Wet 7018.

[Gary Fowler]

anybody got any input to this question

I have tried that and it doesn't work. If you don't have a rod oven, try the kitchen oven if it is electric or if you have a small toaster oven, they should fit fine in one of those and could do about 5 pounds at a time. A couple of hours of baking in oven at 350-450F should be sufficient for average shop use. It may take a bit longer than that if you do a lot of them at once, they need to all reach baking temps then a 2 hour soak time.

 

[Rock knocker]

I liked building land marks. This one was fun, stacking 300-ton chunks of concrete five high 200-feet underwater.

You weren't the guy who left the hatch open were you?

That was the day after I came back from a two month climbing trip to Nepal. My 747 almost landed on top of a taxying 737, and the the bridge sank.

More than a little surreal

 

[Shield Arc]

You weren't the guy who left the hatch open were you?

No but I was there that night. Didn't get home for a few days. I got stuck setting temporary anchors, to secure the 3rd Lake Bridge. I think we had every free tractor tug in Seattle pushing on the 3rd Lake Bridge until we could get enough anchors out.

 

[Rock knocker]

That was a cash cow for members of the inland boatmans union. Drive out on the skiff, and nap for 12 hours of OT.

Or so I was told by several members

 

[Shield Arc]

That was a cash cow for my company as well! WSDOT handed my company the contract, (time & material) to secure the 3rd Lake Bridge. We ran two 12-hour shifts, 7-days a week until done. I got stuck on nights. When I would walk into the dog house on the derrick at beginning of shift I couldn't hardly get in the door for all the supplies that were on the floor. Didn't have the foggiest idea what we would need with any of the things that were there!

Then we got the contract to build the replacement bridge, with a 6-million $ bonus if completed on time. I was the rigging foreman to set the anchors. We were just about done with the north side, then the state figured out they gave us the wrong coordinates!!!!!!!!!!:shocked: All the anchors were in the wrong place!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Back on time & material! Hired a diving company from southern California. The divers had to go down and rig every anchor for us. The stacked 300-Ton chunks weren't so bad, it was the bottom section that was stuck in the mud. That crane was only rated at 500-tons. Our engineers were all over my a s s not to over load the crane! The divers had to use a jet pipe to shove under the 30-feet x 30-feet base to break the suction. These anchors were bad enough, but the anchors in this picture were worse. These anchors only weighed 90-tons, but they were jetted 18-feet beneath the lake bottom with I forget how many tons of rock dropped on top of them! My company was rolling in $$$$$$$$$$!:licking:

 

[Shield Arc]

Here is good video of what happened. I thought it was funny:laughing:, until I got a phone call about 9:00 P.M. that night to get there and start helping! I forget how many hours I was up straight.:confused3:

I90 Bridge Sinks - YouTube

 

[Rock knocker]

I remember that big derrick. It was something like two 8' Manitwoc booms forming an A-frame off the end of the barge.

I'm not sure of the diameter of the boom-hoist rope, but at the time, Rasmussen wire rope told me that they helped with the main hoist, and it had 1 3/8" or 1 1/2" wire rope. They must of stolen that drum off some old tower yarder

 

[Shield Arc]

If I remember correctly, (realize how many cranes I've dealt with since then) it was 1 1/4-inch wire rope, 8,000-feet long, 28-parts. The boom wire was the same. I forget all the details about the boom, after that job I never seen it again. Here is about the only picture I have of the boom. This is when we were placing it on the barge. I went up to disconnect the crane we used to set the boom.

 

[Rock knocker]

I remember seeing those rigs from I-90, it was kind of jaw dropping seeing all that reaving

 

[Shield Arc]

When we finished setting all the anchors on the south side, we had to take the derrick back around to the north side of the bridge. We had to go under the East Channel Bridge. The state required I go up and stay in the crow's nest at the top of the boom to insure the boom was down low enough not to hit the bottom of the East Channel Bridge. With cranes that size all crane signals are done with radios. Very good friend of mine was the crane operator. As we were approaching the East Channel Bridge it didn't look like the boom was low enough, soon as I pushed the button on the radio Mic I got a series of beeps, battery went dead! I couldn't talk to the crane operator or the skipper in the tug! The East Channel Bridge has a slope to it, the north side being lower than the south side. The boom cleared the south side but it really looked iffy to clear the north side. I didn't know to jump, sheet or go blind! So I stuck it out, the boom clipped the navigation light hanging down on the north side, peeled the bottom of the light off!

 

[muddstopper]

I hate to say it, but my shop stays damp all the time. The roof leaks and needs to be replaced. I dont own a rod oven and store my rods in one of those plastic cans. When ever I know I have a bunch of welding to do, I take my rods and lay them on top of the wood stove. I usually have several laying on the stove at any given time. The stove top will reach close to 500degrees if I crank it up. Anyways, even moldy looking rods will dry out and burn just fine for me. Now if the flux has started to turn loose, thats a whole new ballgame. My biggest problem is with the mig, rusty wire there aint much you can do for that.

 

[joshuabardwell]

one question about rod ovens, if you store rods in just a regular container most of the time, then in a rod oven maybe a day before you use them does it give you any benefeit? Do you need to keep them in the oven since the first time you open them? I don't weld a lot, but enough to buy a decent amount at a time and don't want to store it for months in an oven if I am not using it.

Per AWS, reconditioning rods requires higher temperature than a rod oven is designed to produce. Rod ovens may stay at around 200 degrees. The goal here is to keep a dry environment, to keep moisture from coming into contact with the flux. When moisture comes into contact with the flux, it's said that chemical changes occur in the flux, which require much higher temperatures to reverse. This is reconditioning, which requires something like 2 hours at something like 800 degrees.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Shield Arc, I don't think anybody here is surprised to find you can lay down a clean bead with a sub-optimal rod. Here's what I want to know: what about Gary Fowler's statement about hydrogen embrittlement that leads to catastrophic failure of the bead at the HAZ some time down the road? Is there a way that we could examine that, practically speaking? Tell you what: why don't you weld up a shackle and hang an engine block or two from it, then set up a webcam, and we'll all watch to see how long it takes to fall. But seriously... I wonder if you wouldn't mind setting that coupon aside for six months or so and cutting another sample from it to do another bend test and see if anything has changed?

 

[Shield Arc]

What I've read about hydrogen embrittlement, is not a problem with A-36 steel, it is when you get into high strength steel where you will have problems. 7018 is required to weld some high strength steels, along with 80, 90, and even 11018. One way to look at it, how much mild steel is welded with 60xx filler everyday. 7018 is major over kill for mild steel.
I remember one time being on a job where they had a CAT 966 loader. Also had a fork attachment for this loader. The forks were made out of T-1. One day the loader operator broke one of the forks right in the heel. This fork was about 8-inches wide, and 4-inches thick in the heel. I got elected to weld it up. I double beveled the long section, preheated to 300-degrees, used 11018 right out of a new can. Never seen the inside of a rod oven! When completed I wrapped the fork in house insulation, and went home for the night. Next morning the mechanics, and loader operator installed the repaired fork. For the next 1 1/2-years I watched that same loader operator abuse that fork, it never broke!

I could be all wet about hydrogen embrittlement, there is a lot of information out there about the subject, 99% of it goes right over my head.:confused3: That is why when welding something that is critical, engineers write up a WPS, and expect the welder to follow it.


Sure I could hold onto those coupons, but who is going to remind me to bend them in 6-months?:laughing:

 

[joshuabardwell]

What I've read about hydrogen embrittlement, is not a problem with A-36 steel, it is when you get into high strength steel where you will have problems. 7018 is required to weld some high strength steels, along with 80, 90, and even 11018. One way to look at it, how much mild steel is welded with 60xx filler everyday. 7018 is major over kill for mild steel.

That's the impression that I have, but being a n00b, I don't always trust my impressions, and being a scientist at heart, I'm always hungry for experimental data.

Sure I could hold onto those coupons, but who is going to remind me to bend them in 6-months?:laughing:

Take a paint pen, write the date six months from now on it, write my username on it, and stick it to the wall somewhere where you'll see it every now and then. :thumbsup: I'd do it myself, but only being a "hobbyist," I don't have a coupon bending machine.

 

[Shield Arc]

Depending on how far you want to take your learning of welding. In my opinion if you really want to build confidence in your welding you should build a tester! I'm sure you have the majority of the material laying around. You can even borrow the hydraulic jack out of you pickup.
I had a small shop press, I just built an attachment for it, and built a coupon roller.

Model BT1B Weld Bend Tester - YouTube

 

[joshuabardwell]

I had a small shop press, I just built an attachment for it, and built a coupon roller.

Nice! I don't have a press, but it's on my wish-list. I currently have an offer out on a fabrication project (building a geodesic dome kit for somebody--no welding, mind you) that if the guy ever comes through on the money, I'm going to use part of it to buy a hydraulic press. The work involves squishing the ends of a bunch of EMT conduit flat, with a curved profile. A hydraulic press is the only way to do it really efficiently.

 

[k0ua]

This don't prove a whole heck of a lot but back last june I welded up a crack in my "beater bucket" a Kubota bucket off of the last tractor. I have used it to move tons of rocks, and pushed and pryied on things since with it and it is still holding. I welded it with some US Forge 7018 rod that I keep in a plastic rod holder from horrible freight. it does have a nice gasket, and I would call it airtight. The rod of course came from a cardboard box with s shrink wrapper on it. Whether there were any holes in the shrink wrap, I don't know. So the rod has never seen the inside of a rod oven. Again I am not saying this is the end all do all proof but it is what it is.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/welding/249487-oh-no-my-bucket-broken.html

James K0UA

 

[CNC Dan]

..... The work involves squishing the ends of a bunch of EMT conduit flat, with a curved profile. A hydraulic press is the only way to do it really efficiently.

naw, make a big pair of pliers. Big like a pair of pruning lopers.
Levers are quick and strong.

Did you get your info from desert domes?

 

[joshuabardwell]

naw, make a big pair of pliers. Big like a pair of pruning lopers.
Levers are quick and strong.

Did you get your info from desert domes?

Now that I have a welder, maybe fabbing up some big pliers would be an option. The last time I made a dome, it was sledge, vice, or press. The press was slow as heck though.

Yup. I got the info from desert domes.