PaulMcElhinney
Member
- Messages
- 145
Well I have just tried to butt weld together two pieces of 1.0 - 1.1mm mild steel sheet. I was using a Clarke 100E. I chose the settings suggested by Clarke in the manual. Brand new bottle of CO2/Argon. I clamped the two pieces together and backed the joint with a flattened piece of copper tube to act (supposedly) as a "heat sink". I tacked the joint together every two inches working from right to left (I'm right handed.) I then used the pulsing technique to weld a two inch section at a time. I allowed about 5 minutes between sections to allow the heat to dissipate. The result of all this careful preparation and execution? Holes that could sink the Graf Spee. It really is quite depressing. I watch my DVD tutor laying down beautiful seams and wonder where I'm going wrong. Oh well, looks like I'm back down to my local fabricator's factory tomorrow to use his guillotine to chop the sorry mess off and start again. Thank God for Hardy's Cabernet Sauvignon.