Welding tips and tricks

Ask your build questions here. Welding, assembly, etc.
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toddkoehler
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Welding tips and tricks

Post by toddkoehler »

Hi everyone. I was wondering if anyone could share their knowledge of welding their de-milled parts together. I'm sure some of this has appeared in various posts over time but I was hoping to gain some insight into what everyone else does when tackling these projects. I'm not an experienced welder by a long shot. But I was hoping to start a thread so I could get some tips and tricks from the guys who have done this and maybe help other people in the future. Things like warp age and alignment scare me. I will be approaching my welding with a TIG welder. Anything is appreciated. From the simple, "you gotta know this before you even go there", to the little tricks maybe someone has discovered after doing this for a while. If anyone can throw their thoughts and ideas in here I think it would be a good starting point for me and anyone else going down this road. Thank you!
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JBaum
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Re: Welding tips and tricks

Post by JBaum »

For a few of the basics, I have an 88 page TIG welding manual listed on my website for download:

http://www.germanmanuals.com/images/TIGBook.pdf
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Re: Welding tips and tricks

Post by toddkoehler »

I downloaded the manual and will read through this. Great source for answering questions!
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Re: Welding tips and tricks

Post by toddkoehler »

I saw a tip that a piece of copper can be laid under a gap and used to help keep your welding puddle from dissipating. The copper will not fuse to the weld area. Has anyone every tried this?
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Re: Welding tips and tricks

Post by Der Alder »

Copper works great for under weld seams. The welds won't stick to it. I used it on my build under all my seams to keep from blowing through so I could keep the heat up. I used some solid copper blocks where possible which works great as a heat sink. You can take some copper pipe and flatten it and shim under welds too. You can squash the copper pipe into different thicknesses to put under seams to wedge it in place. This works great especially if you have a welder that doesn't have a lot of adjustment like mine.

I used a flux core which creates lots of spatter so another trick I used was aluminum foil wrapped in serveral layers layed near may welds to absorb the spatter which made for easier clean up.

The biggest thing is to just stitch weld, go a little at time, an inch or so, then stop let it cool till its cool enough to handle, then do the opposite side, back and forth, pulling the seam in one direction. You'll still get some warpage, but this helps keep it to a minimum.
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Re: Welding tips and tricks

Post by toddkoehler »

So by stich weld you mean, start at the top for instance and do a small weld on the left, let that cool down and then do one on the right. Then proceed to the left again directly under the first weld and work back and forth moving down correct? With warpage, how can someone remove that after the weld is completed? Guessing this is tougher then the actual welding. Definitely going to look into copper blocks. I really like that idea of having some type of heat sink present. That would minimize the warp a bit I'm thinking.
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Re: Welding tips and tricks

Post by JBaum »

If it isn't warped badly, it can be straitened on a press. With a bad warp, it gets cut and rewelded.
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Re: Welding tips and tricks

Post by toddkoehler »

Thinking if you alternate sides during the welding would also help to minimize the warp age. Sort of pull it in opposing directions maybe?
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Re: Welding tips and tricks

Post by JBaum »

toddkoehler wrote:Thinking if you alternate sides during the welding would also help to minimize the warp age. Sort of pull it in opposing directions maybe?
yup.
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