Again... I'm practicing welds with flat stock and round tubing. As you can see from the above photo I'm starting to get a decent weld line. Not beautiful, but I'm getting there. I'm grasping the concept. I'm getting nice penetration into both metals. There's still some under cutting though. A lot more practice and
I'll cure that problem.
Reading the weld is becoming a little bit more natural. Playing the flame over both metals to get the puddle going on both of them more instinctual.
Re-confirmed preheating forward, behind and to the sides of the weld helps to prevent the heat from being sucked from the working area. The temp of the flame has everything to do with the flow of the puddle. If the puddle doesn't begin to flow within a few seconds of putting the flame to the metal turn it up
or get the next larger tip.
Without a nice flowing puddle the rod will stick to the area you are trying to weld. Remember that the rod you're sticking into the puddle has a heat robbing effect too.
May 1, 2007
Keeping my promise. MORE practicing ! Playing that flame over both thin-walled tubing and thick flat stock. Continuing to get the feel of how to keep the edge of the flat stock from burning away at the same time getting a nice
puddle forming between the two of them. I saw on the welding DVD, the one from Tinman, that you can shield an area from the heat of the flame with the weld rod, playing both the rod and the flame to get the right temp to form
the puddle. IT WORKS !
It's all practice. Push the limit with your welding. See where it takes you. See when you need to back-off. You'll learn a lot that way.
I'm to the point where the weld beads I'm creating are longer than what I can feed into it from where I am holding the rod. (I'm not one of those welders that can hold
the very end of a 36 inch rod and have any type of control. I choke up on it about 12 inches from the business end of it.) This forces me to play the flame over
the end of the weld line while adjusting my grip on the rod; keeping it just above the temp of liquid metal. With the rod re-gripped I bring the flame closer, forming a
new puddle, penetrating the end of the weld bead to continue the line.
Several of the practice pieces that I'm working with are about a foot long. I tacked both ends of the pieces together to keep them from separating. From all that heat you're
applying to them they tend to bow and buckle. It's not always a quiet hobby, this welding business. The pinging, popping and howling sounds the metal produce are in a category
of their own. Haunting... would be an appropriate word for it.
As you can see from the above photo, I'm getting a little better at this each day. No under cutting on this piece. It's the last one of the night. Don't get me wrong... not all my
work from tonight looked like this. I was actually struggling with welding a REALLY thick piece of flat stock and a length of REALLY thin walled tubing. Sloppy looking at best. No, make that horrible looking. Not happy
at all with the welding on that piece.
Oh... another thing. Get a pair of goggles that have venting out the top. The pair I have are constantly steaming up. It's a lot easier when you can see what you are working on.
And still another thing. One of my thoughts on things that we do, in general... In order to do it right you need to take ownership of it. That goes for anything you do in life, including flying and welding. If you don't take ownership of the task at hand you'll be making excuses to yourself
for just muddling (I use that word a lot, don't I ?) through it, never rising above the bottom of the pond and becoming accomplished in it.