The right and wrong way to tack weld. Video

Posted on 12/01/2009 by Matt

Another title to this post would be: “The effect that heat has on metal”. I tried to explain two different things on this video. 1. The correct placement of tacks.  2. The effect heat has on steel. If the video doesn’t load on your screen go here.

After the video was shot I noticed just how far the end of the flat steel pulled up off the table after I welded the tube that was tacked correctly. Since the tube was tacked on the opposite side of the weld, it (the heat) used the tube as a pry bar to bend the flat iron up in the air. Check out the picture below to see how flat the flat iron is directly under the tube. It only bent where the weld was put. This is just another example of how heat can manipulate steel.

DSC_0970

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3 essential tools for any garage or welding project. Video

Posted on 11/30/2009 by Matt

These are what I feel to be the necessary tools for any type of metal working project. If you are on a budget, these 3 items might be all you need to finish the job. Of course the more tools the better but, these are essential. If the video doesn’t pop up on to your screen here is a link to see it.



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How to extract a broken bolt with your welder.

Posted on 11/29/2009 by Matt

img_7301_broken-boltWe all know about tools like an easy-out. But I want to explain an easier way to extract broken bolts especially if they are large bolts. Now this is not to be used in all situations for the simple fact that welding produces sparks. I wouldn’t expect you to fire up the welder under the hood of your Corvette because you broke a bolt off on the intake manifold. This is more of an industrial/farm application and for things you can protect well from sparks.

Let’s say you broke a bolt off flush to any sort of casting surface. Let’s say it was a 1/2″ bolt. Grab a 7/16″ or 3/8″ flat washer and put it directly over the remaining bolt. Now using the welder (preferably a wire feed) weld the flat washer to the bolt right through the center hole of the washer. Now grab a nut that will fit on the washer nicely and weld it to the flat washer. You just need it to hold so you don’t need to weld the crap out of it. Give it just a minute to cool down and try to extract the bolt. 80 – 90% of the time the bolt will come out with ease. The heating and cooling of the bolt will tend to make it come loose quite easily. If the weld breaks off of the bolt, try it again. Sometimes if a bolt is really rusted in you will need to put an even bigger washer on top of the smaller one and use a bigger nut so you can use a bigger wrench. Just make sure that every weld you put on is a good one or you will have to do it again. If it still won’t come out and the welds did not break, you might need to heat up the area around the bolt with a torch. This will make the casting threads bigger and then you can extract the bolt. This type of heating is another full topic by itself so I won’t get into it in this post.

Now let’s say the bolt broke off inside the casting and is inside 3/8 of an inch. If you have good control of your welder you can build up the weld on top of the bolt with out ruining the threads of the casting. Again the bigger the bolt the easier it will be to do this. Also, a wire feed is almost a must to do this maneuver. Once you get the weld high enough to weld a washer to it you are home free. They actually make a certain kind of welding rod for this very thing. I can’t for the life of me remember what it is called but, many years ago I used one of them. What happens is you strike an arc in the center of the bolt and the flux flows outward faster than the metal so it insulates the threads. If I remember the name I will update this post. Otherwise, just try Google.

This is just a tip I have picked up over the years of fixing things. It isn’t the kind of thing you will do day in and day out but, You might need to try it sometime.

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How to square up a frame or large object for welding.

Posted on 11/28/2009 by Matt

women-tape-measureThere are a few well known processes for squaring an object among the many different trades. But for the average guy who is starting out learning welding and fabrication, might not know these things. And there are many experts out there who will ignore these types of tips because they seem too simple. I happen to think things like this are important so I will dwell on things like this instead of the next breakthrough technology in pulse welding. Anyway, one of the methods and probably the easiest is to use a square. We won’t go into details about this for obvious reasons. The other two methods involve a little deeper thought but, not much.

Let’s say you are building a trailer frame. Let’s also say that it is 16′ long x 8′ wide. A framing square is not going to do you much good since it is too small to get very accurate readings. In this case you will want to grab your tape measure and measure from one outside corner to the opposite outside corner. If this measurement is exactly the same, then the frame is perfectly square. If it’s not the same then needless to say it is out of square. For instance, if one corner to corner measurement is 240″ and the other corner to corner measurement is 241″, your frame is 1/2″ out of square. The math says it’s a difference of 1″ but, it’s like we are working with two separate triangles so each one is out of square 1/2 of an inch, hence the term 1/2 inch out of square. Now you can work with the frame by pushing the two longest corners together until the are both measuring 240 1/2″ in a relaxed state.

Now let’s say you are working on an object that is not a rectangle but, instead is an “L” shape. For instance putting a headache rack on a flatbed truck. Now you can use a square but, to be more accurate you might want to use the 3-4-5 method. The math theory behind this method is if one leg of an angle is 3′ and the other leg is 4′ the hypotenuse must be 5′, the math doesn’t lie. So the application for the flatbed will go like this. If you measure up from the bed of the truck and put a mark on the headache rack at 3′. Then measure from the base of the headache rack and mark the flatbed at 4′. the exact measurement from mark to mark should be exactly 5′. If it’s not, you have some adjusting to do. The 3-4-5 method works with any numbers that are divisible to it’s corresponding number. For example 30′ and 40′ should be a 50′ hypotenuse. Another example is 18″ and 24″ should be a 30″ hypotenuse, you get the idea. That’s really all there is to it, quite simple once you get the hang of it. Don’t be intimidated by all the big words I just used, I had to look up the meaning of most of them. (just kidding, It’s safe to use these methods)

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A thing or two about tack welding.

Posted on 11/28/2009 by Matt

Tack welds are used mainly to temporarily hold steel in the right place for the final welding. If you do a bad job of tacking, the tacks will break during welding and the piece will move on you. The next thing you know the part you just welded is out of square by a 1/2″. Ok, we all know why we tack things but, I have noticed over the years that we all don’t know how to do a very good job of it. For instance, when you tack a piece of square tubing to a plate at a perpendicular angle, don’t put the tacks in the middle of the tube. You should put them in the corners of the tube. (See the picture below)100_0414 The reason being, when you go to weld it and you weld over a big tack right in the middle, it will show up as a big ugly spot in your weld. In other words, you have a nice looking bead at the beginning and the end, with a big spot of weld in the center. If you tack in the corners, You will have a consistent looking weld on the entire side. The corners tend to be a good starting and stopping point for a non-critical weld anyway. (See the picture below for an example of how the final weld will look with no tacks in the middle)

100_0415 If you must tack in the middle of the tube for some reason, lay in a long skinny tack rather than a short fat blob of weld. It has been my experience that long skinny tacks are a lot stronger than short fat ones, and they are almost undetectable after you weld over them. It is especially important to put down good tacks if you are lifting or moving the piece around. You don’t want it to come apart if it is hanging above your head from a hoist.

Another point about tacking has to do with weld layout. If you are stitch welding a part at say, 2″ every 12″, only tack in the spots where you are going to weld. Not only that but, only tack at the beginning or the end of the spots where you are going to weld. This is for the same reasons as above but, it looks twice as bad when you have tacks all over the place that show when the part is done. What I mean by that is, if everything is welded and you have tacks in the spots where there isn’t any welds, it tends to look like a rookie welded it.  This isn’t a real big deal if you are doing your own thing in the garage. But if you are working in a fabrication shop and the parts are for customers paying good money for the product, it is a big deal. After all, how do you think I learned this valuable lesson? Do you know how hard it is to make a tack look like it never happened after the part is painted? Also, don’t be afraid to get the grinder out to knock down some of the bigger tacks. It is always cheaper to take the time to do it right the first time.

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How to weld sheet metal with a stick welder.

Posted on 11/26/2009 by Matt

stick weld sheet metalThe real trick to welding thin metal is to use a wire feed. Just kidding, this tip is to explain how to do it with a stick welder. A wire feed or tig welder is ideal for sheet metal but, we will assume that you don’t have one. We need to establish what is considered thin metal. There is no absolute “according to Hoyle” answer but, I always considered anything less than 3/16″ to be thin. So from this point on we are talking about less than 3/16″ material. The first thing to figure out is what kind of rods and what size of rods to use. If you have nice new 1/8″ material, I would go with 3/32″ 7018 rods. If you have old rusty painted up 14 gauge, I might be inclined to use 1/8″ or 3/32″ 6011 rods. You might ask me, why don’t you just grind the rust off? Well if it’s just surface rust go ahead, but if it’s pitted out you will grind all the material away before you get it clean. Not only that, but if you are just doing a quick repair job on something, just weld it. Chances are, if the material is that bad the weld will far out last the rest of the material anyway. Back to my point, 6011 is the rod I will pick anytime. It allows you to move a lot faster than 7018’s will.

As far as the actual welding goes, I like to use a whipping motion with the welding rod following the same direction as I am welding. Basically just a back and forth motion. The reason for this is to keep from building up too much heat all in one spot. If you were to drag the rod slowly you will have a pretty good chance of burning through. If you are welding vertically, don’t be afraid to run the 6011’s downhill. If the material is really thin, I will use the whipping motion downhill as well. I know it goes against some principles of burying slag but, when the material is thin it really doesn’t matter as much. Most anything that is made from thin material is over welded. Say for instance you are patching an air compressor tank that has a hole rusted in it. You will weld the patch 100% because it needs to be air tight, not for strength. If you are making a section of air duct, you will weld it solid for air and not for strength, you get the point.

I guess the moral of the story is you can do just about anything with a stick welder in a pinch. It only takes a little bit of practice to make it happen. Just grab a piece of sheet metal to get the heat set correctly and go to town. A good heat setting for 1/8″ 6011 rods on thin material is about 80-90 amps. For 3/32″ 7018’s it’s about the same. Everyone is different but, those settings will get you in the ballpark.

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What is a good welder and a good welding rod?

Posted on 11/25/2009 by Matt

Stick WeldingI have seen many blogs about welding and the thing that seems to be common with all of them is, they are way to technical and hard to read. I’m going to try and be different, by offering welding advise and tips as if I were having a normal conversation with someone. I might even try to put in some pictures or drawings when it might be nice to have a visual reference about a topic. As I have written in the “About” page, I have been welding for a long time. Whenever I wake up on the wrong side of the bed and don’t feel like going to work, it usually means I’m not welding that day. I’m not trying to sound cheesy but, I can’t come up with a better way to make a living, that I wouldn’t get sick of fast.

Over the course of this blog I’m going to assume that you know the basics. There are many “beginning welder” info. sites out there, so I don’t see the need to bother repeating all of that. If you don’t know what an electrode is or what a ground clamp is you might want to check out another site and come back later. Don’t take offense to that statement, I don’t know know anything about car insurance so I wouldn’t expect to soak up all the info on an insurance blog right away either. I also don’t care much about safety. Most of it is common sense anyway. If you like to grind without your safety glasses be my guest. But, I’ve had enough pieces of steel taken out of my eye to realize how dumb it is not to wear them while grinding. Also try not to set yourself on fire. Now that all the B.S. is out of the way, let’s get to it.

In my opinion, stick welding is the best way to really learn how to be a good welder. If you can weld with a 7018, it won’t be a problem to go on to a wire feed. However, the guys that start out with a wire feed seem to have a little more trouble getting the hang of stick welding. Don’t get me wrong, it can be done, that’s just been my experience. It is also cheaper to buy a stick welder than a wire feed. With stick you only need to buy the welder, lead, and some rods. You can buy a good stick welder used or new for less than $400. Wire feeds are a little more expensive (even a 110 volt) considering you will need to lease the gas tank. All in all I don’t think you can go wrong with a stick welder unless you do so much welding you’re worried about production.

The first good tip I will tell you is: stay away from 6013 welding rods. I might catch hell from some of you but hear me out. I know a lot of welding instructors like to use 6013 rods to teach their students with because they strike easily and even a novice can make a good looking bead with them. When I used to fix a lot of farm equipment, the biggest cause of welds cracking from the farmers’ self repairs was because they used 6013. I used to ask them why they used those rods, and mainly it was because that is what they learned to weld with in high school. I would grind the old cracked weld off and re-weld the equipment using 7018, and I would never see the piece again. It wasn’t always that the farmer was a bad welder, it was just not a very strong rod. If you want to learn how to weld with a rod that strikes easy, try 6011 or 7014. Both of these seem to be pretty good rods. But given a choice I will always choose 7018. These are the rods the pros use out in the field. They are a good all around rod, even for vertical and overhead welding. If you need to weld thin metal, 6011 is my choice. The thinner the metal, the less important rod tensile strength is anyway. 6011’s allow you to move fast so you don’t heat up too much of the metal and burn through. They are also good for plowing through rust and paint as well as for thin materials. How to weld thin steel will have to be another topic for another day.

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