What have you welded today??

[Migmac]

Not welded anything. Was playing with the mig the other day and ran out of wire. I was practising welding in straight lines. No edge to follow, just doing it by eye and always veered to the right. Drew a line with chalk the boy brought back from work and I can weld straight lines now. Just have to get some wire now

 

[optima21]

welding some M5 bolts onto my car to replace the existing fastening, but was struggling for access with one of them, so I ended up bending a 1mm electrode. I did manage to snap a couple first but don't use then anymore, so thats no great loss.

maybe not the best weld that Ive done, but I was pretty happy that it worked out for me.

 

[Maker]

Now that's what Pyrex shrouds were made for.

 

[optima21]

Now that's what Pyrex shrouds were made for.

think its the first time I've used my cheap version of a pyrex shroud, (e cigarette reservoir) as the are just too fragile,and ceramic shrouds usually dont break if you drop them. with a gas lens on a wp9 or wp20 torch I was finding it difficult to see what I was doing with a no.8 shroud (on the left) so now use no.6 long shrouds (on the right) as standard especially in tighter corners.

 

[postie jon]

Thought i needed a bigger hammer.

Not quite finished yet

camping mallet?

 

[Turbo]

Over the weekend I made a start on a gate post I'm making from a 2m length of 80x80x3 shs. First job was to cap off the ends using some plate. After cutting out 2 squares I had to think of a way to hold the plate flush in the end of the post.

I tacked a piece of scrap to the plate & used it to hold the plate level & stop it falling into the post.

Once tacked I had to try & get the post as vertical as possible to make it easier welded.

I struggled on the first end to get a neat weld.

The second end turned out better.

Didn't really matter as I ground the weld flush anyway!

 

[wookie]

^ It looks like you've set the capping plate flush with the end of the box section. I've seen other people do that and all it takes is one good smack with a hammer and the plate will fall in because by the time you've ground the weld back flush you will have ground most of it away.

I usually cut the capping plate just bigger than the internal dimensions of the box then it can't fall in and you get a really good weld when you fill the step between the plate and the end of the box. You have to remember to cut your box shorter than the finished length by however thick your capping plate is.

I'm sorry to be so negative but the places I've worked at would consider your way to be an unsuitable way to cap box.

 

[Brad93]

Why would you smack the plate with a hammer?

 

[wookie]

Why would you smack the plate with a hammer?

One foreman I worked for would, if he spotted you'd welded it that way he would deliberately smack it just to prove you'd done a poor job. He was trying to get us to think about what we were doing when we welded stuff so that when it was ground back you didn't loose the strength by removing most the weld.

 

[Brad93]

That makes no sense to me

 

[Richard.]

Me neither.
It's a cap on a post. I can't see it doing anything other than its intended purpose of been ................. a cap on a post.

 

[wookie]

The foreman was trying to get you to understand the stupidity in doing a weld and then grinding 90% of it away, if you did that on stuff that doesn't matter he wouldn't trust you to do a proper job on stuff that does matter. It's all about thinking about what you are doing rather than just blindly sticking stuff together.

If you don't understand this then I give up and we will have to agree to disagree.

 

[Richard.]

The foreman was trying to get you to understand the stupidity in doing a weld and then grinding 90% of it away,

I get what your saying and yes there are instances when a joint needs reinforcement to retain joint strength. But there are many many fabrication techniques and finishing a joint or cap by removing all visible weld metal is one of them. Take a look at some of Paul's stuff he makes, unless it's an inside corner joint all welds come off and are finished flush. If you take a BFH to them then yes they may likely crack across the seam where there is no reinforcement but ask your self dose everything need to withstand a blow from a BFH. If it was a sheet metal rack been run into by forklifts day in day out then yes it does. If it's a cap on the end of a post or a 45° mitre on a balcony rail then it doesn't. Your foreman is trying to belittle you if he goes around with his BFH bashing up your work. That teaches you nothing at all. A better approach would be to hand you a wps and explain the standard of work required. I was a fabrication Forman for 6 years and a site operations co ordinater for 5 years. I had to spend time with the team to get them to understand the requirements needed in the job. If I'd of taken a BFH to there work to prove a point I'd of probably ended up wearing it.

 

[brightspark]

not that it matters that much I would have just put a 45 decree taper on the cap and welded in then ground off . its not load bearing and with good penetration it will be fine

 

[Richard.]

I'd of made the cap the same size as the box and welded it round the sides and finished it flush so that it would remain the same size when finished and then I wouldn't of had to go to the effort of standing it up to weld in position.
His way works for its intended purpose, there are just easier ways to do it.

 

[Turbo]

The cap isn't structural, only cosmetic so it was made from 2mm plate. I wound the welder up so that I got a full penetration weld so even with the weld ground flush it should stand up to an attack from a bfh!

I'll take on board the alternative ways of capping the ends, which do seem easier so I'll probably try a different way next time.

 

[steve t]

id use a plastic cap if I could get away with it

 

[Richard.]

id use a plastic cap if I could get away with it

Push in plastic bung caps finish box section open ends up nicely.
One of my biggest pet hates on box section fabs are open ends. It just looks unfinished

 

[Turbo]

Our stanley oil fired cooker wasn't working properly Tuesday evening so yesterday afternoon I investigated & discovered one of the moving ceramic baffles that directs the flame to the boiler, oven or hotplate had fallen down & was partially blocking the flame tube.

The baffles are a poor design due to their fragility & regularly fail but this time they failed due to this.

It's a steel baffle plate that sits at the back of the firebox. It sits in line with the flame tube & acts as a flame spreader so it gets very hot. It's a hollow steel box filled with asbestos type wool. The original front plate burnt out a few years ago & I patched it up with some 4mm mild steel plate which has burnt out again but because the plate curled outwards it damaged the ceramic baffle!

So I get on the phone to the local Stanly parts guy - nothing in stock until next week. Try our cooker service guy - has ceramic baffles, would need to order steel baffle but can't come out until next week!

Parts guy told me that the steel baffle was £65 so I decided to repair this one again. Also told me it is stainless steel, the previous repair was migged on with m/s wire & you can see where the welds cracked & failed.

I went to a local fabrication shop but they had no stainless stock, only hardox & mild steel. Opted for mild & he sliced out a 240mm square of 6mm plate.

It took over an hour to remove the old plate & prep the baffle for welding.

This time I opted to stick weld it using a bundle of 2.5mm 312-16 rods I was given years ago. They are suitable for dissimilar metals so should stick the mild to the stainless better than the mig!

I used the thermal arc inverter set at 80a DCEP & they weld beautifully, nearly impossible to make a bad bead. There were places that the original box was a bit thinner so I ended up with holes!

Easy to sort, drop the amps down to 70 & fill them in. Once I had a full seam around the plate I did 2 more capping runs around either side of my first run to add strength & blend everything in.

I forgot to take a pic of the finished baffle but here's it in the cooker at the top of the pic, the white-ish thing on the lhs is the poxy ceramic baffle.

I managed to use the remaining ceramic baffle to get the cooker semi operational, it will still heat the water & central heating but no good for cooking & baking.

This has gained me loads of brownie points but it come at a cost! A stinking headache which has persisted all day but I'm not surprised - at one stage last night during welding I looked up & was surprised by the cloud of fumes hanging in the air! This is in a very large shed & I was welding next to a 3mx3m open doorway!

I hope to try & source a piece of s/s plate to have ready for next time it fails, can anyone advise which grade would be most suitable. Or would hardox be as good or better?

 

[Wendelspanswick]

I feel for you, my mother in law has a Stanley wood fired cooker and the boiler developed a leak. I opted to weld up the hole in situ, took the top of the range off and after draining down the system and cleaning it up as best I could I welded it up. The heat from the weld burned the tar coating the boiler and filled the kitchen with acrid fumes. I stank for days after even though I showered numerous times.
Have you tried Rangemoors for spares:
https://www.solidfuelappliancespares.co.uk/
They've always come up trumps for me.