Testing your welds !!

[michael92]

Originally Posted by flyerncle

Nice weld ! I was always taught to fill the crater and have noticed on some welds this is not done,comments please.

A weld without gas cut in half would be interesting.

yeah i believe you should :P im sure that would have got pulled up as cracks can stem from that

i cant say my chassis welds will be that nice the amount of practice runs i did to get to that ! haha and with that migatronic machine, praise burn back time

[shh120m]

Originally Posted by monsterob

Oh well my chassis might a well go in the bin then :-(

mine too! lots of grinding and plenty of paint, that should hold it together!

[Bonzo]

Thank you for some of the kind words chaps

If I manage to help just one novice welder, the effort would have been worthwhile

I will try to add some more content to this thread as & when I have the time.


Ash

Yes it can be quite difficult to deliberately produce a particular weld with a known defect/defects for the purposes of illustration .... Spent an hour this afternoon with some fillet welds, even the ropey ones passed the bend testing !!??

I guess natural instinct kicks in to overcome poor welder settings.


Rob & Nathan

Don't be so hard on yourself, I have a massive respect for folk picking up a welder for the first time & are willing to learn.

I personaly do not like to judge a weld purely on looks alone, A neat weld is not allways a sure sign of a good weld

Function over form for me anytime.

Lost count of the amount of BS 4872 trainees we have had in from factories, some of them thought they were amongst the elite of welders ( A few years in a booth with no formal training )

Some very neat welds indeed, just a pity that some of their work lacked any physical strength .... Most indignent when advised that the icorrect procedure/weld current is being used.
The number 1 reply was .... I'll have you know that I have been welding for XXX years

Given the choice, I would much prefer to train a total novice, at least they are willing to listen to the advice given & usualy turn out to be darn fine welders

Get the strength of your welds right first & do plenty of testing, neatness will come with experience.

[flyerncle]

Choice of machine plays a big part in the proceedings,I have had to buy one as the one I used to use went with the job I had been unfairly dismissed from so purchased a Siegen 180 and after a little fiddling the bacon is frying nicely even though its using cellar gas c02 at £10 a bottle.

[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.