My 'simple question' wasn't a reaction to you as i accepted and understood your answer straight away. As a beginner I was wondering what i can aspire to. People joined in so i reacted
Oz, There is a mechanical services estimating book - Luckins - thier labour time for a 150mm welded elbow is 6 hours. That is obviously 2 welds and includes setting up. Luckins rates are quite generous, a guide for pipe welding used to be 40" of pipe diameters a day i.e. 5 x 8" or 4 x 10" butts. This was MMA welding only - no set up, fitters did that. W/A
scotty, your box really isn,t for family viewing, hope you don,t carry it in your boot , you are looking a little hot on those stainless beads, though im sure they are more than good enough for purpose. did you bother trying a purge, i reckon with that heat you must have gotten burnthrough, this would with a purge have given you nice results inside. f/j
i did purge, did two runs, 1st on 90 amp second on 80. tried them for th efirst time on monday and they do the job. i'm not the best tigger in the world anyway. the stainless was 6mm thick. bevelled edge down to 2-3mm.. we will see if they last. didnt want to weld them in the first place as i didnt feel confident enough. but they told me to give it a go
the box stays at work. made them all laugh when maz did it
scotty, i do weld stainless on and off, not the really heavy sch stuff, that seemed to die back when the local chemical plant closed , that kind of stuff is very forgiving as it tends to take the heat and the puddle is a lot easier to control. bear that in mind if you get a chance to practice the heavier the better. heres a few pics of various jobs. f/j
wyn, scotty they are for cooling purposes, i have been having a little trouble posting recently,i think its sorted now . lads thanks for your interest heres a few more pics. f/j
thanks lads, oz i just noticed i didn,t answer your question as regards letting the pipe cool, i rarely leave a butt until it is finished, not because of any reason other than i find the heat from each previous pass a benefit on the pickups, this is more noticeable on the cap if you stop for a minute or two to talk, a least thats what my boss says. i have been doing a lot more tig root work lately, it really seems to have pushed stick roots to the side, mores the pity. if any of you guys are considering pipe codes, i would recommend you practice tig. ill run through these pics as i go, setups are for me, always on the wide side, 4mm 6" up but really depending on pipe thickness. thats with a 2,5 filler, heres a few pics. f/j
Quality welds as usual F/J. Good to read you crack on till joint is complete, getting this through to our younger generation drains me, lazy gits comes to mind..............
cheers sean, runnach i wouldn,t have your job for a kings ransom, lads that age just don,t understand its their future, im sure you were the same, i know i was. these pics are 4" sch 40, i wanted to show how i deal with a small tack, sometimes i get a little carried away if im tacking myself, i forget to stop, these are blued as in previous pics. this root would be around 100 amps with a 3.2 gap, the closure on this size pipe is a lot less than say 6 or 8". f/j
I saw some welding yesterday of similar stuff - rather large pipe. I think it's taking gas up and over the hill by me. The welder they had was impressive. I think it was a welder/genny combo bolted to the back of a Renault 4x4. Looked about 8'x4'x4' ish