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Thread: Some welds for you to critique
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29th Apr 2014, 09:09 PM #1Member
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Some welds for you to critique
Ive been back down in the shed playing with the welders and ran a few beads to play with some settings. Some are stick and others are mig with gasless wire. feel free to offer your opinions. All welds were done on a 2.5mm x 50mm piece of gal tube using a toolex 160amp arc and a ross 150amp mig (gasless). The welds on the square section are stick with 2.5mm cheap rods and the rest are mig using every combination of settings on the very basic machine.CAM00045.jpgCAM00046.jpgCAM00047.jpgCAM00048.jpgCAM00049.jpgCAM00050.jpgCAM00051.jpgCAM00052.jpg
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29th Apr 2014, 10:53 PM #2Member
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Anything?.....Anyone.....??
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29th Apr 2014, 11:01 PM #3Intermediate Member
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Look pretty good to me.
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29th Apr 2014, 11:19 PM #4Member
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Thanks Bob. Im considering doing a course provided by WEA hunter which is a basic welding course hoping to pickup skills that i'd only learn after years of welding. Ive been welding for a year now and am completely self taught (saving the youtube tutorials) and as its run via the local "Mens shed" i think the 60 bucks for the course may well be worth it!
Any thoughts?
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29th Apr 2014, 11:29 PM #5Intermediate Member
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29th Apr 2014, 11:51 PM #6Member
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Absolutely!! a crack at TIG would be an awesome step up! $60 to pick the brains of those who have gone before i think is money well spent
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30th Apr 2014, 10:34 AM #7Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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It's a bit hard to comment on some of the photos as the photos are not sharp enough.
Also it would be useful to know what currents you used with specific beads.
When laying down beads side by side, cover the previous welds so that the spatter from a new weld doesn't interfere with these beads.
The other thing to do is take the photos of the beads with the slag left on and then with the slag take off.
Try and restrict the number of beads in a photo to just one or two.
I was hoping someone more expert than me would comment but I will have a go.
I've been laying cocky poo for many years so I would not call myself an expert by any means but from what I can tell the welds will be effective in holding metal i.e. no inclusions and probably have adequate penetration.
If anything sometimes it appears you are either moving the rod a bit too slowly (i.e. the metal puddles are piling up on each other) and/or side to side either deliberately (or like me) you have shaky hands or your stick/torch angle is too shallow and the puddle is being blown back along the weld. Some of the welds suggest the current may be a touch too high or your arc is a touch too long or both.
One of the diagnostic signs of a weld is the size and shape of puddle (relative to the size of the rod) at the point where the rod is withdrawn - if that is too big or too small that that is a good indicator of a bunch of problems.
A couple of things you can try to test yourself out on flat metal are
- zig zags, left and right and up and down - this will test if you are maintaining angle
- circles and loops
Then try some plain butt welds. T pieces and then some corner welds (I still can't do these properly every time) as these will test your skills a bit more.
Like I said - I don't consider myself an expert so it would be good if someone more expert would comment
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30th Apr 2014, 04:48 PM #8
Best way to tell if a weld is good or not, is to actually weld something and then try to brake it.
Welding on a solid surface may give you a feel of the machine but there is no way to tell penetration and at the end of the day what you want is to stick two pieces together permanently.
The aesthetics will come with time. The grinder is your friend when you are learning yet there is no fix for a cold lap.Civilized man is the only animal clever enough to manufacture its own food,
and the only animal stupid enough to eat it.
Barry Groves
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30th Apr 2014, 05:40 PM #9Member
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Thankyou guys! your feedback is very welcome indeed! To be honest those welds were done in no particular order, i think next i will do as you say and run maybe 2 or 3 beads with and without slag and see how it looks to you guys. Ive just recently taken the stick welder out of the truck and havent used it in some time since buying the mig. Most of my jobs are too light for stick so i want to keep the skills up i guess. I'm not entirely new to welding but am definentaly new to taking pics and putting them on the forum Most of those welds were also experiments with different circles and weld patterns so tonight i'll document each weld more closely to make it easier for everyone to see and compare etc. Cheers guys
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30th Apr 2014, 08:15 PM #10Member
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Here are tonights welds
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30th Apr 2014, 08:21 PM #11Member
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The first pics are Arc welds using a Toolex 160 amp stick welder 2.5mm bunnings rod at about 90 amps on 5mm plate. one is showing the underside of the plate after welding, showing the heat penetration. The other pics are welding a 5mm plate onto 5mm plate using 2.5mm bunnings rods at approx 110 amps followed by a second pass with 3.2mm WIA rod at around 120 amps.
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30th Apr 2014, 10:06 PM #12Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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Some photos still blurry. Also try to cover up welds so they don't get all spattered.
Are you getting any scorpions?
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30th Apr 2014, 10:27 PM #13Member
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Yeah i apologise for the camera quality..... Only using my phone cam for pics. havent been lucky with any scorpions of late but have had them in the past im burning cheap bunnings weldcorp rods so slag is crap. i got them for free so im happy to burn them up gonna buy some WIA 2.5s from gasweld this week so will update again and get the good camera out.
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1st May 2014, 11:34 PM #14Member
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im still after any feedback on these welds. the wealth of knowledge on here is great! please offer opinion and i apologise in advance for the quality of pics.
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3rd May 2014, 07:58 PM #15Diamond Member
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I'll bite.
Photo No. 4 "Almost the Business" - OK until the last inch where it looks like you increased your travel speed, maybe due to coming to the end of the rod, or bad posture making it hard to maintain consistent motion for the full length of the weld.
Photo No. 5 "Blurry Fillet" - you need to pause a bit at the top and watch the upper edge of the puddle to ensure it ties in to the top edge.
Photo No. 6 "Hide the Evidence" - I'm guessing there's more than the odd inclusion under that last pass
Please note that despite the tone of my comments, I have done far, far worse welds than anything you've shown. Welds where the slag and the paint become significant components of the finished joint's structural integrity.
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