TIG-washing MIG welds

[Sodo]

Well I can't believe I'm the first to do this, but maybe the first to post it?
This is probably illegal in 17 states (but common in Canada etc )

Since I'm no good at holding filler rod I welded this with the MIG
then whitewashed it with the TIG, & doesn't it look nice?
It's a stair railing.

 

[jwmorris]

Yep, your not the first to clean up welds with a TIG. FWIW I have even come across "welds" that were actually body filler with the circular "beads" made from Popsicle stick or something like it, where the two tubes were only tack welded in a few spots, on a roll cage no less.

Why I have always thought the person that knows the most about any particular weld was the person who laid it down. With the exception of an X-Ray inspector.

 

[Sodo]

FWIW I have even come across "welds" that were actually body filler with the circular "beads" made from Popsicle stick or something like it, where the two tubes were only tack welded in a few spots, on a roll cage no less.

That sounds like a "hit" for the insurance money, surely worth posting a pic. Almost like "pushing someone down the stairs." :shocked: How did you happen to run across that?

 

[CincyFlyer]

I've "fixed" other folk's aluminum welds this way.

 

[Sodo]

I've "fixed" other folk's aluminum welds this way.

Interesting.... I hadn't thought of doing it on Aluminum. So if I welded some Aluminum with my DC wire-feed, and lets just say a bead (just one, of course), is "unattractive" in a 'visible' location. Kind of like me when I go to into town. Can a DC TIG re-melt aluminum beads and pretty them up? I don't have an AC TIG (but I'd like one!)

 

[Shield Arc]

This aluminum weld was made with my Everlast PowerArc 200, DC / CC only welder. With an air cooled Tig rig.

 

[Sodo]

If I can get my welds to look like that I'll be happy. Did you JUST get done with that?
What's it look like (if you pretended you didn't like the look of it) and went over it again with the DC TIG?

That is,,,,, if you don't mind furthering the education/debauchery in TIG-washing.....

 

[Shield Arc]

That weld was done years ago. I gave the Everlast PowerArc 200 to a friend.
I'm not real big on washing over welds. I've seen guys get run off the job for doing that!

 

[Sodo]

ba da bump.... of course!

But TBN welds are not subject to inspection. And I will never be run off the job (except by my wife). And that'sonly to come in for dinner. OK maybe one TBN member is a working welder, wonder how long until that feller sees this post and replies?

I'm pretty disappointed how few folks are reading TBN anymore, posts from 2 weeks ago are still on page 1. It wasn't long ago within 24 hours a post could drop to page 2. "72 viewing" the Welding forum? Yeah right.... I recall those server problems of awhile back (a year ago?). I think a lot of folks just quit posting on TBN, which is disappointing, there were LOTS of great discussions, great info. But never enough PROJECTS......

 

[CincyFlyer]

Interesting.... I hadn't thought of doing it on Aluminum. So if I welded some Aluminum with my DC wire-feed, and lets just say a bead (just one, of course), is "unattractive" in a 'visible' location. Kind of like me when I go to into town. Can a DC TIG re-melt aluminum beads and pretty them up? I don't have an AC TIG (but I'd like one!)

I only use AC on aluminium, so I wouldn't actually know. I gave my brother my wire feed aluminum-capable MIG. He'll never use it with anything but steel and C25.

 

[yomax4]

Well I can't believe I'm the first to do this, but maybe the first to post it?
This is probably illegal in 17 states (but common in Canada etc )

Since I'm no good at holding filler rod I welded this with the MIG
then whitewashed it with the TIG, & doesn't it look nice?
It's a stair railing.

Yep, On a Larger scale this was known as "Toe Dressing" or Tig Dressing". Often a Large amp Tig setup or more commonly a Plasma Welder on a Robot or Track would fix multipass welds to smooth and eliminate voids and or porosity. Common in heavy mine equipment and shipyards. I used sell a lot of this stuff to those folks.

 

[Sodo]

OK thanks for that background. It was so dang easy I couldn't believe I'd pioneered something in a field as old as welding.:thumbsup:

Wonder why you don't hear more about the method (treatment)? Seems to me like relieving porosity is good, and it might reduce stresses too. Is it one of those slippery-slope kinda things, that can fool an inspector (or armchair inspectors)? Where a trained eye can't miss it and then suspects you're hiding something?

 

[yomax4]

The impurities, voids and porosity were normally found by X-ray. After enough X-ray's showed the issue, They started Toe Dressing all of the heavy multipass parts. It was all about liability for the big parts. They were going on ships and huge mine trucks. I wonder if they should have toe dressed the welds on the Titanic or Edmond Fitzgerald.

 

[k0ua]

The impurities, voids and porosity were normally found by X-ray. After enough X-ray's showed the issue, They started Toe Dressing all of the heavy multipass parts. It was all about liability for the big parts. They were going on ships and huge mine trucks. I wonder if they should have toe dressed the welds on the Titanic or Edmond Fitzgerald.

I don't think the Titanic had ANY welds on it. At least not the hull plates. As far as I know they were overlapped and riveted. Some good welds, and perhaps a better grade of steel, Not to mention bulkheads that went all the way up to the ceiling, and she would have sailed into New York harbor.

 

[Big Barn]

Very interesting. I’m glad you started this thread, Sodo. Great insight from Yomax

 

[yomax4]

Never thought of the Rivets. Probably as good as anything we do today. The Toe dressing was often done with a 600 amp power supply and a 600 amp Plasma Welder torch. All Thermal Arc stuff. 6045 Power Supplies and 6A plasma welding set ups. My experience was at NAASCO Ship Yard in SanDiego and Norfolk VA. And Joy Global in Milwaukee. Seems for some reason that after 5-6 passes on 2"+ steel, You start to get voids and poor X-Ray quality welds. So they go over the last few passes and re-liquidate them to repair. Seems dumb but it's a real problem.. Loved selling them the equipment tough. So as Sodo posted, I too employed the same thing to my poor welds. I have even went over my Tig welds with a tig welder and no filler. No I'm not a great welder like most of you. I'm just a lowly sales guy that enjoys weld smoke.

 

[k0ua]

Apparently the Titanic used two different types of rivets Along the more open areas of the hull they used a good quality steel rivet and the heads were set with a very large hydraulic riveting machine. But in the more cramped spaces at the bow and the stern they used very much inferior wrought iron rivets that were peened by hand while hot of course. Many of these rivets were found to have slag inclusions when they were brought to the surface again decades later. This is attributed to the fact that the rivets were outsourced to many different mom and pop wrought iron makers that often turned out a shoddy product.

Lest anyone ask, I didn't really know these things, I googled them. I am crafty that way..

 

[BukitCase]

" I am crafty that way.."

James, if you wanna learn the RIGHT way you should google "craft" that are still AFLOAT... :stirthepot: ...Steve

 

[MinnesotaDaveChalmers]

I've been tig welding and hand slipped or coughed or sneezed enough to make a weird looking spot.
Normally a small grind where it occurred, then just restart.

But I have on occasion just stopped, put the tig torch back a couple ripples, used the foot pedal to manually pulse evenly spaced ripples up to where I start adding filler again, then continue on.

I'm sure lots of people do similar.

 

[dragoneggs]

I don't know, James... I understand the Titanic hit the iceberg pretty hard. Maybe weld would have been better than rivets, and believe me, I am a strong believer in continuous join (adhesive bonding is part of my profession). Rivets are stress risers and holes are always the start points for cracks but an iceberg and momentum have consequences.


And Yo... any good salesman knows his stuff. I have faith in you... even if you are salesman. This coming from an engineer turned salesman.