Welding Question

[DanD78]

You might try another brand of wire such as Lincoln or ESAB. Smaller wires will not hold as much flux as larger. Cheeper is not always better. You should not have to spend all your time on prep work before welding.

Try keeping a short arc and the amps cut back to where you get a nice wet puddle.

Dan

 

[LD1]

I can also reccomend not to use brakekleen either.

I have never done it until this past weekend, when I was working on building my dump bed, and after drilling some 1" holes with the drill press ( we use gear lube for drilling oil) I used brakekleen to remove the excess oil and metal chips. I let them air dry for about 5 min, crawled under the truck and welded them. The fumes were enough to gag a maggot. Very srong and pungent.

 

[J_J]

While looking up brake cleaner, I found that manufactures use different compounds in the products, so the products are not all the same ingredients. Some will make you sick, others hard to breathe, and some even produce a poisonous gas when heated.

I have used it before, but will rethink on it's use. I would suggest Dawn detergent, scrub, then rinse and let dry.

 

[boxygen]

I remember the article that someone posted not long ago in one of the forums about using brake cleaner and welding. It was eye opening. The issue was with welding with Gas, specifically argon mixing with one of the chemicals in brake cleaner and combusting creates a very potent mixture of white smoke that takes a very tiny bit to cause very serious neurological issues that can last hours, days or permanent. If inhaled the effects will start instantly. If I remember correctly the OP was welding with flux core so that wont be an issue and it takes somewhat of a "pefect storm" to get the cumbustion and chemicals together but the risk is significant. Supposedly, this is addressed in the MSDS of a can of brake-cleaner, but how many of you have read it? I dont even recall in getting one with a can of cleaner. I couldnt find the post with a quick search.

 

[towmotor]

Read up on the ill effects of oxygenated (burned) brake cleaner.

There's no way I'm going to persist in my opinion, just to be right.

The possibility, it turns out, of igniting trapped pockets of liquid brake cleaner (and probably other solvents) when welding is the real issue.
I've never noticed a problem because I always managed to remove all of the liquid cleaner before welding.
But, when working on old, rusty stuff, there are lots if little crevices where the stuff could hide.
My conclusion is that possibility, in itself, is enough to avoid using brake cleaner in the future; I'm not usually a very lucky guy.
I was this time.

Thanks to zman for bringing this up.

 

[Danno1]

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I remember seeing that link. The brake cleaner turned into Phosgene gas when heated. But like another poster said, there are many different formulations of brake cleaner.


.

 

[Egon]

For the OP: Have you tried turning up the heat a bit?

 

[nunyabinis]

Obviously, don't use brakekleen:

Brake Cleaner = Phosgene Article



I'll have to check the active ingrediant on Carb Cleaner

 

[Chilly807]

Dan78 had a good point, try shortening the arc a bit. I've got a Miller 180, used to have a Miller 135.

I use a tri-mix gas called Auto-Weld (Praxair) for most of my steel welding, but I've used flux-core with good results outdoors. I think what you're getting is too cold a puddle of metal which allows the melted flux to form pockets. If the arc is shortened a bit, the puddle stays hotter and forces the flux to the outside where it belongs to protect the weld from contaminants.

You may have to drop the power a little to prevent burn through once you shorten the arc, but you'll get better penetration and a cleaner weld.

Also, try a weaving motion with the arc, straight lines are more likely to give you problems with puddle temperature and weld profiles.

Chilly

 

[redharley]

I would not want to do all this extra scubing ,cleaning,or extra grinding would make welding no fun at all after a while. If you have a torch outfit it will only take a few seconds of heat to prep your steel or better yet add co2 to your outfit like mentioned before or for thicker stuff get a stick welder takes a little getting use to but worth the effort.