Tig on Aluminum - Page 1

Tue Sep 20, 2011 9:08 am

I was working in Mt. Joy, about a half-hour east of Harrisburg, so probably 5 hours or more from you.

Looks like I'm not going home after all. I'm leaving in an hour or two for Binghamton, NY, anout three hours straight north of me, to supervise some flood cleanup at BAE Systems. Should be there about 30 days, then home.

Steve

jpence38 · Tue Sep 20, 2011 9:29 am

Flood clean-up??? Are you overseeing repairs being done to the facility? The 30 will go quick. Then homeward bound.

When it comes time to go home, if you go back down 81 to 80 west, you are welcome to stop by and let me show ya some Northeastern Yankee hospitality. I live about 1/4 mile from exit 229 on I-80 in Ohio.

Wed Sep 21, 2011 12:10 am

This job looks to be simple grunt work, with a bunch of $10/hr local laborors. Unfortunately, a competing company seems to want start a pissing match with us.

However, when they brought in two busloads of Koreans waving green cards to a facility that builds secret shit for the military, they didn't make a real good impression. They're here simply through nepotism.

My primary assignment for the next several days is to keep my eyes and ears open. Counter-espionage, if you will

. I'll be looking for the people attempting to sabotage any company here, and my own in particular.

I'll have to look at my route options when I roll out of here. That's an enticing invitation, and might not be much off the direct route at all. I'll have to dig out my atlas and have a look. (Yeah, while I have a lot of technology, I still prefer a M.A.P. to a G.P.S.

)

Steve

Fri Dec 30, 2011 5:10 pm

Bump.

I'm bringing this to the top for zeb, so he can see the pictures.

Steve

capozzoli · Sat Dec 31, 2011 5:23 pm

Hey Otto, great looking welds and your explainatons are very well written.

I see Airgass is looking for more combo welders. I was thinking of sending my resume.

On your aluminum pipe weld do you dip or do you burry the rod and drag? I have a lot of luck with the burry and drag techniquie.

Sat Dec 31, 2011 9:02 pm

Thanks.

It was all dip, as it was x-rayed. I wanted to see the keyhole, the melt, and watch the dip fill the puddle.

Steve

capozzoli · Sat Dec 31, 2011 9:26 pm

That makes perfect sense.

I have never welded Al pipe with a backing. Im either welding couplings on tanks or pipes.

May be a stupid question; but, the backing sleeves into the pipe? Then the key hole opens up off of the backing plate?

Sat Dec 31, 2011 10:26 pm

The pipe is cut with a bevel and land, just like for a butt-weld. The backing ring does fit inside the pipe like a sleeve. When welding this, you're looking at a couple things. You want to see the lands break on each side like a keyhole, and a puddle form on the backing ring. When these tie together forming a common puddle, it's time to feed some rod, then move ahead.

I found it very challenging at first, but it became natural after a while.

Steve

capozzoli · Sun Jan 01, 2012 1:29 am

Interesting. I want to try it. I have some welding tests coming up. One of which is aluminum pipe, I think? I dont know if it will be open route or backing strip. Trying to get the info.

All this talk reminds me of a place I worked at briefly years ago. It was aluminum pipe welding with all kinds of fittings. It was piece work and a very fast work environment. I was pretty fast but nothing like some of the guys there. I was amazed at how fast some of these aluminum welders worked. They had their machines cranked and wrapped a weld around pipe in a matter of seconds. If you happened to get in the way of one of these guys you would end up in the weld.