If your not a welder, know your limitations!

I'll second that......
Now you guys know we are NOT supposed to talk about these things. I seam to remeber some harsh punishments for these things.

 

got one here, carrabelle fl

 

LOL... I remember an episode of Monster Garage where a guy welded up a gas tank and Jesse asked him if he had tested it for leaks. The guy was insulted because Jessie dare question his welding skill and didn't test it. Later when it was crunch time they went to poor gas in it looked like a sprinkler.

I don't use a mig when it comes to anything I don't want leaking... just my personal preference. In the plant most of our processes only allow tig/stick although some of our folks now have become certified to run mig for some boiler tubing applications.

I remember the first weld job I did on something that had to withstand 3500psi... I was a bit nervious but ever since then I have been able to rest assured that I truely know what I am doing for those particular processes.

I used to be involved with a lot of smaller jobs around the plant but when we had a massive amount of tubing work they would rely on the boilermakers. I tell ya... watching veteran boilermakers and pipefitters weld is about as good as it gets.

 

Right on mang... ... the real world.

Welding on the bench is one thing.... 175 feet up in the air on a skyclimber welding on boiler water wall tube is another. With you on one side and your partner on the other side... you weld half the tube then he picks up the arc and welds the other half... round and round till the tube is welded out. Oh... or try welding blind... I've had to use mirrors before because a pipe was in a corner so tight I couldn't hardly even get my hand back there. Bend your welding rod just right... weld a little... grind the starts and stops.. repeat. I'm right handed but can weld with both hands equally well.

They should send all these noobs to our powerplant... we'll teach them how to weld.

 

Yep my dad bought his 110 Lincoln MIG almost 20 years ago now and we have build just about everything with it. I remember when he bought it and thought the thing was a gift from GOD, before that we used to weld with a torch and stick.

My grandfather (a 82 YO farmer) welds everything (and he can weld ANYTHING) with his old stick welder but most of the stuff he works on is for farm work so 1/4 and larger..... I have seen him hammer weld, that my friends was impressive.

 

Been "welding" for more than 20 years, been doing it for a living for the last 7 years. Ive passed all my cert. coupons to be able to do the SPECIFIC type of structural welding we do at our shop. Big beams and columns and generally in position. EASY welding compared to what is described above. Even with my "certifications" I know what I can and cant do based on my own experience. Was I ever asked to do another kind of welding Ive never tried before, I know better. Without the specific knowledge, I would be just as big ass as the fellow who was described at the begining of this thread with a broken frame. Attemping to perform welds I am not qualified to do correctly in many ways is worse than the guy who has never welded before. My point...I weld for a living and am very aware of my own limitations. Anyone reading this thread who THINKS they can weld puts their own life and the lives of others on the road in jeopardy. If you dont KNOW how to weld, please dont weld.

 

I retired a couple of years ago after 39 years of frame work,lots of rusted out ford frames and mopar unibodys fron ths mid 60's t0 late 70's.I did plenty of replacement clips and frame rails.etc etc.I have done lots of position welding on rusty steel and tin. last december the County career center near my home offered a basic welding course,and I signed up. I have been welding since I was about 14-50 years or so. The first night of class I started learning things I never thought about.At 65 years old I was the oldest guy in the class,but I was glad to see that there were still young guys who were interested in learning the trade. The class was very interesting,not much money,and I got to weld with several different types of welders.

 

I learned the basics in Ag Shop in high school, 40 or so years ago give or take. I love hearing these guys say I am a certified welder, actually the best one is I am a certified master welder. I worked as a certified structural welder for awhile. You re-certify every time you change projects and every 6 months if it is a long project. There is no life long certification that is worth the paper it is written on.

You can fart around welding with about anything and everything and still learn something from someone else. My grandad always said that if you were smart enough you could learn something from an imbecile. That was before tha age of political correctness, but he was right. I don't doubt that if I took a class today or even took some time to work with someone else I could learn a trick or two.

I use a 110 welder at home here. Its a little hobart. When I am doing chassis work I prefer to not have to stack my welds so I do all my prep than get everything tacked together and bossow a big Miller to do my final welding. If I did not have access to thre Miller I could weld everything that needed to be welded with the little hobart, but it would be real time consumeing. it h=does not have a long duty cycle and because of the size of the welder about everything that needs to be welded would need to be stacked, that is a time consuming process.

 

Stick is informal, I guess you really want us to saw SMAW....

 

lol I like that one
to be technical

 

Hays, Kansas Lodge #195

 

Hey brother---I'm here!!!! Bud

 

Bixby Knolls #699 @ 1969

Bruce

 

I had one of these as a kid. And I was "certified"

<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IiACyulRE78" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

This says it all

 

man...could not agree more!...I ran into a lot "those" morons while I
was in school...seems like they just could NOT shut up about how
great they were and how wuch welding they have done...and blah....
blah, blah, ....

When I was in shool, after Ford & Visteon sent ALL our Design and
Engineering jobs (just after 9/11..2001?) to India & China and I was
forced to reinvent myself...while I was workin' towards a degree in
advanced commercial HVAC- boiler & chiller operations & power plant
operations...

...I would fill in my "down-time" with a few Materials Joining classes...and
one thing led to another...next thing ya know...my instructor is gettig me
ready to send in my projects to have analyzed for certs...I dont think I
ever did finish my ASME pipe & pressure vessel welding certification
due to MS showing up right about then......


I passed all the tests in school...shear & strength...ya know...the whole
push/pull...tear 'em apart crap...I really liked cutting the welds apart to
visually check the penatrastion of the welds...and compare the
diffewrences between MIG, TIG, stick, gas...I mean...SMAW, GMAW, GTAW...ya know.......

Anyway...somebody mentioned 110V MIG machines for use at home...a
while back I ran across a SnapOn Ya219B MIG that is a 110V supply
machine...and I gotta tell ya...for some 1/4" stuff...I might need to make
multiple passes...but this thing rocks man...

Come to find out...after a few months of investagating...it was NOT
made by SnapOn...it was manufactured by a third party and parts are
still available for it...but when I got it the previous owner had just replaced the original Tweco stinger!...

One thing I DO like about this welder is the design of the chassis... it's
all-inclusive so I do not need a seperate cart...altho I DID add a little
more chain to the back so I can now carry a larger 75/25 cylinder...

-

 

well you are right and you are wrong. first, yes if you dont know what your doing either practice on some pieces of metal first and have someone there that can tell you if its right or not that knows what they are doing. if you cant get it right then leave it to the professionals. but also remember, some of the best and greatest accomplishments in hot rod history were made by people trying new ideas and things on their own. mickey thompson built the challenger one in his 2 car garage with the plans being drawn on the floor with chalk, and had a neighbor hood kid doing the welds on the frame and when he came home from his job as a pressman or at lions drag strip he would grind the welds down and go over them where they needed to be gone over. this guy should have had someone look his stuff over but you cant knock him for trying.

 

If the spinwelder counts too, I've got over 38 yrs. Holy crap

 

Akdar #555 (Tulsa, OK), and Lafayette #16 (Manhattan, KS)

 

That thar JB Weld is gonna put all Ya'll outta bidness soon... picky sum bitches.

 

Now, THAT is funnier 'n shit.
If y'all don't think that's funny,
just get the hell outta here!

 

I dont understand why people always want to jump straight to the top of the ladder. You climb a ladder from the bottom to stand at the top.

 

This a masonic roll call?

 

I don't do any structural welds. My area is aesthetics. Welding in holes or cracks and sometimes 2 pieces back together on parts to be replated. What I can't stand is when a guy that doesn't understand the differance when it comes to grinding the weld flat. Most always overgrind causing a "dip" in the part. This makes it more work than if they would have just let me do the repair in the first place. Pitted welds are a nightmare as well! Then to be told that their welds don't have pits even when I show them?

For a scary story my Dad told me of my Grandpa doing structural welds with..... Brass! Yeah he would braze steel together on parts that would scare you more than the cobbled mess as described in the first post.

 

Frame and chassis components nothing but arc welding. Unless you are a pro welder. If not hire a pro. After all what is your life or the life of your family worth?

 

JB Weld is fer fancified folk, I like that ther green putty. Got it on a midnight infomercial. Built a whole damn truck out of it. You can drag semi's down the street with it......saw it with my own two eyes, lol.

Oh and yeah, apparently this was a masonic roll call. Atleast that's the direction it took. There should be a club.....

 

Triangulated bailing wire er70s2 work well. Welds can fail from to hot and undercuts as well as cold laps ,porosity and poor quilty wire and many other problems anyone not knowing how without proper instrucion is an accident waiting to happen . Most junior colleges have nite courses go learn weld a good mentor is great to !!

 

Harding-San Juan #579
Citrus Heights Ca.

 

Ha I used to know where there was a roller coaster that was all welded together using old carbon arc welders and either brass or steel brazing wire. All you had to do to get the job was make a pass that held two pieces of angle together with the vise and 4 pound hammer test. if it broke as long as it split the weld and not broke one piece off that was OK too.

For those not familiar the old carbon arc welder is not ot be confused with a scarfing tool. The carbon was actually used to form a puddle that you fed wire into. Kind of like early low budget TIG welding without the gas.

 

When people ask if I am a "certified welder"...I say no, but I am certifiable........I too have welded lots of suff with 110 welders and they will make good welds with PROPER PREP....and sometimes extra heat from a torch....like the time I had to repair the snowplow for a in-law...some rocket sintest thought a millermatic 90 (i think) could weld 5/8 " cutting edge , with no bevel, or cleaning....I did repair it with that same welder, and a genorous bevel, and a rosebud on the backside of the joint...still going 10 + years later...mostly now I do motorcycle frame repairs....With GTAW...or TIG welding attached are a couple of pics...not 5 star , but very sound & safe...Shawn