Latest Work Completed Mantua, New Jersey
Original Site:
September 2004
E-mail: usav8or@yahoo.com
Aircraft Welding 101.2:
October 6, 2007 Failure... ...or lack thereof.
Putting my welds to the test. Just about everyone on the biplane forum said they looked good. But a good looking weld isn't necessarily a good weld.
The test is beating it to the point of failure.
The pictures below show the original weld joint, that I just made last week, and three pictures of
the same weld joint beat to submission.
October 29, 2007 If it can't take the heat...
ya better turn it down a bit.
Continuing my quest for that "Master of Welding" title. Well, they say it's not the destination, but the journey there. Goes for flying and
welding. :)
Doing my thing out in the garage workshop. Practicing practicing practicing.... on those cluster welds... more than one tube welded in the same general location.
Finding that if you preheat the area you're still pretty good. Not sucking as much heat as I was expecting that it would, then again, I'm only working with smaller pieces
of tubing. I'm sure this will change when I begin welding up the fuselage.
With this practicing on these clusters, on the angled tube welding, I'm finding that the underside of the joint, where the angle is at 45 degrees, you need to turn up the heat to
keep the puddle flowing. BUT beware of when you get out from under that angled area... you're going to start burning holes in your tubing if you don't turn it down a bit.
It's a constant dance, you and the puddle. You've got to learn to read it, understand it, be one with it. And the only way to do that is time in the saddle. That practice practice practice.
The more I weld, the more layers that I've peeled back, the less of a mystery this welding is. Oh... don't get me wrong, it's facinating, intoxicating, when you have that golden honey puddle flowing.
But the more I practice the less I find to write about. Sure there is the tweaking of my method of doing it here or there. There's that every so often light bulb going off when I've discovered how to do a task
with a better technique... FasterQuickerBetter. But that early learning curve has been crossed and it's time to move on.
Finals for Welding Class 101 has been taken and scored.
(And we did pretty damn good.) We've learned a lot... and
there is still a lot to learn. The foundation of my learning
of this this art is down in print. Round two, Welding Class
102, to commence with the start of my welding up the Rudder
Pedals and Fuselage. A whole 'nother ball of wax, there.
...you didn't think I was going to shut up that easy, did you ?
ON to the next chapter of my building life. Click here to be taken to the first installment of Welding One Oh Two.