacturer cross reference to standard numbers. Fits in your pocket, costs about $6 in a good hardware store.
Welding Rod
Al

RJohnson · Oct 8, 2001

Tony,
The Proocedure Handbook of Arc Welding published by the Lincoln Electric Company is one of the best reference books around. It is about 2 inches thick but you can't bet it for the money (I think I paid about $20). It may be more than you want at this time but it is a treasure trove of knowledge. Any Lincoln distributor can obtain it for you and Lincoln also publishes a newsletter called the Stabilizer and best of all it is free/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.
After sayiing all that I would like to caution you about one thing, an arc can be struck on any type of metal that allows electrical current to flow throught it. Just because you can strike an arc, it does not mean you can weld it. There are other factors that you need to take into consideration. So learn how to weld then look into the types of metals that can be welded without having problems.
Welding can be fun and enjoyable, the idea of going to a local college it a good one. The instructor can sure help with technique and answer a host of other questions.

Randy