Killer Weldz Thread

WARRIORWELDING said:
Spot on. This weld would pass a destructive or x-ray test long before most others. With a little less undercut on the bead profile from the heat, I'd say you couldn't ask for better. But for most any stresses a rig will see most of the beautifully spaced ripples will do just fine. But its a misleading technique easily messed up.
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Very true. I get paid to make my welds be strong and "look" good. But in most cases a smooth weld like that will prevail strength wise no matter how good of a welder you are. For example, how many tractors or pieces of equipment do you see with a pretty stack of dimes.
 
MarsFab said:
Very true. I get paid to make my welds be strong and "look" good. But in most cases a smooth weld like that will prevail strength wise no matter how good of a welder you are. For example, how many tractors or pieces of equipment do you see with a pretty stack of dimes.
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Most of the equipment welds I see kinda scare me. Undercut, incomplete, awful starts and stops, and major stress points. However, there's lots of weld area, so maybe there's a big enough fudge factor designed in by engineers to make up for less-than-skilled welders. Or maybe I'm just too picky. I was looking at an aluminum dual-axle car trailer at a show last month, and couldn't believe the quality of the welds and finish on it. For that much money, I would expect much more. I would seriously cut out almost all the welds and redo them myself if I had one. For Pete's sake, at least clean the soot off from the area when you're done!
 
I've seen a lot of manufactured trailers and trailer hitches for that matter that have had some horrible looking welds. No penetration and some bubble gum looking crap. I even broke a trailer hitch last year. The welds popped right off of the gusset.

This reminds me, I have some welding to do this weekend. Maybe I'll take some pics. I've managed to do some purdy work with my little Lincoln 140 MIG. Solid core and gas help, I'm not too keen on flux core.
 
MarsFab said:
Very true. I get paid to make my welds be strong and "look" good. But in most cases a smooth weld like that will prevail strength wise no matter how good of a welder you are. For example, how many tractors or pieces of equipment do you see with a pretty stack of dimes.
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I inspect heavy equipment welds along with machine function, most are run pretty hot & will have a flow but not the Dime on Dime look, I always question those welds. On the thinner metals they are mostly fine, however when you go to 1/2" & up they lack proper penetration. I have seen those just pop apart during testing.


catfishblues said:
Most of the equipment welds I see kinda scare me. Undercut, incomplete, awful starts and stops, and major stress points. However, there's lots of weld area, so maybe there's a big enough fudge factor designed in by engineers to make up for less-than-skilled welders. Or maybe I'm just too picky. I was looking at an aluminum dual-axle car trailer at a show last month, and couldn't believe the quality of the welds and finish on it. For that much money, I would expect much more. I would seriously cut out almost all the welds and redo them myself if I had one. For Pete's sake, at least clean the soot off from the area when you're done!
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You're correct, big fudge factor. Also most manufactures have "just out of school engineers" or engineers from another field that have no clue. Where I work we use mostly Co2 shielded flux core, very forgiving.
 
Jeff I wish you needed help. Inspection and testing I think will be my next step. I'm going on twenty yrs of welding. I'm going to keep at it too! But me thinks the inspection or testing is where I want to find myself and my business down the road. I've always wanted to pursue an AWS cert in testing and inspection along with teaching some more.
 
Oh and engineers of any reputable company factor in alot for ultimate tensile and ductile strength in a weldment. The more critical the joint and the higher end the product the pickier it is of course. Say like a ship yard, John Deere, or Cat compared to other smaller divisions. But as for trailers..............Its about all high production burn it stupid hot shuck it out. Suits me I get to fix alot of them. Some of the purtiest aluminum weld I ever seen done in Mig were on pressure rated bulk dry vessels used for hauling stuff like industrial starch. However almost everything attached to it looked like hammer pooh! Most likely very automated.
 
Here's a little mig stainless I did today.
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wow....................dude has serious skills.
 
All of our stuff at work is for "under the hook" type lifting. A lot of it goes to ship yards, construction companies, or even government stuff. Just last week we machined a big aluminum lift beam that was getting hung under a helicopter.

They weld it, inspect it, and then we pull test any lifting equipment to 125% for 3 minutes. Our heaviest lift items are rated to 1.3 million pounds and we pull test them in house. They get 1" welds...I think that's usually 13 passes for our stuff.

@Jeff B We use .045 flux core with 100% Co2 as well. It's definitely easy to work with, but it's not as easy as I thought to get the penetration correct without any foreign material getting in them. I passed our workmanship test no problem, but our bevel test wasn't as easy. I always had a small cavity in the root pass, but they never broke when they cut them apart and bent them. They got kind of upset with me, but I'm a machinist, not a welder and I did damn good to have never welded with our equipment before. :rolleyes:


Yeah, those are some nice as welds! Is that an exhaust setup for something?
 
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1395493199.217509.jpg


This picture is a side view of a broken 3-pass mig weld. Weld was short circuit in 3/8 plate, 60 degree groove, 1/4 root opening with backing.

It is a beautiful example of how and improper "weave" technique can cause a great looking weld that is insufficient. The weld passed all visual requirements, but failed on the destructive bend.

The student was "weaving" too slow side to side and traveling across the plate too slow as well. In his mind he was attempting to "burn in" the sides of the weld by pausing too long. This caused the under side of the weld pool to become cold and not fuse with base metal and previous passes. The dark lines between the passes show that.

If you look at the cover pass on top, you can see the density change in the weld from top to bottom, light and tight grain to darker and more porous.

Again demonstrating the weld pool "puddle" was insulating the arc from penetrating the base metal and previous weld, while the top of weld pool has a nice outward appearance.

Parameters were IIRC:
Miller 252, .035 er70s6, 18.5v, 240 wfs, 135 amps, 75/25, 1/2 stickout, 15 degree drag angle.

Just wanted to back up what others have said, a strong critical weld is more important than the "dimes" look. Make sure you have your weave fast enough an keep your arc on the front edge of the puddle and not to let puddle build up and insulate arc from the base metal. However, do not weave so fast that undercut on weld toes "sides" becomes a greater problem.

Trigger welding or the tack tack tack method would cause the same issue pictured above between each tack, causing lack of fusion between each tack and between weld and base metal. This is why trigger welding is only suited for non structural items ie: cosmetic sheetmetal.
 
These are of my girlfriend Sam welding. She can weld better than me on a bunch of stuff, and has more aws qualifications than I do.

Tig 6G Pipe 6" Sch80 passed ZERO flaws
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1395503944.087746.jpg


ImageUploadedByTapatalk1395503973.242962.jpg


Stick 6G Pipe 6" Sch80 Passed ZERO flaws
sam4.jpg


Her Helping with welding Suburban Cage
sam2.jpg


Helping with fitting Suburban seats. She helps with 99% of all my weekend work. We say the couple that fabs together stays together.
sam.jpg


And doing some welding on the RZR Cage.

sam3.jpg
 
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Some Students work:

Tig Weave
IMG_1532.JPG


Tig Freehand Tapping, 6G Pipe 6" Sch80
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Horizontal Mig Practice

mig.jpg


Mig 6G 6" Pipe Sch80

pipe.jpg


Inside of previous picture

pipe2.jpg


Some of the Jack my students built for the school, I helped as little as possible:

jack.jpg


jack2.jpg


The last is a truss mounted upper link mount, couldn't find the pics of it all welded up, still searching.

not weld.jpg
 
Mac5005 said:
View attachment 149968

This picture is a side view of a broken 3-pass mig weld. Weld was short circuit in 3/8 plate, 60 degree groove, 1/4 root opening with backing.

It is a beautiful example of how and improper "weave" technique can cause a great looking weld that is insufficient. The weld passed all visual requirements, but failed on the destructive bend.

The student was "weaving" too slow side to side and traveling across the plate too slow as well. In his mind he was attempting to "burn in" the sides of the weld by pausing too long. This caused the under side of the weld pool to become cold and not fuse with base metal and previous passes. The dark lines between the passes show that.

If you look at the cover pass on top, you can see the density change in the weld from top to bottom, light and tight grain to darker and more porous.

Again demonstrating the weld pool "puddle" was insulating the arc from penetrating the base metal and previous weld, while the top of weld pool has a nice outward appearance.

Parameters were IIRC:
Miller 252, .035 er70s6, 18.5v, 240 wfs, 135 amps, 75/25, 1/2 stickout, 15 degree drag angle.

Just wanted to back up what others have said, a strong critical weld is more important than the "dimes" look. Make sure you have your weave fast enough an keep your arc on the front edge of the puddle and not to let puddle build up and insulate arc from the base metal. However, do not weave so fast that undercut on weld toes "sides" becomes a greater problem.

Trigger welding or the tack tack tack method would cause the same issue pictured above between each tack, causing lack of fusion between each tack and between weld and base metal. This is why trigger welding is only suited for non structural items ie: cosmetic sheetmetal.
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Your speakin my language....... freakin awesome. Good weld analysis too! Picking out the density and grain structure changes, reminded me of metallurgy and how much most of the guys could have cared less. I was a fair welder when I went to college and people were like why take what you all ready know how to do? What's the benefit? Well knowing the "why" and a little more "how" made me much better, but more importantly humbled me to recognize my faults and others excellence when I see it. Props too you! :beer: Cause you seem like a teacher who teaches with a passion instead of just for the paycheck. And I've been their when the student eclipses the teacher. It's really a proud moment to see someone take good roots and grow taller than you were able!
 
Same thing with machining...you have to know the material you're working with in order to know how to make it do what you need!

Women welders are awesome! We have a Brazilian girl at work and she's a welder too! Not as good looking as that girl though :D
 
braxton357 said:
I realize this is a welding thread and those are very worthy welds...but no one has demanded more pictures of the girl yet??
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I just want to see her bewbies :D
 
I made a subtle hint towards it! I'd be way more interested to know if she has an equally skilled sister...who's single :D
 
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