Welding steel balls to scaffolding tube

[SirDick Diodenob esquire]

The sip welders clamp does it again but still not sure how to make the ball stick properly due to the difficulty experienced welding the balls on to the ends which should be easy but is proving just as difficult as welding the poles together . I have a 180amp mig welder available and am beginning to think it may have been easier using this rather than the mma invertor , I just thought as it was thicker metal that mma was the right way to go but seems I can blow holes in any thickness of metal . The second main problem has been the need for a number of layers of weld and the problem of grinding the slag inclusions back to clean metal before starting a new layer as I have found that you cant just weld over the top of them as you end up with a deep trench of slag thats even more difficult to get rid of . Is there a correct way to weld the balls ?

 

[the snooper]

forget the mma and get the mig out it should be easier and neater especially for the balls

 

[chunkolini]

Much easier with the Mig, you can lay the weld up and down around the join to get a nice 'flowed' look to the thing. It might be worth adding a small ring between the ball and the pipe, to give a larger area to the joint, mitring the ring at the bottom sp it is flush to the pipe. Clamping your balls can be a real headache.

Chunko'.

 

[pedrobedro]

Clamping your balls can be a real headache.

Chunko'.

And bring tears to your eyes
I would cut a V in the one on the top of the pipe to seat it and give a better join.

 

[rosinante]

Balls

Drill a hole at the place you want the ball so it " sits " comfy then weld away, will make clamping easier so you dont have to squeeze your balls too hard unless you want to of course,HTH
Chris

 

[SirDick Diodenob esquire]

Thanks for the further advice which this time I followed , got the argoshield light connected up and fitted a new Murex mig torch to the Thermal Arc and away I went . First thing I did was to weld up the mig tip and melt half the shroud away before I realised the wire wasnt coming out the end , that sucks because it would have been better to melt the old one . The eventual mig weld looks worse than my mma efforts but at least there is no slag and I can grind back to get the 'flowed' look . The welders clamp proved a good enough way of holding the balls in place . Just before giving up on the invertor and having burned nearly 3kg of 2.5mm I managed a short 1 inch run which I would have been happy with had I been able to repeat it but I doubt I can so will stay with the mig

 

[chunkolini]

Using the Mig, turn your power up higher and make the weld a series of short runs working down from the ball onto the tube. Tack it in four places first then work your way around, high power and quite a big weaving action on the torch should avoid the weld beads looking seperate raised runs of weld.

It might be a good idea to practice maybe by making a weld between two pieces of scaffold tube, eventually you should be left with barely any grinding to do.

The main problem looks like the thickness of the two work pieces.

Good luck, Chunko'.,

 

[the snooper]

a little late now but you would have been better of welding a big washer to the ball first and then weld the washer to the pole then the ends would have matched the top