Learning to weld

StreetHog

Active Member
I'm a Farmer and took a course at the age of 7 ;-) Self taught and weld pretty much every other day since. I mig and arc but very tempted to order a tig. That looks fun!!!!
 

liferider

Looking forward to retirement
image.jpg Welding has actually made me amber dexterous . Welding overhead's not that hard once you get the hang of it. Try welding off a ladder 20' up in the air after you just saddled the pipe with oxy/acedolin cut. image.jpgimage.jpg
 

liferider

Looking forward to retirement
Love my Lincoln SA 300 pipeline welder. Has a 6 cylinder Perkins Diesel engine. I love this unit. Thinking of adding a side room to the man cave and putting some work out equipment in it!
 

chubs

Guru
I couldn't have said it better, :oldeek::old2: whatever the hell that meant :willynilly::oldsmile:
7018 is a low hydrogen rod with 70.000 pound tensile strength. In my opinion, it's the best rod going for carbon steel. Good practice is welding an "I" beam butted into the flange of another beam. you get the Flat, Vertical, and Overhead positions covered. I spent 20 years welding cryogenic transport trailers, (Airco, Linde. Air Liquide) and even built pumper rigs for the fracking fields. Favorite process is Tig, stainless steel and aluminum. really relaxing! Just remember, if a dumb ass like me can do it, you can do it better. :old2::old2:
 
Welding is a great trade. I am in the Construction Industry and its one of the quickest trades to learn and with practice get pretty good at. Hell welders now around the Gulf Coast areas are getting paid around $38-$42 bucks an hr. and $100 bucks a day per diem on average with all the hours they want to work. Its getting pretty hard to find enough welders for all the new work going on.
Wonder how much underwater welder are making these days??
 
Its actually fairly simple with steel.
Steel tends to want to just flow together.
Aluminum can be the bear sometimes.
Anytime you feel like it let me know. I could use the help and would be happy to help you along with your welding abilities, not that I am a master or anything but I get the job done.
May really consider that! Currently I don't own a welder and waiting until I really have a use and the $$ to buy a machine. I am traveling and with the 6 hours of class on Friday nights my time at home is too little. But may be able to help out when I can. Could always use more time under the hood ..
 

liferider

Looking forward to retirement
image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg Bought a 1 ton truck extra long wheel base and had a factory long bed so I mounted the bed and extended the length to match the truck.
 

liferider

Looking forward to retirement
7018 is a low hydrogen rod with 70.000 pound tensile strength. In my opinion, it's the best rod going for carbon steel. Good practice is welding an "I" beam butted into the flange of another beam. you get the Flat, Vertical, and Overhead positions covered. I spent 20 years welding cryogenic transport trailers, (Airco, Linde. Air Liquide) and even built pumper rigs for the fracking fields. Favorite process is Tig, stainless steel and aluminum. really relaxing! Just remember, if a dumb ass like me can do it, you can do it better. :old2::old2:
You did not run a 6011, 6010 or a P5 as a root bead?
 

liferider

Looking forward to retirement
I saw a guy weld an entire trailer together with only 6011's about a year later I saw him. He said, well I should have run a pass over the 6011 with a 7018. Said in a few runs with the trailer going down the road it started coming apart. He had to flip the trailer upside down and re weld the entire thing with 7018's then!
 

liferider

Looking forward to retirement
May really consider that! Currently I don't own a welder and waiting until I really have a use and the $$ to buy a machine. I am traveling and with the 6 hours of class on Friday nights my time at home is too little. But may be able to help out when I can. Could always use more time under the hood ..
This may sound odd but a great pipeline welder taught me this right out of welding school. Keep a pen or pencil in your truck. When ever your stuck in traffic or in line at a drive through. Take your trigger finger and middle finger and bend them in. Place the pen between them at the 2nd joint. Now practice welding strokes like a weave beed or a figure 8, or even a streight beed pushing your rod NOT pulling it as to pre heat your metal before the flux arrives. This will drastically improve your beeds. So practice welding your dash up!
 
Different techniques for different processes. Given the little experience I have 6010 electrodes are deeper penetrating and a good practice is a whip and pause.
With gtaw or tig welding where filler materialis used its about controlling the arc with the addition of the filler material.
My favorite so far is flux core wire fed with a cleaning gas produces a strong clean weld.
As far as why welds break especially with a deep penetration electrode can be caused by many factors porosity, slag inclusion etc... The 7018 usually provides a cover pass to seal the weld. Again I am only learning but I am soaking it up like a sponge
 

liferider

Looking forward to retirement
you are correct about the Mig. I run Flux core with 100% argon gas. it.s probably the easiest weld to master. First thing my welding teacher taught me was to braze plates together using Oxygen & Acetylene with a brass flux rod. then I moved to Arc, fist welding down then after that was mastered, to vertical then overhead. Then I moved to Tig using a rod brazing method, not a wire gun. Then last I learned to Mig. The course was 18 months. BTW, auto flash helmets at the end of the day will screw your eye's up. Specially if you are striking an arc alot. There is a slight hesitation from when you strike the arc to when the shield darkens. Over the corse of 7-8 hrs of welding you can actually burn your eye's. I use 2 helmets. One a old school pipeline hood. The other a pipeline hood mounted on a hard hat. I change out the lens from a #10 to a 14 depending on what style I am welding arc or tig. But Paul you will never flash blind yourself with the old pipeline hood. Just don't strike an arc before dropping your hood. One other thing is your gloves. Instead of the bulky welding gloves pay a little more money and get some elk hide. They cost about $20 more BUT, you have a better grip on your leeds. One other thing. If you get a arc welder get a stinger for the pos. leed 8' long.
 
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Sven

Well-Known Member
best rule of thumb. 6011 gives you deep penetration but is brittle so you cap it with a 7018 to add flexability and structure.
When you can walk up to a job, pull the right rod knowing your metals, know when to gas, when to tig, when to mig, when to braze, you've made it half way. The last is penetration. Everything else is just a bead, IMO. I can't weld for shit, where I can almost braze. I love my tanks, my rosebud, and a fresh tube of braising rod bought a few months ago and already broken into.

Looking Really Good. Slow and steady. No fat buildup at any one spot. Lifer, how's penetration looking at it from your end? Heat [bluing] spread is narrow. Where bluing is a horror story right now going on. This poor guy had an old friend weld his wannabe replica bike. Bought a period kind of gusseting kit for the frame. When I saw the heat applied to that frame!!! And not even close to Paul's welds. Sad.

Anyone been to Barber? See the braising job on that Lotus frame hanging on that pillar? The britrivia goes; crash, I heat the braise and melt it off, replace the area with straight tubes again, go back out and race all in the same day.
 
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