Butt or not exhaust pipe & alignment sleeve

[nash bap]

I am trying to weld some exhaust pipe and wondering whether it is better to butt the ends together and weld or sleeve one tube over the other and then weld.

Also what are alignment weld sleeves? How do these work?

http://www.hookerpipes.com/Super_Competition_Alignment_Weld_Sleeves_p/12102hkr.htm

Thanks.

Nash

 

[fingers99]

The best way is TIG welded butt joints using no -- or very little -- filler rod. For that to work the joints have to be near perfect, and it's not easy to crawl under a car, make tacks, pull the pipe out, complete the weld, and so on.

Sleeves mean you can pretty much use the car as a jig, so you can work quicker. Probably more suitable for the DIY man and MIG welding.

I've never seen those weld sleeves before -- at first I thought they were some variety of V band -- but I think the way they work is that they're inserted into the tube, joining both ends together and you then weld round the protrusion. So, they're somewhere between the two.

If I'm right, they would assist in the forming of the join, but gasflow would not be quite as good as either of the other methods done well.

If you write to them I'm sure they'd send a sample.