Tig welding looks iffy, pictures incl.
- Thread starter recumbent
- Start date
recumbent
100 kW
Malcolm
10 kW
Looks pretty good to me, and definitely better than the MIG welding I did on my trike.
The welds on the bottom bracket shell do look as if they were a little hot, but as long as there's no major undercut (notches either side of the weld bead), there shouldn't be any problem. It's hard to tell with it all painted. Did you purge the pipes with gas before welding? It's not absolutely necessary, but it can help to give a cleaner root.
Nothing beats the hammer test – preferably on some pieces of scrap tube of the same wall thickness.
The welds on the bottom bracket shell do look as if they were a little hot, but as long as there's no major undercut (notches either side of the weld bead), there shouldn't be any problem. It's hard to tell with it all painted. Did you purge the pipes with gas before welding? It's not absolutely necessary, but it can help to give a cleaner root.
Nothing beats the hammer test – preferably on some pieces of scrap tube of the same wall thickness.
vanilla ice
1 MW
Sometimes ugly welds are strong, and sometimes pretty welds suck. I've done enough of both to know.. 
recumbent
100 kW
Lowell said:
Yes, i can take more pictures of different weld locations.
I'll take the pictures tonight, at different angles so you guys can see it better.
Most of the welds look absolutely perfect,(which i'll also post) but a couple spots, well, i just don't know.
recumbent
100 kW
Here are some more pictures, but it was too dark in the garage, will do some close-ups tomorrow.
The material is 4130 chr-moly.
The material is 4130 chr-moly.
recumbent
100 kW
JEB
100 W
Years ago I did alot of TIG welding, had Cert's in 8 area's but all of them were welding on the level (not overhead,or vertical) It just takes a lot of practice.
Some of your welds look great, if the metal is too hot you will get undercuting, too cold blobing- not smooth. You have to preheat at the start (using the torch in a stop mode) start adding filler rod (triple de-gassed, or what ever it called now) keep rod in argon flow after adding a dab, allow to flow out to desired fillet,when the tubing gets too hot, stop, keeping argon flooding area, let cool a little -or go to a different area- before going on, try to rotate work to always staying close to level when you can, it's harder to keep weld perfect when going vertical or overhead.
To get a perfect flow/bead inside of tubing, block ends of all tubes,( aluminum foil wired on, or stuffed inside) constant small flow to purge inside with argon.
Some of your welds look great, if the metal is too hot you will get undercuting, too cold blobing- not smooth. You have to preheat at the start (using the torch in a stop mode) start adding filler rod (triple de-gassed, or what ever it called now) keep rod in argon flow after adding a dab, allow to flow out to desired fillet,when the tubing gets too hot, stop, keeping argon flooding area, let cool a little -or go to a different area- before going on, try to rotate work to always staying close to level when you can, it's harder to keep weld perfect when going vertical or overhead.
To get a perfect flow/bead inside of tubing, block ends of all tubes,( aluminum foil wired on, or stuffed inside) constant small flow to purge inside with argon.
set
10 W
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2008
- Messages
- 96
I have finished a vocational college course in welding GMAW(MIG), stick, spray, flux-core in all position. Except vertical and overhead spray since that was impossible. Though different from GTAW (TIG), Those welds look fine. Seems like whoever did the crank jumped out of the puddle a few times and has a slight bit of undercut but it looks solid.
I can't see it too clearly but look for "pits". Clear sign that the welder jumped out of the puddle . These are the weak points. Even if there are a few "pits", if there is good fusion, the metal around the weld would be more likely to fail before the weld itself. Also, I was taught to never stop/start on corners. Look if the welder stopped at the corners. This can be easily seen by the lack of unity in the beads. Hope this helps.
I can't see it too clearly but look for "pits". Clear sign that the welder jumped out of the puddle . These are the weak points. Even if there are a few "pits", if there is good fusion, the metal around the weld would be more likely to fail before the weld itself. Also, I was taught to never stop/start on corners. Look if the welder stopped at the corners. This can be easily seen by the lack of unity in the beads. Hope this helps.
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