Welding advice

[tomfc]

First of what does it mean if i get a little bit of a build of of weld on the wend of the weld wire? So it looks like a little ball on the end.


Also my weld doesnt look like these welds that are in the tutorial section in here. What can i do to make them better?

Heres a pic

 

[irondarren]

Little ball on the end of the welding wire is normal, its just where the wire has melted and the blob hasnt passed to the weld pool.

Ok looking at the picture it looks like you havent cleaned the welded area enough, thus you will have weld contaimination, which produces undesirable looking welds and makes very hard work of it. I see there are a few holes in the weld i can be sure if this is contaimination causing it or lack of gas.

On the bright side it looks like there is plenty of weld on there a good grind up and it should look fine

 

[tomfc]

Thanks so if i cleaned the area up better then the weld might come out better, Yea i ground it back earlier and it came out fine, but i was just looking for tips on how i could make it neater and better really.

So if i clean the area up better and use more gas it should come out better? You got any other tips for me?

 

[irondarren]

To be honest welding is nothing more than pratice, the more you get the better you become. I have found if you can lean against something, ie brace your body a bit, weld beads tend to turn out nicer because you are less shakey. But perhaps the best thing to do is relax when welding, i find if i try to hard it turns out bad, if i relax its better

 

[Wozzaaah]

Irondarren's spot on, a steady hand, a relaxed body, oh and a good mask helps too. I tend to rest the shroud on my left-hand index finger for stability. (make sure you've got gloves on though )If you haven't already got one and intend to do more welding, treat yourself to an auto-darkening mask, they're superb and you have two hands permanently free! PM diywelding or weldequip for a too-good-to-be-true price on a nice Parweld XR914, very highly rated by lots of members. My local welding supplies shop sells them for £77.50 and I know both DIY and W/equip sell them for under £60 delivered! I don't know what you're using but I highly recommend flap-discs for grinding back the welds rather than normal abrasive discs, they give a much nicer finish and are just nicer to use in my opinion. I've just got some good quality ATI Garryson ones off ebay.

 

[irondarren]

wozz what did you pay for the flap disks?

 

[marknotgeorge]

wozz what did you pay for the flap disks?

The guy who bought the ones he's bidding on on fleabay paid £7 each for 'em...

 

[irondarren]

£7 each for a flap disk? like they cost £1.65 +vat, think i might start having to flog them on flea bay. and i pay about 65pence each +vat for the 1mm slit disks lol

 

[Wozzaaah]

One lot I got were £16.02 + £5 postage for a box of 10x 40 grit Garryson zirconium ones, the ones i got the other day were ali oxide 40 grit Garryson ones and were 12.99 + 5 postage for a box of 10. If anyone knows a cheaper source, I'm interested . The Garryson ones are MUCH thicker than the cheapy ones.

 

[irondarren]

The answer with everything is to buy in bulk then you get a much cheaper price. I dont know if weldequip or diywelding deal with a wholesaler called weldability. But a cutting nozzle for flame cutting is around £7 from BOC admittedly they are much nicer nozzles than the cheaper ones sold for around £4 or £5 each, but if you buy 100 cutting nozzles from weldability you wouldn't believe the wholesale price lol. Like many things most of us here on the forum don't use enough consumables to buy in quantity, so we buy in small packets so to speak and pay a higher price for them.

 

[Wozzaaah]

£7 each for a flap disk? like they cost £1.65 +vat, think i might start having to flog them on flea bay. and i pay about 65pence each +vat for the 1mm slit disks lol

there's a guy on ebay selling 1mm discs for £2 each plus £1.50 postage per disc! Bwahahaha! Doesn't look like he's sold any yet.

 

[irondarren]

Thats the problem with flea bay, there are many people out there that just dont know the value of things. They buy stuff thats massively over inflated in price, without knowing they are getting ripped off. I would say i have spent long enough in the welding trade to know where to get the best deals on most things connected with welding, which doesnt always mean where to get the cheapest but where to get the best value for money. There are often times i will pay over the odds for some items, most likely because the supplier that i choose to buy them from gives me great service, but not always the best price.

 

[weldequip]

Cutting nozzles are a precision made item & there's a lot more involved in their manufacture than you would think; I only now sell Murex Saffire as they seem to have much more consistant performance & far out-last ( Chinese) nozzles being sold by the likes of weldability. As regards Flap Discs... German made Dronco
weldequip

 

[irondarren]

BOC sell the murex ones as far as i know, but branded under BOC. got some weldability propane ones they cut ok nothing speacial, then bought a BOC. On closer inspection the BOC ones have a slight curve to the holes that the gas comes through, this in effect aids the mixing of the oxy and propane together. End result is a cleaner cut and a nicer flame. Guess what nozzle is in the flames set now and guess which nozzle has now been turned into a cheap chinese inverter.
Weldequip PM me a price on flap discs price would be for 100, probably be 40 grit, zirconian only no cheap nasty ally oxide lol. Im down to my last 40, (so thats about month and a halfs supply)

 

[Welderpaul]

How do you rate Weldability stuff Weldequip?

 

[weldequip]

I don't! Common or garden wholesaler selling largely Chinese stuff.
BOC did used to sell Saffire nozzles Irondarren but they fell out & all their gas equipment is now imported from South Africa (the nozzles may still be Saffire but the rest of it is South African).
weldequip

 

[morph]

Why would anyone want to save £2 on a cheap cutting nozzle? I'm sure even if you were cutting all day every day you wouldn't use more than 5 in a year! I seam to get through torches faster than nozzles!!

 

[weldequip]

The trouble is Morph the difference between a good cutting nozzle & a cheap one is £2! So for anybody using 10 or so a week it can be a substantial saving over the course of a year. (all false economy of course, because you get much more life, higher quality cut & less down time with a quality nozzle). Oh, and if you're going through cutting torches it's probably because you are using Murex Saffire Chinese copies!
weldequip

 

[irondarren]

Let me see i have several NM90 type cutting torches, and they are not so cleaver. Ok for cutting up scrap where the torch might take a beating, but the control valves arent as smooth, and often dont shut off 100%. I have noticed the odd smell of gas when supposedly completely shut off

 

[morph]

I'm going through torches because stuff falls on them!! Still on a original BOC /Murex propane nozzle that must have had 10 oxy and god knows how much propane through it. I've got given a spare nozzle i've not used- it's got PNM on it, so could be any old crap!

10 nozzles a week- that must be some serious gas usage so £20 extra in nozzles would be 3/4 of 2/3 of F### all!