Let's see your welds...

[sixdogs]

Let's see your welds and don't be shy.
Show the good, the bad and the ugly.


Here are my two final welds from an adult ed welding class--on scrap 3/16". I'm 63 but needed some help.
Done with a Lincoln 275 ? MIG that can also do stick and was awaiting an upgrade to add TIG.
Can't recall amps or volts but I heard the perfect scrambled eggs sound.

 

[Shield Arc]

Here's some pictures of some welds I'm proud of. In the 10-years I've been on the Internet I've always read you can not do this, never understood why not. But I'm not real good at thinking out of the box, I'm a creature of habit! A few weeks ago this subject came up again on one of the welding forums, and one of the most out spoken weldors on the Internet, (some of you know who I'm speaking of) just blasted the poor guy for asking if you could run Mig on a CC, (constant current) stick welding machine. So I thought, I'll just give it a try. First I loaded a roll of .045 wire in my LN-25, hooked the LN-25 to my 1966 Lincoln SA-200 Red Face engine drive welding machine, and ran a few passes. When I posted the results on one of the welding forums I was told. "Oh well you can run the bigger wires like .045, but it will not work with .035". So I changed rolls of wire and tried some .035. Still didn't seem too bad to me!:laughing:

 

[deereman75]

Here's some pictures of some welds I'm proud of. In the 10-years I've been on the Internet I've always read you can not do this, never understood why not. But I'm not real good at thinking out of the box, I'm a creature of habit! A few weeks ago this subject came up again on one of the welding forums, and one of the most out spoken weldors on the Internet, (some of you know who I'm speaking of) just blasted the poor guy for asking if you could run Mig on a CC, (constant current) stick welding machine. So I thought, I'll just give it a try. First I loaded a roll of .045 wire in my LN-25, hooked the LN-25 to my 1966 Lincoln SA-200 Red Face engine drive welding machine, and ran a few passes. When I posted the results on one of the welding forums I was told. "Oh well you can run the bigger wires like .045, but it will not work with .035". So I changed rolls of wire and tried some .035. Still didn't seem too bad to me!:laughing:

Is this the guy who claims to be an engineer or weld inspector or something, and is always told he knows just enough to give bad advice? If so I know the one

 

[Shield Arc]

That could be him, 99.8 % of his posts are blasting newbie weldors for asking questions! The other .2 % of his posts he gives good advice. Just not a lot of "sunshine" in his attitude!

 

[cdaigle430]

Let's see your welds and don't be shy.
Show the good, the bad and the ugly.


Here are my two final welds from an adult ed welding class--on scrap 3/16". I'm 63 but needed some help.
Done with a Lincoln 275 ? MIG that can also do stick and was awaiting an upgrade to add TIG.
Can't recall amps or volts but I heard the perfect scrambled eggs sound.

LOL, did you mean bacon frying in the pan sound?

 

[sixdogs]

LOL, did you mean bacon frying in the pan sound?

Oh, yeah, bacon. :laughing:

 

[Shield Arc]

I heard the perfect scrambled eggs sound.

LOL, did you mean bacon frying in the pan sound?

That is funny! :laughing::thumbsup:

I like to hear the sound of bacon frying, but the sound it would make if it was a nuclear powered fry pan. I like to run Mig as hot as I can handle it. Nothing worse than a cold lapped Mig weld.

 

[Gary Fowler]

That is funny! :laughing::thumbsup:

I like to hear the sound of bacon frying, but the sound it would make if it was a nuclear powered fry pan. I like to run Mig as hot as I can handle it. Nothing worse than a cold lapped Mig weld.

That is the best advice I have seen about MIG. By the way, the first MIG welding we did in the field was ran off a Lincoln portable just like you described about 30-40 years ago. We were only allowed to weld structural steel with it at the time and only in flat position. I dont recall all the details of setup or even the wire feeder brand but it worked pretty well except for the occassional big glob of porosity that would form for no apparent reason. I think they had to do a lot of wire improvement AND machine enhancements to get it to todays standard for welding pressure piping.
Good looking weld by the way. Nice close and smooth ripples just like it's supposed to be.
For everyone elses info: The old saying "like a stack of dimes" is only applicable to 6010 welding and original saying was from old pipeline welders describing their cap pass with 3/16" Lincoln Shieldarc 85 rod ran downhill. That was the old pink flux rod used for filler passes after the 6010 root and hotpass. I dont think they make it anymore. It would be about the width of a dime and perfect ripples stacked up about the thickness of a dime. Not many folks around anymore that can still do that since the industry is now more tuned to automation and not a lot of pipeline work going on. All the ASME B31.3 work (Chemical and Refinery) is uphill and mostly with TIG root / 7018 weldout. Heck, some of the welders now days cant even run a 6010 open butt root pass. I have even seen jobs where 6010 was not allowed on the jobsite.

 

[Shield Arc]

That's very interesting Gary! Years ago I worked around a lot of pipe fitters, working food processing, and refineries. I remember seeing a lot of 6010 root on mild steel, can't really remember a whole lot of Tig root on mild steel. Now food processing, with all the stainless, oh yeah lots of Tig welding.
I can run a 6010 root on pipe, except I'm not very consistent! But with Tig for some reason I'm more consistent.

 

[k0ua]

I don't know if this counts but here is one of my TIG welds, since I ground off the top of the weld with a flap disc, all you see if the flat metal. I swear this is 2 pieces of metal I put together, I picked them up off of the floor, there were "ears" of some shelving metal I had cut off when I used the shelving to make a base for my argon cylinder when I attached it to my welding cart. This is about 3 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. I wanted to see if there was porosity in the TIG weld so I ground it flat. My TIG is done old style lift start with my Everlast PA160. I am still learning but TIG is interesting and fun.

James K0UA

 

[Gary Fowler]

Consistancy is one reason for using TIG in open butt root passes now rather than 6010. 6010 is still used on some pipes but more and more we use TIG in the field due to fit up tolerances and the fact that TIG is easier to see what you are putting in. With stick, you need a max high/low of 1.2mm (1/16")whereas TIG process can tolerate much larger amounts of mismatch and still pass xray. The welder can also look inside the pipe prior to final closure to view his root pass and if need be grind back and repair. Repairs with TIg are much easier than stick due to much larger gap allowances. I have made repair on HP steam line that was repair atttempted 4 times and the gap was 1/2"wide, using TIG, I built up the edge from both sides till I got it down to about 1/4" and then bridged across it in normal fashion of TIG root pass. Xray was good and this was in a tight spot tie in of steam line to boiler.
MY company did some studies regarding cost of running TIG root and 1 fill pass versus 6010 root and hot pass and found that it is cheaper also to run TIG than stick. A good welder can run the passes just about equal in time overall. Takes a bit longer to run the TIG root, but there is no grinding, so he can immediately run the 2nd pass with only hand brush application. By the time the root pass is ground out with the stick, the TIG hand has just about finished his 2nd pass. You do have the additional argon cost, but considering the lower reject rate it is more than offset. Typical xray reject rates with stick are acceptable if below 5% whereas Typical reject rates with TIG are less than 1% and have been 0% on several thousand welds. Once the root pass is in, there is really no excuse for a welder to bust out on the stick if proper windbreaks and other precautions are observed.
The best advantage with TIG is that you can weld just about any material that will carry an electric current with TIG process and the right filler metal.

 

[Shield Arc]

That is very interesting about your company's survey! I would have bet anything that a 6010 root would have been hands down faster, even looking at the overall picture. I always wondered how you pipe fitters cleaned out the inside of the pipe after being welded. It is amazing how much crap is on the inside after being welded with SMAW.

I know what you mean about looking on the inside of a pipe with Tig welding. I don't know if I'm more proud of the welds or how clear these pictures came out. Welding is easier than taking pictures for me.

 

[crazyal]

Is this the guy who claims to be an engineer or weld inspector or something, and is always told he knows just enough to give bad advice? If so I know the one

As a former weld inspector I can tell you that I knew of two types of inspectors. The first understood we were not welders so we didn't offer too much advise on welding and the second were the ones who wouldn't let the fact that they weren't welders stop them from acting like they were. Engineers are no better.

 

[dynasim]

It is funny that the sunshiny fella has done the exact oppposite of his stated mission. He drove me off the site of the welder that I had purchased, and when it came time to buy another, more capable(more expensive) welder, I went elsewhere.

The owners of the companies that sell welders should not allow him to be on those forums, and I won't buy any welder from any of them that allow him participate. I buy and recommend the purchase of a significant amount of equipment.

I am quite sure that I am not alone.

Chris

 

[Shield Arc]

I don't know if this counts

Actually NO! It doesn't count. All my welds look better after I grind them down. Come on lets see them Tig welds before the grinder gets to them.

Here I'll show you mine, if you'll show us yours. :laughing:

 

[rcowan]

That is funny! :laughing::thumbsup:
Nothing worse than a cold lapped Mig weld.

Oh I don't know my instructor says my O/A welds are pretty bad sometimes.


RC

 

[k0ua]

Actually NO! It doesn't count. All my welds look better after I grind them down. Come on lets see them Tig welds before the grinder gets to them.

Here I'll show you mine, if you'll show us yours. :laughing:

I knew that

All right I will do some more and show all It may be a bit. (it really didn't look too bad before grinding)

"a grinder and some paint will make a welder what he aint":laughing:

James K0UA

 

[weldermike]

Heres some aluminum tig I just did. I use these welding fingers alot when tiging, they are great, ive made multiple ones different sizes for different apps, this giant one just happened to be right there. Really come in handy with the non ferrous metals.

 

[jake98]

Great posts, thanks. I was happy with the welds on the upper piece here, kinda goobered the legs. Plus I conquered my fear of piercings..

 

[Shield Arc]

Jake what type of Mig welder do you have? Does it have an inductance control? Those welds look like they need to be wet out a little, or at least turn the voltage up some.