Welding tube

[Jezzer99]

I've been playing around with welding 16swg tube in advance of building a Locost. Here's a couple of pics from today - I don't think I'm getting quite enough penetration - could this be because I'm trying to do it using 0.6mm rather than 0.8mm wire?

Sorry for the slightly poor pics - if anyone can tell me how to do good pics that might help too!

 

[Jezzer99]

Should have added... this is a Clarke 135TE, Argonmix, set on 1/max with wire speed at about 5.

 

[Bigjoe]

Hi,
The pics are bit fuzzy so its hard to see the penetration clearly but you should find 0.8mm wire will give you a better weld on 16g,i might even go to 2 min or max to get some more heat into the weld ,practice,practice and practice again...you dont want a weld popping doing 60mph

Bigjoe

 

[Richiew]

Hi,

I'm not sure this is helpful in any way but I thought I'd let you know anyway. I have a clarke 151 TE and I'm using the settings 2/Min with wire speed about 6 or seven for 16 gauge, so I reckon you need to up the power on your machine a bit.

If you feel you're not getting enought penetration you need to up the wire speed to get more metal down and higher power settings to get the metal to melt.

1.6mm is tricky to get right as it's so thin. I find there's such a fine line between getting too much penetration or too little. I'm pretty inexperienced compared to most on here so please take what I say with a pinch of salt. I have found 2mm square tube so much easier to weld. I seem to get a lot more leeway with the speed of travel with the torch. 16 gauge is quite hard in comparison to get right in regard to putting just the right amount of heat into the metal. If you master it you will be doing well.

0.6mm wire is fine.

 

[Unclefista]

After starting my chassis using .6 wire, I found things much better with .8, I also found I didn't have my wire speed up enough. It's difficult to know what's going wrong when you have no experience to work from.
I'd start by snotting some sections of your tube together for a couple of hours into some modern sculpture (in fact it's what I did), using different settings, to get the feel of what welding feeld like with the settings "off" slightly.
Set your wire too slow etc. then when things turn bad, you can recognise the problem.

TBH I worried about welding, but any monkey can do it if they practice enough

My car's chassis welds get progressively better/neater the higher up the chassis they are

 

[Jezzer99]

I got some 0.8 today and have to say I found the experience a whole lot better. With a bit of playing, I got that really good sound. I've attached a couple of more shots from today's work. I think it could probably do with a bit more penetration still - would welcome people's thoughts. Again this is the Clarke 135TE, argonmix, 1 and max power now with 0.8mm wire.

Hopefully the photos are better... I read the camera manual

 

[gavuk]

Have u tried 2 ,max yet,highest setting ?also a gap between parts will help,try both and post your findings,good luck.......try different distances between chrome nozzle and workpiece you should be able to get reasonable weld although i'm not familiar with your machine......

 

[Jezzer99]

I reckon if I go to the higher setting I'll just blow holes in the piece. I think that speed at which I'm moving is a little too high so I'm going to try slowing down a bit.

 

[gavuk]

try slower,still think u might end up higher settings and moving faster,not very good diagnosing from pictures,weld looks wide enough,not hot enough ,if running max settings u should be playing the wire to the folded edge slightly longer (radius)as there is more material to heat up....i'm sure others can give better advice tho ........

 

[Jezzer99]

So spend more time with the torch on the piece of tube that's edge on? That kind of makes sense sense as there's a lot more of it. I find that any more power on the other piece, I end up blowing holes!

 

[gavuk]

yeh flash up from radius(thicker section)to single thickness,concentrate heat where the most metal is,,,,,will stop holes ,u will need to practise ,play with wire speed and distance from workpiece to find what feels comfortable to you and still produces penetration,keep checking by cutting up samples till your happy ,i could show you better than i can write it sorry ....

 

[Jezzer99]

I tried 2 and max and to be honest it was horrible - ended blowing a whole bunch of holes in the tube. Welding slow and getting more heat into the radius side seems much better but it still feels like i get "just enough" penetration. That having been said I've beaten the welded tube with a hammer and the tube crushes and deforms before I see any damage to the weld so it looks very strong.

 

[gavuk]

on 2 max ,were holes in radius or cut tube?did u play with wire speed?.assume u were weaving slightly to play more heat to radius edge?if 2 max is impossible try 1 max and a gap ,try to set practice pieces at 90 degrees and weld so they stay at 90....can be tricky with gaps,but if you are thinking locost building it will be a required skill ,tack then square up,tack ,opposite first tack.........i try and do opposites quite quickly to minimize distortion..hope this helps .gav

 

[Jezzer99]

Holes were in the cut tube and I was dwelling long on the cut side - striking the weld on the radius side and then trying to dip across onto the cut tube. The penetration into the radius side was good though (as I guess you'd expect). I think it's a case of more practise!

 

[gavuk]

u need to find a way that works for you,the speed you can cope with and to suit your experience,i'm a fitter that sticks metal together not a welder,so i may use techniques which suit me .have you done a lot of welding before?ever done a college course? there's some top notch lads on here and good info ,but helps if u can be shown every now and then ,i know it helps me