[TheForge] Welding advice needed pronto

[Ralph Sproul]

Have to agree with you on the site work and stick welding.  Most of the
outside sawmill work, the cement silos, and rock crushers I've worked on
we've used rod instead of wire for the reason you mention...... portable &
wind resistance.

The suitcases work on jobs where the wind is less than the 5-8 mph that will
blow away your sheilding gas, and if you have to lug some of those suitcases
with a full roll of wire in them - they weigh about 90-110 lbs........which
makes a rod holder look great.

I also stick weld(tack) all my railings together with a stick for this same
reason.  Then I go back and install the elements or balusters into the on
site fitted frames.

Ralph

----- Original Message -----
From: "Woolley" <wjec at verizon.net>
To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, February 25, 2005 11:59 AM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Welding advice needed pronto


> Ralph,
>
> It is possible that we used a mix, but I think not.  I may be wrong.  Alot
> of times when you are welding in a crew working on a refinery shutdown or
> the like they want you in the hole welding and leave changing out bottles
> etc to the mechanics on the job.  I used what I know was strait Ar to clad
> parts of boiler tubing and  pipe in trash to steam units but that would
make
> sense since it is just a layer on top, not meant to penetrate.  But I seem
> to remember using strait Ar to Mig weld rings that were going to support
new
> tray levels on the inside of towers in oil refineries.  Like I said , I
> could be wrong.  To be honest, we didn't do alot of Mig welding in the
> field.  Whenever we did it was a PITA trying to move around these suitcase
> units without destroying them.  I got the feeling that  most guys would
> prefer to stick weld in the field.
>
> Regards,
> Bill Woolley
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ralph Sproul" <brhlbsmt at mcttelecom.com>
> To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Friday, February 25, 2005 7:34 AM
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Welding advice needed pronto
>
>
> > "In field construction whenever we
> > Mig welded carbon or stainless steel we always used strait argon."
> >
> > Regards,
> > Bill Woolley
> >
> > Hi Bill, That's pretty much a direct contradiction from what I've found.
> > You need CO2 to make wire bite into steel.  Argon alone will not weld
> steel
> > with any strength at all.
> >
> > I just went thru this two weeks ago when I put a 25 ton hitch on 10
> wheeler
> > and the gas company had mislabeled my bottle of gas.  The top label said
> > 75/25 which is supposed to be an argon/C02 mix, and under that was a
label
> > that was argon helium.......that gas would weld, but it had absolutely
no
> > penetration and created this weird soot like material ahead of my welds
> > (using dual shield - so the soot was from the flux core).   BUT, Long
> story
> > short is I had to air arc out all the welds and do them over........and
> when
> > I did there were pockets and voids in the weld and black soot deposits
> under
> > the weld.  I always use a C02 mix for steel.
> >
> > (I haven't tried straight argon on Stainless yet).  I might do so this
> week
> > when I get a chance.
> >
> > Ralph
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Woolley" <wjec at verizon.net>
> > To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
> > Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2005 9:25 PM
> > Subject: Re: [TheForge] Welding advice needed pronto
> >
> >
> > >
> > > >
> > > >     With TIG I use straight argon all the time with great results,
but
> > on
> > > > Mig I find it a bit different.  With the CO2 you get more
penetration
> so
> > > the
> > > > bead is lower - but I get a lot of distortion.  Does straight argon
> > allow
> > > > more of a layover bead at lower temps and less distortion?  This is
a
> > good
> > > > question I don't know the answer to, if you've got any input I'd
like
> to
> > > > hear it before trial and error time starts in the shop.
> > > >
> > >
> > > I don't have enough experience with Mig to give you any real insight.
I
> > > went with a mix cause that is what was recommended when I bought my
Mig
> > > machine.  After paying what was alot more than I had been paying for
> argon
> > I
> > > asked  some other weldors what they were using and they all said
argon,
> so
> > I
> > > never bought another bottle of the mix.  In field construction
whenever
> we
> > > Mig welded carbon or stainless steel we always used strait argon.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Bill Woolley
> > >
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