New memeber and new welder

[mpats]

Hello (hopefully) frendly people of the arc welding section. I've posted thi in my introduction thread but thought I should probably post it here as well to get all the feedback possible, All constructive criticism is welcomed, if it means I get better then it's a good thing in my book.

So I'm using an old AC buzz box that a friend from work was looking to get rid of. It would have been rude not to have taken it especially when it was free (my favorite kind of price).

So I started on a large piece or plate I had from work, must be 15-20mm thick, so started laying welds along it to get the hang of getting nice straight welds. Then I moved on to butt welding a couple of pieces of 35 x 6mm flat iron bar (courtesy of good old B&Q).

Now I must admit it was more an exercise in practicing joining 2 pieces so I didn't do a v groove to aid penetration but welded it on both sides, as opposed to a proper commercial job . It seems to be fairly strong, probably good enough for something I'm knocking up in the workshop. I now it's not good practice and for a proper piece of work I would, but i didn't do much in the way of surface prep double

So, I decided to cut the last inch or so off to see what was going on inside the join. as you can see I had a bit of trouble when I had to use another stick, getting it started was a PITA and resulted in the last inch or so of weld being, shall we say, cr*p!





You can see the slag inclusion (I think thats the right term) now right at the bottom of the weld after the cut away piece has been removed.



So the other side went a bit better, managed to get the second stick going far better on this side. You can see, just about half way down (or slightly above) where I started the second stick, not the small void on the left but just above it.



So here's a view of the cross section, shows the join of the 2 pieces and the reasonable penetration (minus the small void just where I cut it (typical).



The reasonable side, showing the full length.



So a quick run down of what I did was A single straight weld down the middle, the bar has slightly rounded edges which helped. This was done one one side then the other (to prevent bowing). Then i laid down a weld either side of the center weld centered on it's edge, again one weld at a time on each side. Then to finish it I welded across the top of the 3 using a wave motion to cover over the edges of them.

It seems pretty sturdy, but out of interest I shall be taking the small cut of piece in to work on monday (I'll be to busy over the weekend to get the time but monday should be a bit quieter) to put it in the press and see what sort of load/pressure it can take.

all the best

mal

 

[BrokenBiker]

looking alright to me

try using a root gap(gap the size of the electrode) for the root pass, then do another run to one side of the root weld, as youhave done anyway, then finally a capping weld, like your last run, will give full penetration without having to weld both sides and will give you (hopefully) a flatter weld that is plenty strong

 

[mpats]

Cheers matey, I shall give it a go next week when I get round to having some days off. I'm looking forwards to getting in a bit more practice. I'm going to stop in by a local fab shop to see about getting some stuff out of their scrap bin for practicing on.

I should say it was all done using 6013 2.5mm rods.

all the best

mal

 

[BrokenBiker]

what size is your welder?

and decent grade rods are a godsend. fincord and sifbronze are the only two i use, and they are good to work with

i dont do much arc welding, and tbh im not that good at it, but i do a fair bit of gasless mig, and its a very similar process

although i have just made a tool box trolley with a 160amp arc welder that came out quite well. its all down to practice and finding your own techniques that you are comfy with

 

[mpats]

I think, and don't quote me on this, that it's a 70-140 or it could be 170 but I could be wrong. I shall check and confirm tomorrow, it's out in the shed and I'm afraid I am at the getting into bed stage. Up at about half 4 tomorrow morning for early shift

Yeh, I've got sort of middle of the road rods and some older ones my mate gave me with the machine so I shall probably go into one of the welding suppliers on my next days off and pick up some decent rods.

I saw your thread about the toolbox trollies, I'm looking forwards to the picture soon

all the best

mal

 

[BrokenBiker]

theres a seperate thread about the trolley now, with pics of various stages and at complete with the box

 

[zardoz]

Quite good for a beginner. Well done sir.

 

[SiPMerlin150]

Very neat for a beginner, are you sure you've not done this before?

You can see quite clearly that the weld hasn't fully penentrated the two pieces of metal, but then again the butt weld on metal of that thickness will need preparation such as a 30 degree bevel, with a land of around 2-3mm on the root. But as you say, you're still learning.

Second most important tool to have that will companion your welder is a angle grinder.

 

[mpats]

Cheers guys, I think having an engineer's ocd probably helps, especially when it comes to trying to keep things neet and tidy. I'm going to have another go at the bit weld with proper prep when I get a bit of time so I shall update you with how it goes second time around.

I have a pretty decent angle grinder, sees a fair bit of use round the house anyway but you're right enough SiP it has been very handy with the welding.

All the best
Mal

 

[mpats]

So I had a wee bit of time on Sunday afternoon after work to have another little practice. Using the same material but this time doing a 30 degree bevel and a root gap.

I must admit I was still unsure about the whole root gap thing,I wasn't convinced that I would manage to join them using a 3.2mm root gap when welding with a 3.2 rod. so I set the pieces up with a 2.5mm root gap, but was welding with a 3.2mm rod. Sufficed to say I am now convinced it will work when I do it again with the correct size of root gap.

So with the bevel and the root gap I probably achieved 2/3 to 3/4 penetration on the upper side in one pass. Turned it over and had the void on the under side where i hadn't fully penetrated, so I ran a 2.5mm rod down it and hay presto full penetration. I sectioned an inch off the end to check and (at that point at least) I had managed to fully join the 2 pieces.

I imagine most people would stop there and get some new stuff to practice on but I am a bit frugal by nature so like to get the most out of things. I welded the inch I'd cut off onto one side, to practice my seam welding, had a bit of undercut at the top which as I understand it is either to much current with the piece still being very hot, or probably more likely spending to much time up the top with the weld pool. Then laid a bead down the middle of it and one either side,again just to practice getting nice consistent beads next to each other.



Not quite got all the way rounf the corners, that's something I'll have to work on. and I had trouble getting good adhesion to both parts to start with. Oh anf the cb in the barn which powers the shed decided to trip of a couple of times just to keep me on my toes



Then turned it over and laid 3 beads over the join then ran a capping bead over them. I imagine a capping bead wouldn't normally be this high above the level of the main work piece but it was good to practice.



Had a wee point when I thought it was all going to go to rats when I decided I needed to change my head position, you can see it a little over half way down where the weave is a little, shall we say,off. But it once the slag was chipped off it wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

So any and all pointers very much welcome,especially with regards to the cutting in. I would quite like to get a handle on that.

all the best

mal

Edit, sorry meant to say that they are click-able thumbnails. Although it's probably obvious I thought it worth pointing out.

 

[BrokenBiker]

not alot wrong with them, practice makes perfect as they say

keep on as you are and you wont have many problems

 

[Wozzaaah]

We'd prefer you to upload your pics to the forum server rather than use clickable links.
Many people won't bother to click them so you'll do yourself out of useful replies.

 

[mpats]

Ah I see, I must admit it hadn't occurred to me,only on a couple of other forums and neither have any form of photo hosting. I shall do so in future, thanks for letting me know.

All the best

Mal