[dustelf]

Nice stuff , 1st grade

Mine is smaller btw , nobody's gonna touch it

[gurew]

welds could be better i know but i had to rush my ass to make 20 of these today

[dustelf]

it looks very nice, how's the inside?

[gurew]

good idea, ill take a pic today of the insides, there has to be enough penetration to not fall off obviously and hold 30psi of pressure, also the inside has to be fairly smooth with no burn through markings. everything is mandrel bent so welding on the outside of bends is a pita sometimes since its alot thinner

[jakeru]

Hey gurew - nice looking work. Just curious, to weld around those aluminum bungs/nipples, how many arc stops / torch repositions / arc starts are you doing? I've always had trouble maintaining a constant torch angle while welding around small circular things like that, without doing a whole lots of repositionings. I can do it in fewer torch repositionings, if I start the torch angle pointing backward away from the filler, and end pointing way aggressively forwards, usually stop when my filler rod gets too toasty. Although it works, it doesn't give the most uniform ripple pattern doing it that way.

[gurew]

176 amp, 120hz, pulse it with the foot on and off, i do about 3 beads then reposition. if you are steady enough it will look like 1 pass no start/stop...trust me it can be done and i do it daily

ill post some more pics in a second

[gurew]

[jakeru]

Thanks for the info. Whenever I restart on aluminum, I get a frosty cleaning band around the restart area on the previously laid down weld beads. I think I can see that in some of your beads too. I think a flex head torch might help a lot with being able to put the torch in the position I need while maintaining some range of motion to pivot in my torch wrist. (I am just using a rigid head, 17 series type one.) I'd like to try out a CK Flex-loc.

[gurew]

from what i see in the auto industry, you have 2 main types of torch.... 20 and 9. the 20 is water cooled, the 9 is air cooled..both are super tiny torches compared to the wp17 which is huge and a pain in the ass to use...

you can pick up a wp-9 torch with all the collets etc.. for under $50, if you cant find one local for cheap ill get you one at my cost which is way cheaper than you will find online most likely...

[jakeru]

Thanks gurew. I just melted my 150 amp air cooled torch on a 3/8" aluminum sign project using my machine's max 200 amps. I need to upgrade the torch, but 125 amp air cooled would be a step backwards for my needs. I am considering water cooled now, or perhaps 200 amp air cooled.

[gurew]

idk, i use the wp-9 daily at 180amps welding aluminum...im sure if you use it long and hard and heat it up good it will burn up...just take breaks...

but yes, watercooled is the way to go, i had a wp-20 torch with a bernard 2500ss and it was awesome, never got hot....soon i will go back to water cooled

[gurew]

i decided to post a video of me welding some stuff, i dont have any through lens stuff yet but in time i guess...


im welding the 2 aluminum pipes together that have been coped and tack welded in place. i have to crank these out fairly quick at work seeing as i have about 50 of them to do, when i have some free time i weld them a hair slower and the beads are super nice like the pics i post, but all of these get powdercoated black afterwards...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17-U2BE9wCs

[jakeru]

Nice looking work. You might consider picking up some leather welding sleeves to protect your arms. Harbor freight actually has a pair for just $4. (There may be "better quality" available elsewhere.) Great to throw on over your bare arms when your welding short sleeved.

I picked up a "stubby collet body" for my 150 amp air cooled that I am going to try, which basically adapts a 9/20 series cup to fit a 17 series torch. I'm looking forward to trying it.

[gurew]

ya i noticed i had nothing on later in the vid, i almost always wear a green welding jacket. notice in the vid my torch..thats a wp-9 air cooled torch

[gurew]

fitment was my sub par...i was trying to have this part done before the end of the work day with only 1 .5 hours to fab and weld. going on the boss' car so i def should have made the fitment better on the seams.

usually i have stuff like this waterjet cut or sheared and the parts come out dead nuts and fit flawless with a perfect gap...even a 1/32 gap change in this thin of alum makes a world of difference in how the bead control is

either way im semi happy about it!, its a battery tray for a datsun 510

[dustelf]

don't worry about it, it's first class job, it's about 2 years since i welded some alu, if it comes out like yours i'll be pretty happy

p.s. i wouldn't work for somebody who owns a Datsun

[gurew]

lol well i KNOW i can make first class parts thats not first class...thats 2nd class haha


and i love my job not only does the owner have a datsun, he has an m5, a porche 997 and a ferrari

[gurew]

lol well i KNOW i can make first class parts thats not first class...thats 2nd class haha


and i love my job not only does the owner have a datsun, he has an m5, a porche 997 and a ferrari

[dustelf]

damn, i'm wishing for a 911 almost all of my life

about the second class, well u got some end craters that could be nicer

here's a 6g weld I did playn with some pulse setings, 304ss

[gurew]

weld looks straight, looks a little hot to me... how thick is that material?

when i weld stainless i will literally do 5 beads and stop postflow and start again after a 30 seconds for cooling. and you have seen my stainless welds

[jpence38]

Hey grewru,
Where did you find a hood big enough to fit over that inflated head of yours? Just curious, because your are an average welder at best.

[dustelf]

it's 1,5mm wall , no gap 40A L1 , ~28 L2 , 1,5 sec l1 and 0,2 sec l2.

but that was just training in 6g pos and goofing with pulse. almost never had to weld anything at 45 in a factory, some 800 OD steam pipes ..

inside looks like this

[gurew]

inside is nice back purge? tons of penetration hehe

all the SS i weld is mostly 16g thin wall for down pipes and dump tubes, and sch40 pipe

[dustelf]

weld looks straight, looks a little hot to me... how thick is that material?

when i weld stainless i will literally do 5 beads and stop postflow and start again after a 30 seconds for cooling. and you have seen my stainless welds

it's not hot at all, the wall is very thin, 1 pass , freehand.

if you stop after 5 beads will take too long to weld one pipe and increase the chance for craters, let's just say it would be luck to pass an xray, some ppl (walkers) make only one stop, but they work on the bench and i get those hanging from a scafold jobs.

[gurew]

i know in the automotive industry, welds with that color would create cracks later on a turbo manifold out of sch40 308 SS pipe, entire wastegate runners would break off etc... i havent had the chance to xray any of my welds but ive yet to have a manifold come back i would think that 1600-1800 degrees under stress of a turbo and pressures from the exhaust pulses would be in the "extreme" category