Welding again.......

[machinist@large]

As many of you might recall, oscaryu1 started a thread titled "Best Weld's" that ran for awhile with some good information exchanged, but it kind of petered out back in July. I had a post or two on it, but didn't have much of a chance to do any welding since then. Until I swapped positions at work that is.

We have a loose guide line here of not bumping older and or closed thread's; I think that I wouldn't qualify the welding I now post as my best if for for no other reason than the fact that I haven't done any stick welding in over a year. Until today.....

All three pic's are ER7014, DC, straight polarity, flat position. This is the first time I fired up the stick welder in my small corner of the shop, and I'm not ashamed of my first attempt.

If you look closely, I have some small under cut, but I'll take what I can get, and these welds should do the job.

Enjoy....

 

[landuse]

Nice Pat

 

[Greyscale]

Those are extremely impressive stick welds. I can't begin to get start/stops that smooth with stick, they're all cold/tall. That's why I tend to stick to GMAW hahaha.

I've got some nice beads to share if you want to start another one of those threads. I'd not be at all offended if you wanted to keep the topic to your personal work, though.

 

[machinist@large]

Those are extremely impressive stick welds. I can't begin to get start/stops that smooth with stick, they're all cold/tall. That's why I tend to stick to GMAW hahaha.

I've got some nice beads to share if you want to start another one of those threads. I'd not be at all offended if you wanted to keep the topic to your personal work, though.

Post them up!!! If you're worried about me dising, forget it. And if this thread turn's into a Q&A, so much the better. I refuse to claim to be the be all of welding because I know I'm not.

I've spent most of my career using welding as just another tool in my skill box; my core skills are in machining, machine building, and machine repair. Welding is just a really handy skill to augment those. We've got some pro's here that can blow me out of the water if you're looking for the best of the best.......

 

[Greyscale]

Here is some of my GMAW work. I really need a better helmet, I get so wobbly when I'm welding "blind":

 

[machinist@large]

Your weld's look very good; the only concern I have is the photos where you appear to be welding on an older auto frame, basically rusty metal to rusty metal. That needs to be ground down to clean metal to be totally certain of full penetraition.

That's the problem with MIG; you can lay down some of the most beautiful beads, but if it's on dirty/rusty metal, they may just be laying on the surface with zero actual penetration......

 

[Greyscale]

I can't remember the brand/code (I think it was ESAB since it was on a wire spool by my recollection), but the wire was specific to welding on metal that was tough to prep/ a bit dirty. We did do quite a bit or surface prep, but it clearly wasn't perfect; the pics just made it a bit worse than it actually was. Looking at the pics, it appears as though we didn't do any prep at all! I wasn't getting porosity and there wasn't any rollover, so I'm confident in the welds.

You're 100% correct, though; proper prep is imperative. Thanks for your kind words

 

[machinist@large]

If grinding equipment is holding you back price wise, I can strongly recommend HF's model #91223 4 1/2" angle grinder. It won't survive a shoot out with my Metabo, but the first one lived for over 15 year's until a now former coworker killed it. I bought two more for another job, and all I had to do to them was repack the gear boxes with real grease. One of them is currently at work, because I'll take a cheapie that run's over a name brand unit that's so beat to that it smoke's when you actually try to use it.

Treat it with respect: if it starts to bog down, back off. Respect it's limits and it'll last you year's.....

 

[Poboy kartman]

I don't think that's a problem.....think he actually prepped better than the pics portray.....why polish 2" outside of the joint..when all the real business happens in 1/4"????

Looks good to me.....

 

[machinist@large]

I don't think that's a problem.....think he actually prepped better than the pics portray.....why polish 2" outside of the joint..when all the real business happens in 1/4"????

Looks good to me.....

Doug, I'm not arguing; it's just that if this thread gains any leg's, I just wanted to throw that tidbit of info out there.....