Tool Forum

[Brmorgan]

Wow, busy thread the last few days, lots of welding talk! That's good, that's what I've been doing at work for the last week and a half, and for a couple more to come it looks like. We're shut down right now because of breakup, the bush is too wet to haul logs and our yard is empty, so no logs = no work. But since I'm pretty much top in seniority and have a few other useful skills (welding for one), they're able to keep me busy with the project of moving the 18' stepfeeder/bucksaw and rebuilding the sawmill infeed. It's been interesting so far, and boy am I getting a chance to hone my welding and cutting skills! Learned a lot already, and some definite challenges for a relative newbie like me, such as a lot of gaps to fill fitting things together that were just cut with a torch by folks who don't have quite the attention to detail as I do when it comes to fitment (or maybe I'm just too much of a perfectionist as I can be with other things...). Had an interesting day today, within the first hour I caught a decent spark from the torch right on my lower lip, that one smarted a bit, and then shortly after I nicked my left index finger with the angle grinder right on the knuckle, got it pretty good, about 1/8" deep right thru all the layers of skin and tissue and almost to the bone. Didn't hurt though or stop me from working, but kept bleeding because I kept stretching it out lifting and moving heavy stuff. Oh well.

Been taking a few pics with the phone so I can show my GF what I've been doing at work lately, so here are a couple:

My first project a week and a half ago, cutting a knee brace for one of the big support beams. The boss seemed impressed, said it was "a good fit" even though I didn't really think so, had some near 1/4" gaps at the ends. But I never really took much for measurements, just the length of the beam being braced, which he wanted the brace to come halfway on. Used Pythagoras to figure out the brace dimensions, worked just fine.

Another brace done, a little different but the same principles applied to measurement. The beams it fit to were out of square and plumb with each other though, so fitting it SUCKED. Big gaps and a lot of grinding to fine tune it as best as possible.

Top weld of the last beam. I've seen better of course, but I've seen a LOT worse by people with a lot more time spent doing it than I have. I've done more in the last week and a half than in the rest of my life put together probably! I've had no real training, just time spent with the millwrights at work and time spent learning from my mistakes at home too. The boss is happy though.

One of the gaps I had to fill. And no, I didn't cut this one! Haha... it was handed to me like that. Since vertical fill welds are not my strongest point as of yet, I grabbed some material to fill it with. Namely some 5/16" ready rod for the long end gap and some key stock for the short gaps. Still took a lot of filling but I got 'er done without too many big drips:

I gave it another pass after this one, looks a lot cleaner now. This 7018 rod seems to spatter a lot with a gap behind a T weld, especially with the dirty metal.

 

[Brmorgan]

Moving the stepfeeder with the two big Butt-N-Top log sorters. It was a big load for them, and we were originally going to rent a crane, but it worked. It was one of the more interesting things I've seen in my life though!

Putting the stepfeeder into place on top of the supports. This took a while! Those machines aren't exactly designed for fine work like this.

Pouring concrete for the infeed deck into the stepfeeder.

Working up on the "high steel" hehe... Not really, a bit under 20' actually. But 20 may as well be 100 as far as me wanting to fall from it!

Placed those four posts on Thursday before taking the weekend to go camping. The bucksaw will be mounted on them. (actually is now, but I don't have pics yet.)

 

[Brmorgan]

Oh yeah, and my finger... It only touched for the blink of an eye, but it was an almost-new disc and was pretty vicious. It'll be OK.

 

[Rustynutz]

Nice work shame about the finger
I been working on a smaller project building a petrol powered splitter
View attachment 185063View attachment 185064View attachment 185065

 

[Rustynutz]

Sorry cant seem to display images just links to them, don't know why

 

[promac850]

Wow, that's a lot of welding there. You're much better at stick welding than I am... I hate 6010 electrodes... I can't make a weld worth a **** with them.

7018, a bit nicer.

Otherwise, I'm good at the MIG, Flux core, and some TIG.

What machine were you using to make those welds?

Your finger looks fine. I've got a nice scar on my knuckle from wrenching on my car a couple of months ago.

 

[Warped5]

Oh yeah, and my finger... It only touched for the blink of an eye, but it was an almost-new disc and was pretty vicious. It'll be OK.

Brad -

Got nicked myself by the cutting wheel about a week ago .... went through the glove and everything. Didn't feel a thing and it bled like crazy!

BTW, nice photos of the project at work. Nice to see there are folks out there making a living that are NOT stuck behind a desk!

 

[parrisw]

Nice work Brad! Nice to see a mill still in operation around these parts. Far too many have closed down in the past years. Nice work on the welding, I hate ARC, only tried it a few times and couldn't do it wright to save my life, I'm sure I could learn though if needed. Keep your finger clean, it'll be all good.

 

[Metals406]

To all you fellas that don't like stick, or can't do it good. . . Keep doing it. When you cut your teeth on stick, and refine your skill with it first -- the other processes will benefit from it as well.

A lot of guys think stick is a dead process, but it's still the easiest to setup at home, the cost just isn't that much compared to the other processes. It's still a very useful way to weld, and viable in most welding industries, and often very mobile in relation to comparable MIG machines.

 

[WesternSaw]

Brad Morgan

Hey man nice to see you on this thread Brad!I haven't been on AS too much myself lately,too much on the go.Have you been posting up on other threads as well?Or are you too busy with work and a certain other project,LOL.
Great photos.Keep them coming.Oh and that nick is bugger all for an upcountry guy like yourself.
Lawrence

 

[parrisw]

To all you fellas that don't like stick, or can't do it good. . . Keep doing it. When you cut your teeth on stick, and refine your skill with it first -- the other processes will benefit from it as well.

A lot of guys think stick is a dead process, but it's still the easiest to setup at home, the cost just isn't that much compared to the other processes. It's still a very useful way to weld, and viable in most welding industries, and often very mobile in relation to comparable MIG machines.

Stick has its place for sure. I just have no need or desire to do it or own one.

 

[Brmorgan]

Wow, that's a lot of welding there. You're much better at stick welding than I am... I hate 6010 electrodes... I can't make a weld worth a **** with them.

7018, a bit nicer.

Otherwise, I'm good at the MIG, Flux core, and some TIG.

What machine were you using to make those welds?

Your finger looks fine. I've got a nice scar on my knuckle from wrenching on my car a couple of months ago.

I generally don't touch 6010, if anything I'll use 6011 since it's a bit more versatile but very similar. But neither will give you a nice looking weld; they're more designed for deep penetration and use on dirty/rusty/painted surfaces. Then you clean up your slag and make another pass with 7018 or even 6013 if you want a really nice looking bead. The downside of 7018 is that the rod tip caps over with slag when it cools after you stop welding, so you have to smash it pretty hard into your target sometimes to get the arc started again. Ah well. 6013 doesn't cap over at all and restarts almost perfectly, and burns at a pretty low temperature, so it's good for a tacking rod to tack a project together before assembling it with 7018 etc.

The past couple days I've been using the old Lincoln gasoline-powered welder on the back of the service truck quite a bit. It's one of the old-school ones that they've made for like 60 years. We also have a Miller 300A on hand, though it's running REALLY hot right now for some reason, have to turn it down to where it says about 75A in order to burn 1/8" rod properly, and that usually takes ~110A. Just today they were wiring in a nice looking newer Hobart machine at the end of shift, hopefully I can play with it a bit tomorrow.

This is the machine I was using a few days ago to do those welds I took closer pics of:

It's a super old Lincoln 300A (though the dial actually goes to 375???) AC/DC unit. I'm willing to bet it's been there since the mill was built in '72! I know it came with the place when we bought it. It does well enough to keep me happy. Hell, I learned to weld with a 150A truck alternator rigged to a 10HP Briggs engine, so any of these commercial units are nice to me. Even the welder I use now at home is just a cheapo 225A Lincoln AC tombstone/buzzbox welder. I improved it though, gutted the original unit and moved the parts to a bigger box and added a DC bridge rectifier stack so I have DC output now. Also added a big capacitor and an in-line coil to help with voltage dropout when I strike an arc. Eventually I hope to add a high-frequency arcstarter circuit and SCR-based fine-tuned current control to it, so I can power a TIG torch with it. Hopefully.

Nice work Brad! Nice to see a mill still in operation around these parts. Far too many have closed down in the past years. Nice work on the welding, I hate ARC, only tried it a few times and couldn't do it wright to save my life, I'm sure I could learn though if needed. Keep your finger clean, it'll be all good.

To all you fellas that don't like stick, or can't do it good. . . Keep doing it. When you cut your teeth on stick, and refine your skill with it first -- the other processes will benefit from it as well.

A lot of guys think stick is a dead process, but it's still the easiest to setup at home, the cost just isn't that much compared to the other processes. It's still a very useful way to weld, and viable in most welding industries, and often very mobile in relation to comparable MIG machines.


SMAW stick welding is all I know, I've never touched a MIG/TIG in my life yet! So I'll be spoiled when I do, I guess. It certainly does take some practice, but once you get the hang of some techniques it really isn't so bad. And it's much better for filling big gaps and working with dirty materials, as is usually the case at the mill. And, we have welding cables strung out a couple hundred feet from the actual machines themselves in some cases; can't do that with MIG! Hehe... One big thing I've learned with stick welding, and I would imagine this applies to other methods as well, is to pay more attention to what the puddle is doing and looking like than to where the rod tip itself actually is. Once you get used to how different welding angles affect the puddle it becomes automatic to adjust your position accordingly. And I like how I can literally push the weld puddle into gaps with the rod tip; I guess you can with TIG too, though you're adding filler from a different angle than the arc direction.

Moving the infeed deck today:

Didn't get it quite into place perfectly today, but there'll be a lot of heavy welding tomorrow. Could be a long day on a ladder doing overhead work. Oh well.

 

[parrisw]

To all you fellas that don't like stick, or can't do it good. . . Keep doing it. When you cut your teeth on stick, and refine your skill with it first -- the other processes will benefit from it as well.

A lot of guys think stick is a dead process, but it's still the easiest to setup at home, the cost just isn't that much compared to the other processes. It's still a very useful way to weld, and viable in most welding industries, and often very mobile in relation to comparable MIG machines.

LOL, now that I think about it Nate, I have a stick machine!! What a tard I am. My TIG does stick as well, all I need is a rod holder and I'm good to go! All I got to do is flip a switch over to stick. Who knows maybe I'll do it someday! LOL

 

[promac850]

LOL, now that I think about it Nate, I have a stick machine!! What a tard I am. My TIG does stick as well, all I need is a rod holder and I'm good to go! All I got to do is flip a switch over to stick. Who knows maybe I'll do it someday! LOL

Your inverter power source will likely make the welds look pretty nice...

As for Brmorgan, overhead is a PITA... I hate it with every cell I got, lol. Not that I make horrible welds in the overhead position, my welds look ok. It's my :censored::censored: arms!!! :help:

 

[ChainsawmanXX]

Like seeing all this big heavy welding.
ill rep you if i can Morgan.
I havent done much welding. My dad has an old stick welder.... Im the worst welder ever :msp_tongue:

 

[promac850]

Like seeing all this big heavy welding.
ill rep you if i can Morgan.
I havent done much welding. My dad has an old stick welder.... Im the worst welder ever :msp_tongue:

Lol, I was too...

Take some welding classes at your local CC, they should have some available during the summer, or if you attend that college later after completing HS, then it can be part of your curriculum...

I was/still am pretty horrible with SMAW (stick), pretty good with GTAW (TIG), GMAW (MIG), and quite good at Flux core wire welding.

If you go back a few pages, you can see the Hobart I bought with some grad money. I love that little welder. I plan on getting that old trailer out of the swamp down by the pond and making a little yard firewood hauler out of it.

 

[ttyR2]

The single biggest thing I see newbie welders do is move too fast. Slow down!

 

[promac850]

The single biggest thing I see newbie welders do is move too fast. Slow down!

Guilty... guilty... guilty... been there done that. Not letting the puddle form and the heat soak in, the welds will look like a worm...

 

[WesternSaw]

Hmmmmmm!

I have always liked to learn how to weld.As I think I mentioned before I worked construction for about three years where they were working with structural steel.There were millwrights and welders on the site,some of the fellas did the fabricating and tacked it together and another guy came along and filled everything in.It was all stick welding and this one guy could burn rod all day long every day. My birth father was a welder,apparently high pressure type stuff,whatever that is.
Lawrence

 

[promac850]

I have always liked to learn how to weld.As I think I mentioned before I worked construction for about three years where they were working with structural steel.There were millwrights and welders on the site,some of the fellas did the fabricating and tacked it together and another guy came along and filled everything in.It was all stick welding and this one guy could burn rod all day long every day. My birth father was a welder,apparently high pressure type stuff,whatever that is.
Lawrence

Probably high pressure vessels, such as air tanks, LPG tanks or the like. That's my guess.