I have a friend who is a professional welder and when he stops by when I'm welding he says "Is your welder broke?" obviously I need more practice. Nice pics Thank You
Some crap I did at work... Stainless Steel pressure vessel. Most of the pics I take are from my crappy iPod camera) And some crap I do out in the garage... This is a Triumph side cover that the owner wanted the hole welded shut. Original is below for reference. There was very little filler needed to make it perfect. And a straight axle from speedway motors I had to widen because they're too lame to offer a 4" drop axle in the correct width for a '57 Chevy of all things.
You guys make me sick!!! I learned a long time ago that if I didn't own a grinder I couldn't lay down a decent looking weld at all. Well, maybe not quite that bad but, if I need a weld to look good I tack it in place and then have our maintenance guy at work weld it. I learned how to weld with a torch about 30 years ago and I can still weld with a torch better than I can weld with electricity. Doc
Docmike a guy I used to work with had a saying , with enough grinding wheels you can make any weld look good.
Likewise, jdustu, very nice! (and thank you) I figured I'd post a couple more things I did this past week. This is part of a small burner pipe I was making at work. If I get the chance, I'll snap a pic of the whole thing next week. And this is a chute that funnels whatever (I don't know offhand) into a mold. It's 16ga stainless, and they wanted it welded inside and out with no color and no "sugar" and my work is too cheap to invest in a purge tent, so it was all low heat and wire brush work. Here's a close up of that chute...... Kind of hard to see with the iPod camera, and I blended it a bit much with scotchbrite too, but that was sure a PITA. ........and there were 5 more of them after that........
You try clamping copper to the backside? Sometimes if you can't purge that'll help trap the gas from the front and keep the atmosphere from getting to the back. Looks nice though.
I was going to say that also. I use copper to keep blow through to a minimum and keep the back side clean w/o purging. I make those kind of transitions at work all the time, but they have to be food grade. So I have to clean the insides spotless and nothing to catch product on. Yours looks very good.
I used aluminum angle on the corner to corner joints, and that made it easy, but the other joints all have compound curves and funky corners that didn't allow enough contact to make a difference in soaking up the heat. To make matters worse, some of the flat patterns were off just enough to give me a 1/16th gap on the two longest joints. On average, I took 3 hours per chute to get 'em done. Not too bad considering the circumstances.....
Soaking the heat isn't the big thing, keeping the backside protected from the atmosphere is....at least if you want to keep away from the sugaring effect. Even some thin copper might be flexible enough to help, if you can find a way to keep it in place. Just a thought! Obviously in reality it's not always so easy. Either way, the final product looked good.
So right, all I use is copper tubing, some folded flat others split with a band saw and opened up flat. It all depends on what I'm welding. I just clamp to the inside of the piece to be welded with vise grips.
Yeah, true, but I don't think there's much I could have done with all those curves. I just had to be patient and go nice, slow and cold. I had my super watch my display while I was welding and he said I maxed out at 26 amps, lol. I had to be no more than a 32nd of an inch away at all times or the arc would break. I get my kicks doing crap like that though (which also makes the bosses happy). And the other guys are more than happy to let me have that work.
you guys never cease to amaze me wit your brilliant welds. BUT what about Incredible welders: I think Im in love....:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=ggaFnAmQU-A http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=G1Q3zL7M9_8
For sanitary welds you dont need a purge tent. I do lots of stainless transitions pcs etc that need to be sanitary for dairy and winery products. On the transitions pcs I either make up a purging enclosure by using heavy cardboard sheeting (1/16 thick) or stainless scrap sheeting that is taped over the backide of the weld. Leave yourself at least a couple inches of space so your "tent" doesnt burn off. We use the shiny aluminum foil tape (duct work tape), sticks real well to stainless. Tape off one end and stick your purge line into it and tape off the other end, adding three or four small pinholes to allow the positive pressure to release. You want to add enough pressure to stop your weld from falling in while not creating enough pressure to blow your puddle out. Depending on the size of the backside tent and the fittment of the pcs (gaps) your purge pressure should be somewhere in the range of 4 to 10 psi. For 16 gauge stainless steel I use about 42 amps and watch the puddle for the "Scorcerer's Globe" as I call it. I've manually welded up miles of stainless sanitary piping for winery and dairy applications and my employer is purchasing an orbital welder (approx 25 K) to really make the work more proficient and professional but there is always areas that cannot be done with the automatic machine. Keep practicing and watch for the "Scorcerer's Ball in the puddle, its the sign that your weld is purging through to the inside. Good luck.
I used to use that tape when I worked for an industrial gas equipment manufacturer. That stuff is awesome. Trying to get my current boss to buy the little stuff like that is like pulling teeth though, so I gotta make crap up on the fly. He'll have no problem buying a million dollar CNC machine without batting an eye, but to ask him for a 7 dollar roll of tape he acts like you want his firstborn child. Welcome to my world.....
My boss is exactly the same way most of the time. Ive learned that sometimes it is easier to purchase consumables for myself that makes my job easier and less frustrating. Sometimes a little money out of pocket can reduce the stress of your job and make the job go much better. Especially when I'm manually purge welding certain jobs, not being irritated goes a long way in producing food grade sanitary welds where patience and an eye for detail is everything. Sometimes it only costs a couple of dollars out of my pocket to make all the difference in the job at hand. I usally have a couple of projects on the go that I use shop materials for that I'm not charged for so I consider the $$ a wash. Just something to think about.
I consider myself a novice tig welder I just like to build stuff, I am attempting to build my own headers I am using stainless tube with hooker header weld sleeves pt # 12102hkr they are made of mild, I'm wondering if you think it will contaminate the joint, was wondering on the filler rod --stainless?, I would like to try the SiB filler I have been reading about on this thread, I have been told to use silicone bronze. They say using the sleeve requires no filler
Use 309L to weld the mild steel to stainless. Whoever told you to use silicone bronze for that application is steering you down a bad road......
That's nice man. I was in Ron Fournier's shop recently, he does a lot of aluminum gas welding. Wish I woulda snapped some pics, MAN were those welds pretty! I did a hot rod sedan sculpture today. These are the wheels, front and back. Silicon Bronze. It's nice 'cuz it looks cool, there's some color contrast....plus it melts before the base metal, so it fills in empty space instead of eating away the edges. silicon bronze tig braze by Brown Dog Welding, on Flickr silicon bronze tig braze by Brown Dog Welding, on Flickr
So i have been tig welding for about 6 months i like it alot, i hope i can get a job tig welding some where.
He's really, really talented? I don't know him personally, but I've tried to follow a bit of what he does via online. One of the reasons I started messing around with weaving aluminum was because of some work of his I saw on another site. What I think, some from reading his posts and some from making educated guesses, is this: He custom mixes his gasses...helium and argon. A lot of the weaving is purely cosmetic, but damn does it look cool. I read where he did a repair for race intake that they needed asap, they didn't have time to grind/polish it so he just went over it with a 1/16 tungsten and no filler and gave it a look similar the piece you posted. Even if he's using no filler(which obviously makes it easier), the consistency on the fuel manifold corner joints is perfect. Weave or not, his work is top notch. The "stringer" fillet welds on his intakes are sick. I've seen his work posted on many different forums, and all but one gave it the respect it was due...the other was a local import forum, where a couple guys were like "yeah, that's cool but anyone can weld like that with some practice" Sure thing, kids. Hard work and practice will get you to your ceiling, but not everyone has a ceiling that high.
Thanks, that talent is way beyond me. I want to try weaving on steel. Are you running the tungsten diagonal, adding filler at the top and bottom of each corner?