A sparks or welders question.

[oldypigeonpopper]

33 minutes ago, fatchap said:

We hire out all sorts of welders at work, Arc, fusion, mig, tig all pretty small, then you have the Mosa diesel welder. 450 kilo's of back breaking agony delivering one of them to a site. Then the welder says once you have wrestled it onto the tail gate and down to the deck. "Its a bit big mate. looked a lot smaller in the catalogue don't think we can get that up the stairs" 

 

hello, on one of the jobs i worked on the welders were lorry based, very big industrial diesel types and you had what we termed a welders mate who had the job of setting the welding amps  for you, the welders could be 50/60 yards away and used hand signals to his mate, 2 welders and 2 mates to each pipe weld, then you had a weld cleaner mate for each weld run, then after capping weld you had the Xray chaps test the weld, if all good you had another 2 men  who sealed off the weld, if the weld bust on testing you had to start again, another chap with an industrial steel angle grinder and polisher and all start again, up to 4 or 5 welding gangs, then 4 pipes long were placed in the trench, our job was one of the 40 mile sections across the now M4 corridor  that is how we now all get north sea gas into our homes,    

Edited March 27, 2020 by oldypigeonpopper

[oldypigeonpopper]

hello, what sort of steel you making the log baskets out of ?

[fatchap]

1 hour ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

hello, what sort of steel you making the log baskets out of ?

Mild steel sheet and 10mm square bars, interesting to make as you need the forge for the curled feet and tops and obviously the welding. the most difficult part is bending the steel sheet into a curve so it sits and marries up with two cross sections. Quite cheap to make and fun the only real expensive is Hammerite paint, getting quite low on that. Used the spray version but you get a smooth finish which I didn't want so I went for the brush on which if you put it on thick enough you can "stipple" it to give you that blacksmith look. unfortunately with this lock down in place getting supplies to make more involves quite a long wait, be easier if I could go out and get it theres a steel suppliers just up the road they have all I need but as I said I can't leave the house and doubt they are even open.

Edited March 27, 2020 by fatchap

[welsh1]

6 hours ago, fatchap said:

Got to admit I got a lot better results with my old arc welder. Paid about 40 quid for it from somewhere or other can't remember, But when I'm swearing and throwing things around the workshop when a weld with the mig looks ok and the tiniest tap with the tiniest hammer breaks the weld, I do wish I'd kept hold of that arc welder.

I'm in no way or claim to be a good welder, not even competent, so I'd like to know if the good welders on here chuck biblical tantrums when a weld fails or you set fire to yourself like I have done on a few occasions. Welding for some reason makes me go from calm to Victor Meldrew in seconds. But when everything goes to plan I really enjoy welding shame it dont go to plan as often as I'd like/

 

I was/ am a Welder, it was my trade in the Royal Engineers, i was a class 1 welder, worked in a workshop for a good few years, welded all over the world and with some specialist metals that most won't ever weld.
It's very rare a weld will fail if put down right, the metal surrounding the weld may fail , stress is a big factor, but if you do a weld and then look at it and think "oh blimy that is attrocious" or words to that effect, you just grind it out and start again, there's no point getting het up about it, it's when the man from lloyds is standing there in his white overalls waiting to test your work that's the time to sweat a bit lol.

The most frustrating thing to weld is cast iron, prep it nice, slowley bring it up to temp with a heat blanket, weld it, slowley cool it down with the heat blanket, remove blanket, look at it the wrong way and you hear that high pitched "ping" as the thing cracks, cast iron has a mind of it's own.

Haven't welded for about 15 years now, used to find it very relaxing your in your own little world.

[oldypigeonpopper]

1 hour ago, fatchap said:

Mild steel sheet and 10mm square bars, interesting to make as you need the forge for the curled feet and tops and obviously the welding. the most difficult part is bending the steel sheet into a curve so it sits and marries up with two cross sections. Quite cheap to make and fun the only real expensive is Hammerite paint, getting quite low on that. Used the spray version but you get a smooth finish which I didn't want so I went for the brush on which if you put it on thick enough you can "stipple" it to give you that blacksmith look. unfortunately with this lock down in place getting supplies to make more involves quite a long wait, be easier if I could go out and get it theres a steel suppliers just up the road they have all I need but as I said I can't leave the house and doubt they are even open.

hello, sounds like your enjoying making the baskets, shame about not being able to get materials, have you any scrap metal to practice using the mig welder ? once you get the wire speed and amps right, i know there not the cleanest of welds but easy to clean off before painting

[fatchap]

23 minutes ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

hello, sounds like your enjoying making the baskets, shame about not being able to get materials, have you any scrap metal to practice using the mig welder ? once you get the wire speed and amps right, i know there not the cleanest of welds but easy to clean off before painting

I practice on any bit of scrap metal I have. the amount of bits of metal in my scrap bin with nuts and bolts welded to them is unreal.