was this fillet weld good enough or why not please

[MoreWellie]

I need to attach a replacement 6mm bracket to a land rover axle housing (I believe pressed steel) and have been experimenting with an old axle housing to see whether it is possible with my 150amp mig.

I took an 50mm x 70mm piece of the 6mm plate, stood it on the cleaned axle and ran a fillet along one side only my son then clouted it on the opposite side with a 2lb hammer. It came off with 3 hits (I expected a bit more but he is strong!)

The weld stayed on the axle and the surface broke off the 6mm plate. You can see the weld started at the right hand side and obviously had more penetration at the left

My question is was it good enough or do I need more amps, if yes what would be enough?

We took a chisel to the remaining weld and tried to knock it off the axle but weren't able to. Funny as I expected it to stick better to the plate and break off the axle. It does worry me a bit that I cannot see much (if any) discolouration around the weld on the axle

 

[ben8vgte]

Have you got a stick welder to use instead, that's probably a little underpowered for that really.

 

[gordon stephenson]

Can you put a weld bead on both sides of the bracket ?

 

[MoreWellie]

Yes, I have a stick welder (235 amp) but.... I seem to only create pigeon sh1t with it

Yes I can weld both sides so should be able to make it strong enough but I really wanted to understand if I should be getting a bigger welder. I like the look of the oxford migmaker 240-1 but this is probably one of the few jobs where I will need more than 150amps although the 20amp start current of the oxford should make it better on bodywork as well

it is just so much money when I think what I have is ALMOST good enough

 

[tlovatt]

Yes, I have a stick welder (235 amp) but.... I seem to only create pigeon sh1t with it

What brand & type of rods are you using with it?

 

[MoreWellie]

because of the 6mm thickness I was trying siftrode 3.25mm 6013 rods, I also have murex 2.5mm 6013 rods

the boxes of rods were bought new and have been stored in a warm dry place

 

[Landynut]

Hard to say from photos but bottom photo also looks like you have went to fast while welding. Try and slow it down, keep the amps high and see what the penetration is like on some scrap 6mm.

If it is good enough it my be your position while welding the axle.

 

[ben8vgte]

I'd certainly try a bit more practice with the arc set and see how that goes, I've done plenty of car parts with sticks. Less now I have the tig, but for thicker stuff like that I'd still use the stick. Oh and some V prep will help no end and as has ready been mentioned welding both side's.

 

[GordonC]

I would say its deffinitly possible you just need to chamfer it a bit at both sides and go slow with the torch to get a good bit of heat into it

 

[dan.taylor.1]

Yeah looks like you need to chamfer it and keep the power high speed slow.

Dan

 

[mike os]

as above... move slow & get some heat into it... its thick so wont blow holes easily

 

[MoreWellie]

I possibly had the wire speed too high so I turned that down a bit (8 to 7) to where it just fried rather than being fierce and ran slowly along another test joint.

It looked good but the torch was smoking when I stopped (approx. 7cm) so I will have to be careful not to weld too much at once. It took 10 hard hits to break it off and the weld mostly broke although a small amount of suface material pulled off the axle. given that I am only welding one side (for the test) and then hitting the plate over this I presume that it is reasonable to expect it to break in this way

If I moved from a 150amp (Clarke 151te) to a 240 amp (oxford migmaker 240-1) would the welder be capable of producing a much better result for this particular job?

Does anyone think what I have currently is adequate for this job?

 

[awemawson]

We cannot possibly say, as so far you haven't told us what this bracket is for other than it's on the Land Rover axle.

If it's holding a reflector then it's overkill, if it's holding the suspension that's a different kettle of fish - do you get my drift ?

 

[super noob]

Put it this way, do you think its strong enough to bet your life on ?


I know if I was the one welding it then yes it would be as I'd blast with 250A on the mig or whack it up to 150 on the arc and do a few passes or even TIG it on if I could be bothered.

The question is do you trust your own welds enough to risk peoples lives

 

[dan.taylor.1]

Have you a gas torch, even a propane one? Heat the axle casing as I think it's sucking the heat away from the joint as both times its broken off he axle with the bead still on your plate.

Dan

 

[MoreWellie]

I do appreciate the advice.

I am asking because I don't feel happy with the quality of the welds, but another member of the family is telling me it's fine.This thread is to see if I am being daft.

The testing is to see how strong welds produced with my current welder are. The plates I am attaching are just off cuts and the axle casing I am testing on is scrap anyway

The final bracket will be a spring mount for a series axle, these are clamped between the spring and the axle by U bolts but I would like to know that the mount was properly attached to the axle by the welding

If the general thoughts are that it should be possible to do this job properly with a 240 amp welder then I would much rather spend the money than risk life and limb but I would like to know that 240amp should be enough. Currently I only have a 16amp supply which limits me to 240amp anyway

If the only way is stick then I need to do a lot more practising as I have virtually zero ability in that area currently

If I do get a more powerful welder then there will still be more testing as I like to be confident in my ability to do a given job

 

[super noob]

Ahh series disco axle conversion, thats on my list too!


Well front end anyway, the rear is going to be a custom cranked axle


Personally I'd weld it with some 7018's, do a root pass with a 3/32nd then a few passes to cover it using some 1/8th electrodes. And this is using a welder built in the 60's or earlier! Oil cooled monsters don't die easily

 

[MoreWellie]

and the answer is...... No the weld wasn't good enough

I repeated the test wth a bigger mig, still without pre-heat, and started giving that a bashing. This time the metal bent over rather than the weld breaking. I bent it over to about 90 degrees and then straightened it up again and still the weld held. Now I know what can be achieved I can see how daft my initial question was

thank you for all the comments/suggestions and thank you to everyone that held back and didn't roast me over my ignorance

 

[Angusdog]

I don't think the original question was daft in any shape or form: You knew it was an important weld and that your welder was marginal. And you worked out a solution. Plenty of people (who don't visit this forum) would have looked at it and thought "There's plenty of weld on there, that'll do..."