Testing your welds !!

[CTWV50]

I test my welds with a big hammer!


It was 90˚s beforehand. by CTWV50, on Flickr

It's not pretty but the 2mm box started to bend before the welds even thought about breaking. Need to see if I can fold into two but I'm a lot more confident thanks to this thread and some further reading. Big BOC Argoshield bottle and £40 reg helped, just need to refine my technique a bit to be more economical but happy all the same.

Tried to switch to 0.8mm wire but the wire just kept exploding on contact with the work piece so I panicked and put some more 0.6 in could be down to the feeder but not sure.

[CTWV50]

Tested this morning with a vice, the metal failed before the weld...


DSC00001 by CTWV50, on Flickr


DSC00003 by CTWV50, on Flickr

[michael92]

looks as tho that took a good beating!!

[CTWV50]

Can anyone help, started welding my chassis today and I'm getting bubbles in the welds and having difficulty creating decent weld!

[michael92]

Originally Posted by CTWV50

Can anyone help, started welding my chassis today and I'm getting bubbles in the welds and having difficulty creating decent weld!

sounds like it could either be your gas or dirt present on the material? check that the material is clean and check you have good gas flow

most of the welding is down to the prep work in my opinion
same as most things i guess

Michael

[CTWV50]

Thanks for the reply Michael, I did grind back the steel and bevel filed the ends of the tubes so shouldn't be contaminated. I'm using BOC Argoshield at 10 L/min. Might try heating the steel first see if it helps to remove any contaminates. I'll finish the weld and then a big bubble will grow where I finished. I'm not a great welder as I'm inexperienced, should I try more of less gas? I'll also try a test on some other steel I've had more luck with.

[Talonmotorsport]

Are you working on a wooden top build table? As the heat from the weld sets fire to the timber it causes contaminants in the weld by pushing the gas away. You can get round this by using a 50mm+ hole saw where the joints are then you can run straight down the joint. Hollow section or black realy needs to be weld preped with a 45' grind and it's worth taking the material back to clean steel where the earth clamp is too. If your using a small shroud or hobby type torch it might pay to take it off and clean it every 5-6 welds as it gets blocked with splatter it reduces the gas flow.