I will often use an adjustable pipe stand to lean on or rest my arm on to get steady. Old old old guy I used to work with. His favorite saying was if you can't get comfortable you can't weld.

Yeah it was cheap and easy to get. Got 10 lbs of the 3/32 for like 11$ including tax.

If you weld those type of couplings make sure you follow the above advice about not bottoming out the pipe in the coupler. That will cause a crack almost every time.

So. What's that make the bearded lady at the fair. .??

Ok.
Is there any kind of common things I might run across that I shouldn't try to weld other than stuff that's anodized. .

The first batch or alum tig wire I bought is 4043 1/16 and 3/32. I was told this will cover me for lots of kinds of alum grades. Where am I going to hit a wall I can't get through with this rod?

Totally agree with ace. Last nuke I was at they required a 2 to 1 ratio on the fillets of a socket weld and proper pre heat. If this is a can't fail sorta deal. That may help with the stress your pipe sees.

That's solid advice. The instructors from my local will start you out on an open but flat plate joint. Helps you get a good long 8 in run and helps you see how important fit up is. kinda like the vid on stick weld pads.

A lot of field welding of pipe is stick.

I wish I had a mill. Welcome

Are your couplers threaded and then your welding over the threaded joints?

image.jpg image.jpg I was doing some pipping for a farm service company. And from there shop area inside behind closed doors I could here snapping and popping. After 3 days one of there guys brings out this 40 ft long platform of bar grating that had 1 leg on each corner for us to use as his loadin...

You might hit some impurities around were the seam is that will sometimes give you holes.

Really thin metal is not forgiving and you may alway get spots that seem to pop through. Think it has to do with the manufacturing process of the tube or pipe. Is it seamed or seamless tube?

Nice job on the valves.

Looks a lot like SS fussion work I've only done a little of that. But you should be able to get a good tack on something that thin with out wire if you had to.

It may be because of were at and how many light sensors your helmet has. If you are in tight corners or you move your head of to the side your helmet may not be picking up the arc. About half my work is position welding on sight. I use a Lincon helmet made by Viking that has extra sensors on the top...

That was my first patch on cast alum. The crack went all the way through. About 1/4 in thick. I ground out the crack all the way through and then drilled out the end of the crack. Seemed like forever till the bead kinda sank in and I got full penetration. Is that normal on castings?

What are you welding on?

If your using a whip pattern in line with the weld you may want to try more of a swirl stroke. Either way adjust how much movement you make as you travel. Been about 15 years since I ran fc so I can't remember settings. Play with your heat some try going up or down by about 3 amp intervals. I just r...

Between the videos and the forum I've learned more about how to use my high freq in a few days then I've found in months of looking. Thanks

Top lid for a sausage stuffing pot. It gets a rubber ring under the lugs and cams on to the pot. Then they use water pressure to push meat out of the pot into little smokies. 75 # at a time.

Once you get your rod cabinent warm enough to dry your rods you could pull em out and do steaks.

If your only doing 1/8 in angle you could probably get down around 60 amps if you have hot start.

6010 3/32 or 1/8 or 7018 3/32 depending on how dirty it is or how you want it to look. Or how many amps you can run.