[TheForge] Welding advice- carbon arc

[Ralph Sproul]

Hi Steve,  Glad to hear you don't mind air arcing........... I don't shy
away from it much either.  The worst part of the process is the dreaded
closed corner where you take a shower in the blow back........when you
shooting straight - watching the sparks ain't bad.  When your wearing them
it gets exciting.

Your web site and work are excellent!   Well done.

The only two items I have comment on besides the great quality of the work
and the number of nice projects you've done is the "What makes great iron
work".  I like that section as a customer educational slide show.  It would
be nice to get a shot of the gate joint without the rust - so someone
doesn't get the idea you don't complete your work, but the rest of those
shots are great.

The other thing you must still be working on is under your "specialty tools"
section, that the guillotene tools, hammers, punches, and spring tools
aren't an active link like the rest of them are.

Thanks for sharing those pictures.  The flat bar on the "mantle" shot
inspired an idea as I've taken to using flat bar in railing stand offs like
you did in your "carlsstairs" shot.  It gives a nice narrow fastening and
hand clearance as well as a slick way to affix to the bottom of a rail
un-noticed.  I was thinking of bringing a "Gumby" looking head up on the
wall and curving under to do the rail stand off.

Your veining tool is a slick gadgit as well, thanks for sharing it.

Ralph
----- Original Message -----
From: "Howell Steve" <steve.howell at siemens.com>
To: "'Sponsored by ABANA'" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2005 1:47 PM
Subject: RE: [TheForge] Welding advice- carbon arc


>
>  Hi Ralph-
> I have fond memories of carbon arc from my first real welding job; casting
> repair on M-1 turbocharger housings. Contrary to what alot of people say
> about it being nasty and noisy, I found that with proper travel speed,
> amperage, etc. the process wasn't so bad. (then again- I like chop saws,
> remember? ;)  Alot of the noise comes from the pecking motion some folks
use
> to scarf with. The arc struggles to maintain itself and then the
compressed
> air behind it gives it alot of 'pops and whooshes'. By running a tight
arc,
> kind of to the point of where you feel like you're jamming the electrode
in
> there, the noise is held down considerably. Works for me, anyways...
> Of course, the spray is lovely to watch. The obvious saftey concerns
should
> be applied with the molten spray but with a graveyard shift full of 18-20
> year old welders... let's just say that some were 'targeted' on occasion~
> hee hee...
> My God- if anyone can think of more trouble than that group... Acetylene
> bombs out the back bay door, forklift races ... no wonder my mom thought I
> wouldn't live to see 21! Me?  I never partook in the mayhem- honest!~
>
> I made a compromise when I bought the Maxstar 200 Amp inverter and sold my
> old 600lb workhorse Dial-Arc. Most importantly I gave up the AC that I
could
> have used dozens of times since then but I also lost the ability to use my
> Air-Arc torch.  Running inverters with the process was highly discouraged
by
> the gurus at our local weld supplier. Like you said- for it to run decent
> you need at least 300 amps and a healthy duty cycle. Maybe those with the
> 300 amp inverters would correct me but it sounded like that was frowned on
> too. Could be a good reason to keep the old refrigerator sized machines!
>
> PS-  I'll stop anoying everyone here in the near future with my security
> tag.
> in the meantime check out ballardforge.com.   I'm open for criticism, my
> family already tore it apart so have at it~
>
>
> Steve Howell
> Seattle
>
>
> >>>>
>
>
> Andy,  The air arc process could be compared to a weld eraser.
>
> It is a carbon graphite rod which is used as a non-transferable heating
rod
> element that uses compressed air from under the rod holder in the torch
head
> to remove the molten metal the arc from that rod is creating.  It is a
> noisey, nasty process that requires proper safety gear be worn so you
don't
> get badly burned.
>
> It is also very effective in removing welds with less heat transfer to the
> base metal than a cutting torch.  The spatter and debris shoot 5-30 feet
> away - so being aware of fire hazards is a good thing to be on top of as
> well when doing this process.
>
> It takes DC reverse polarity (electrode positive) with at least 200 amps
for
> a smaller sized electrode, but the most common size is 1/4, 5/16 for use
> with the 400 amp torches.  Common current settings are 350-500 amps for
> carbon arc gouging.  So, you need a good sized welder with a good duty
cycle
> to do this process.
>
> There are also flat rods compared to the common round rods.  I've used
them
> to "sculpt" a block of metal like a carving chisel before.
>
> Ralph
>
>
> _____
>
>
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