2017-10-11 at 7:51 PM UTC
Share welding tips, ask and answer welding related questions.
-If stick welding mild steel, you can tack your weldment with 308 stainless rod. It's much more ductile than say, 6011 or 7018. It can be repositioned and will not shear off easily.
-If building a square frame, miter cut your pieces at 44 or 46 degrees instead of 45. This gives you some wiggle room to square up your workpiece, and gives you a bit of an open root weld. Helps get a flatter bead, especially nice with angle profile material where grinding access is limited.
-Keep a piece(or several) of thick angle on hand. Preferably several pieces. You can set pipe into it for doing butt welds. You can clamp sheet metal to it when building boxes. You can use it to keep shit square and flat.
-Certain gases work better for certain things. If your shitty little MIG welder isn't penetrating and you're out of amps, Co2 shielding gas will get yer arc hotter than Argon. With TIG, you can use Helium instead of Argon if extra heat is needed.
-You can make really kickass clamps for much cheaper than store-bought shit.
-Carbide scribes make a much more precise line than a sharpie or soapstone. They aren't effected by oil or rust. Good shit.
-Clean the shit out of everything. Or use 6011.
2017-10-12 at 6:30 PM UTC
i need to weld a brick to my table leg how do i do that ?
2017-10-12 at 9:32 PM UTC
best thing ive found to clean metal well for welding:
- pre-clean with a rag and some sort of 'cheap' solvent to get the extraneous flotsam and shitsam off, then use the PROPER type of wire wheel on the end of some sort of rotating tool to clean everything (as in dirt, intentionally applied coatings, rust, debris, shit, etc) off to bare metal
- clean area with the expensive brake-parts cleaner...i cant remember what its called. the ingredients list it as tetracholoride-something-something or something like that. (side note...this shit is really toxic to human physiology and rubber gloves, even the strong ones, dont keep it out) keep the location 'wet' for as long as possible then blast it all off with as high of pressure as youre able to get from an air compressor blower. 120psi at least...180psi is nice...200psi is good. 3,000psi...ftw.
- additionally, if the metal is saturated with some sort of shits (oil, long-term road debris, etc) that wont come clean with a wire wheel or the brake-parts cleaner, use a propane torch to heat the area to the point the metal will release the liquid and/or boil it off. once this is done, repeat the brake-parts cleaning and perhaps wire brushing.
- pre-heat aluminum things to be welded. it wont 'suck' as much heat out of the welder
2017-10-13 at 11:29 PM UTC
AngryOnion
Big Wig
[the nightly self-effacing broadsheet]
If your Mig welder works like shit try another outlet.
I work in an old building and some outlets work better than others.
2019-10-01 at 2:18 AM UTC
how do you think finny got so strong and kickin it long life style??
2019-10-10 at 8:25 AM UTC
dear diary, today was a good day
