i am not talking about back yard hack welding. i'm saying if someone can weld or fabricate better than a purchase product then do it. i am not endorsing cobbled crap, rat rods, and garbage flying down the road. i'm saying that we need to understand personal ability and if i fall short i should buy a product.
Great video Hollywood! In my observations and opinion,( yeah, I know, who asked for it), most mig welded headers, among other things from Reds Headers to Brookville Model A frames to the Sandersons on my car are not that pretty. Most of these places couldn't afford to have welders that can lay down a consistent and defect free mig product, nor would they have the time to do so. The people I know who are welding production are just good enough to get the chewing gum to stick and get virtually no support from management. I just rewelded a set of very expensive bar stools that were pathetic from the factory. It is almost essential to Tig headers to make them look perfect, which means surgically clean parts and excellent fit ups and jigging. It's all just about money, labor and time expended on prep. Perfect headers cost big bucks. This all comes from from a guy who isn't too shabby a welder. My 2 cents.
I bet he was bragging to his buds about how much HP his motor made instead of his poor welding skills.
koz is absolutely right, all about production, no one wants to pay for quality anymore, they just want it now, being a welder, i`m lucky most of the stuff i do is one of a kind, usually no more than 5 or 10 of an item, so, fit and finish is better, not relyingon another guy down some line somewhere to put it together good so i can weld it, i`m responsible for my own fitting and the end product, not my own boss, and if i welded like some of the crap here, i`d be out of the job, besides, i face my customer, i can`t try to get them to pay for stuff if it looked like that......
There's some truth to that. However, a welder who has enough skill and pride to produce a weld that looks good, will produce a weld with integrity. I've seen a lot of bad looking welds that failed. The ones that appear to be done correctly, not so much. That said, now that every monkey on the block has a Harbor Freight MIG machine and 15 minutes of experience, my opinion may change. Bob
My welding instructor handed us a sheet on the first day of class 5 weeks ago that reads. "Each and every weld that you make bares your personal trademark and represents your skill as a welder. Take pride in your work and make each weld as if your career depends on it.............." I took the classes because i was sick of paying someone to do substandard work that i might be able to do better with the right training and equipment.
A topic not mentioned much in welding threads is eyesite and cleans lens's a lot guys just do not have the correct eyesite i know in my case i can weld with out my reading glasses but not as good as i used to at least i admit i can not see correctly, the next topic is dirty and scratched lenses they reduce the abilty to see correctly by a huge amount and also guys use a to dark or to light lens. And even a clear lens reduces light. Eyeglasses will reduce light about 2%, i use a #10 or #11 lens and have gone as high as #13 if i need it, there is color also green and blue are common for most metals i forgot the difference and reason for green and blue, red i belive was used for magnisum and some other metals and there might be yellow also. Background lighting affects what the welder sees, you will see some guys tape a rag to there hood to stop background lighting, there is a reason larger weld shop will be darker inside.
the key of good welding. preparing clean surface (use stick welding if you cant clean) grinding place for the weld it will expand stainless steel the duble good yeas, light,no stress. hi amp no cold welding
Here is some fine American auto welding from the 70's. (It's an early Bronco, and yes, most all of them look like this.)
What are some suggestions you might have as far as finding a good weldor, specifically mig and tig but also in general? Also, finding a good weldor that does not have mental problems----i.e., let's keep your car for six months when the actual work needed to be done would probably only take a few hours.
I used to weld for Dana Parish Corp until I took a Mngm't job there. We built frames for GM, Ford, Toyota, Dodge and heavy truck. Anybody who welded like that Bronco was outa there! By the time the plant closed about '96 we were down to 1 part per million rejection. In the '70's crap welds were a way of life for american industry, no more. Check out the frame welds on the new F 150's, they look like a row of dimes. Ford took no shit on the line. That looks like an AO Smith frame, Canadian.
koz, they look like a stack of dimes now cause a damn robot did them......programmed by some puter nerd......welding is a dying/shipped overseas art....and getting worse everyday........
Actually subrails are a little of both. The upper side is automated and the bottom is manual. To the best of my knowledge it is still done the same way. The last frames were made in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. It was Danas only non-union shop. Most siderails and cradles are made that way. All assembly operations after the marriage fixture were manual. I used to walk that floor 60 hrs. a week and I challenge most normal humans to tell which welds are robotic and which are manual.
I like the military guy wish i had that for a poster. my 46 jeep looks like they forgot flux on the rods.
this is a lousy day of welding. for me any time i have to switch over and stick weld... dirty, slag, change out lenses, slag, smoke... cylinder clevis on 4x6 tubing
One of the major problems I see with Mig welding is that it's very easy to weld cold. I like stick because you can adjust the heat by the distance from the work. Tig and gas welding also allow you to vary the heat while welding. When I have a lot of build up to do, I like to use mig with 1/16" wire but it takes a lot of pre heating.
I would say 80% of the work I do in my little hole in the wall welding shop is redoing crap welds done by someone else. I can honestly say that no country has the corner on crap welds, seems everyone is screwing up welds. A lot of production work leaves a lot to be desired. Usually the fit is bad and the welding process is too hurried. If mistakes are made, there is not time to go back and fix it. When all they are concerned with is the production numbers, I get more work. Clean lenses, good lighting, protective clothing, properly prepared material, a properly set up and maintained machine capable of doing the required job, and a qualified operator, are all required to get good welds. Take any one away and the weld quality is reduced. Gene
Very good points. I have much more trouble out of position welding now that I wear tri focals then I did before I needed glasses. Bought a good Miller auto darkening helmet with a large lense that has helped. Asked my optrician about it. He told me about lenses that electricians wear called double D's I think. Magnification on both the top and bottom for up close work with a space in the middle for further away. That way you don't have to tilt your head so far back to get the work in focus. I hope to get a pair this year. I tried the magnifcation lenses in the helmet, did not work well for me. B
All these were on the same truck and all were holding major components like the axles and transmission! These were the worst I've ever seen and most parts i actually knocked off with a hammer. I was fixing the shoddy work for a friend that was done by another friend of his. As stated on here before, just because you can hold the gun and pull the trigger doesn't mean you can weld.
Done by a friend ... friends don't let other friends that can't weld burn metal on their projects!! Be carefull. The life you might save could be your own. PACO
Here's some from the butchered bird I'm working on. Seems to me, these guys make far more work for themselves than to just do something right.....or closer to right
The Jalopy Journal
