Welding the angles

[7ishNZ]

How do you get in to weld the inside joints of the acute angles?? Is there a trick to it, or do you just use the "10 pounds of weld" technique?

[Talonmotorsport]

If your using a mig welder go buy a new gas shroud for the tourch, put the old one in a vice and slowly crush the end. Make sure you don't crush it to the point where the tip mets the shroud though. Turn your gas flow up a little along with the power.

[ACE HIGH]

You can cut off 25mm or slightly less.say 21/23mm of say 10mm rod,place it inside the angle and weld it in.Or better still,make up a no of 45mm loa x10mm wide x 2 or 3mm thick steel flats,bevel each end ,each side 10 mm long 45 degrees to a point,and bend to a right angle,10 mm from each end,bevel the edges and weld them in.the dimensions are approx and it will take a few experiments to get it right but this is the "pro way"of doing it.Filling the gap with excessive weld is bad practice especially with MIG,if you are a good welder use arc approx 100 amps 3 runs 2.5 mm rods,cooling off between each run.Arc welding is better in my view for these light tubes but I know I am a lone voice here.And all edges should be bevelled 45 degrees back on the sides that are normally ground flush,too many of the welding in the photos is not and the edges have a wafer thin join. and while I am at it no more than 20 thous gap anywhere,this practice of filling in gaps with excessive welding is bad sloppy practice.David

[Land Locked]

David could you show a picture of what you mean, I don't quite understand your concept.

Yes, stick is in my opinion fine for this job provided you CAN stick weld.

[mr henderson]

Originally Posted by ACE HIGH

You can cut off 25mm or slightly less.say 21/23mm of say 10mm rod,place it inside the angle and weld it in.Or better still,make up a no of 45mm loa x10mm wide x 2 or 3mm thick steel flats,bevel each end ,each side 10 mm long 45 degrees to a point,and bend to a right angle,10 mm from each end,bevel the edges and weld them in.the dimensions are approx and it will take a few experiments to get it right but this is the "pro way"of doing it.Filling the gap with excessive weld is bad practice especially with MIG,if you are a good welder use arc approx 100 amps 3 runs 2.5 mm rods,cooling off between each run.Arc welding is better in my view for these light tubes but I know I am a lone voice here.And all edges should be bevelled 45 degrees back on the sides that are normally ground flush,too many of the welding in the photos is not and the edges have a wafer thin join. and while I am at it no more than 20 thous gap anywhere,this practice of filling in gaps with excessive welding is bad sloppy practice.David

David, your posts would be easier to read if you would leave put in a couple of line breaks here and there. A solid block of text can be difficult to read on a computer screen, especially when it is packed with numbers.

The problem is that it is difficult to keep one's place when the eyes go back to start the next line.

Hope you don't mind me offering this suggestion.

[AshG]

as mr talon says. get the gas shroud off the welder and crush the end of it so its not round any more. every pro welder has a crushed shroud in their box of bits. a new un crushed gas shroud is only £2.50 from axminster or about £4 from machine mart.

simples

[Bonzo]

You shouldn't need to resort to filler/bridging strips

As Talonmotorsport has posted.

Crush the end of a spare MIG shroud to give it a flat slimline profile. as said make sure that the shroud does not make contact with the tip.

Shrouds are easy to flatten as they are made from copper .

You may need to reduce the length of the shroud a little, you will be looking to have at least 5mm of tip showing past the shroud.

You will then need to up the welding current, Gas & perhaps the wire speed a little.

On a 150amp set, full power.

Set the wire speed so as when you stop welding there is abot 5mm of wire showing.

The next important thing is going to be the technique you use to weld the joints.

By far the easiest method is Vertical down.
Make shure the joint is vertical & weld from top to bottom. Manipulating the weld pool as you go.

On the very accute angles, you may find that you can only get to the half way point.
Stop, flip the chassis over, then complete the weld.

On a personal note, I found no angles on the cassis that were not possible to get to.

[flyerncle]

Nicely spaced Ronnie....