What a of?

[Aggieclimber]

Good morning all. I am new to the thread. I have a Millermatic Mig and an Everlast plasma cutter. At best, I am a weekend warrior that knows enough to get myself hurt on most projects. But I have had decent success either making metal stick together or cause it to stop sticking together.
I recently became aware of the concept of gouging. However, I am not clear on its exact purpose. I have a 16-ft trailer restoration project underway. There are many old beads I need to cut in order to remove sheet metal from the tall walls of this trailer. I'm wondering if gouging is an effective way to either cut, remove or at least weaken these beads so that I can remove the sheet metal. Maybe one or two of you can lean in with your wisdom. I'm not sure that gouging is the proper technique for what I'm trying to do.

I'll hang up and listen.

 

[wyn]

Gouging with a plasma is quite good to "wash away" old welds and get things flat again.

I use it a lot to cut old brackets etc off agricultural equipment before renewing bits.

 

[Erie Fred]

Does everlast offer gouging consumables ?

I just use air arc myself
Snowball engineering has shown both being used in the recent videos.

 

[500e]

Gouger used extensively after Oxy for the clean cuts

 

[Memmeddu]

A plasma cutter is very handy to remove welding beads in otherwise inaccessible areas.
I have one myself used only once for the specific task of removing teeth from a bucket.
You really don't need gouging consumables to do that, you really only need a plasma cutter that allows you to reduce air pressure.
I use worn consumables at work to remove stainless welds.
We generally use grinders or the oxy propane torch on normal steel

 

[Barking Mat]

Welcome to the forum.

I've read your introduction on arc gouging, just trying to understand the thread title ?

 

[Memmeddu]

Does everlast offer gouging consumables ?

I just use air arc myself
Snowball engineering has shown both being used in the recent videos.

I'm setting up for that as well, at least whenever my shop will be completed I'll finish a project started a long time ago.
I have a decent 200A buzz box and an huge rectifier bridge from a 600A mig.
I've been studying about combining them and make a little gouger set up for 4mm carbons which I've already used on an inverter machine but antistick cause the arc to randomly shut off when you get too close.
I could use my Stamos which is just a big but compact inverter generator without fancy functions but despite I'm not using it anymore I'm afraid of frying it up.
Anyways you can remove a lot of material very fast even using just 4mm rods and shy 140A

 

[Brad93]

A plasma cutter is very handy to remove welding beads in otherwise inaccessible areas.
I have one myself used only once for the specific task of removing teeth from a bucket.
You really don't need gouging consumables to do that, you really only need a plasma cutter that allows you to reduce air pressure.
I use worn consumables at work to remove stainless welds.
We generally use grinders or the oxy propane torch on normal steel

Gouging with carbons is far more effective and efficient than plasma in my experience.

 

[Memmeddu]

Gouging with carbons is far more effective and efficient than plasma in my experience.

I agree with you I've obtain far better results with a very spartan air arc set up than using a plasma cutter but from an hobbyist prospective a plasma cutter is a more convenient way to gouge metal.
In my experience, plasma is not as forgiving as air arc .
I've got a lot of difficulty to control the dept and it's very slow compared to air arc.
All my air carbon arc gouging experience is few test runs and an actual job done just using a single phase 160A inverter, 4mm rods and a blow gun.
Despite the improvised set up with all the added complexity and difficult of controlling the whole thing reducing a lot the effectiveness of the process.
I've been able to remove a lot of material enough fast.
I've found arcair much easier to use and control