Welding General Thread - A general guide on turning hot steel into trucks, trains, and airplanes as well as posting your own welds.

[WelperHelper99]

You can weld copper. Stick, TIG and MIG. It's been in the AWS handbook since the 40s. The first result for welding copper handbook is the AWS chapter on. Although copper is traditionally brazed or soldered due to the relative ease and strength of the joint. View attachment 6339052

Huh. Never was taught that. It sounds like it would be interesting to try.

 

[The Grognard]

For a Fennic perspective on this: The preferred helmet is the Euromaski, the welder is a Kemppi or Wallius, the work wear is Dinex or Blåkläder; except for the boots where you go for Sievi or Jalas. Gasses are sourced from whichever is cheapest, ideally having one bottle of CO2 for your normal welds and Argon-mix for stainless. Stick still is the king for welding stuff in the ass-end of nowhere.

Edit: Also, INVEST IN A PROPER ANGLE GRINDER. It is your best friend to go with all your welding jobs.

Second edit: Obligatory Apustaja image.

 

[Rickenbacker]

Huh. Never was taught that. It sounds like it would be interesting to try.

It usually requires speciality filler metal and very exactly settings on the machine

 

[Rickenbacker]

Something I wanna poll the room on is do you guys prefer 4 ten hour long work weeks or 5 eight hour long ones?

Right now I’m working a 4 ten and prefer them since I get a nice 3 day weekend and when I do want some extra money it’s not too hard to find places that’ll take a welder for one day of the week

 

[Lou Sassle]

Huh. Never was taught that. It sounds like it would be interesting to try.

It's kind of like aluminum TIG. You can strip a section of Romex wire to use as a rod. They recommend a helium mix to get more heat into the work piece or you could preheat it. I've only ever had to do it to rebuild electrical contacts that couldn't be replaced. The last time was starter contacts for a truck that the owner wanted to keep the original starter on.

 

[WelperHelper99]

It's kind of like aluminum TIG. You can strip a section of Romex wire to use as a rod. They recommend a helium mix to get more heat into the work piece or you could preheat it. I've only ever had to do it to rebuild electrical contacts that couldn't be replaced. The last time was starter contacts for a truck that the owner wanted to keep the original starter on.

Helium, oh boy. And has the properties of aluminum. So its expensive, but if you suck at aluminum TIG (like me), it's really expensive. Yeah I can see how this is a niche use case they never taught us in trade school.

 

[Lou Sassle]

Helium, oh boy. And has the properties of aluminum. So its expensive, but if you suck at aluminum TIG (like me), it's really expensive. Yeah I can see how this is a niche use case they never taught us in trade school.

Yeah it doesn't have any real applications since brazing is faster and easier. Another problem with it is the filler has to be almost identical to the base metal copper or it will be brittle. Trade schools teach what will get you hired. If you want to fleece the guys out of some cash on the job site bet them you can stick weld glass together.

You take two pieces of untempered glass about an 1/8 thick and butt them together. Lay a strip of 1/8 steel over the joint and clamp your ground on. Weld the plate where the joint is underneath. When you pull the steel off the glass will have melted and fused under the weld.

It's like magic and might get you a hundred bucks from a couple guys or a case of beer.

 

[Brenda Holiday]

Something I wanna poll the room on is do you guys prefer 4 ten hour long work weeks or 5 eight hour long ones?

Right now I’m working a 4 ten and prefer them since I get a nice 3 day weekend and when I do want some extra money it’s not too hard to find places that’ll take a welder for one day of the week

I work 4-10s, night shift. I loved it but now its really dragging on. All I do is go to work, come home, go to bed. I don't really even get my three days off because we're doing overtime off and on, and on off days I come in early morning Sunday, and have gotten a taste of what its like to clock out and the sun still be up and places be open.
4-10 day shift would probably be the best of both worlds.

 

[Barry McKockner]

Something I wanna poll the room on is do you guys prefer 4 ten hour long work weeks or 5 eight hour long ones?

Right now I’m working a 4 ten and prefer them since I get a nice 3 day weekend and when I do want some extra money it’s not too hard to find places that’ll take a welder for one day of the week

Speaking as someone in construction management, 4-10s. All of the bullshit meetings we have to give the field guys, plus the breaks, plus lunch, it breaks up the day so much that as soon as the craft workers get into a rhythm, they are pulled away. I see more and better productivity with the same weekly hours on 4-10 crews than 5-8 crews every time. Also, when you take not having to commute and sit in traffic for a whole extra day, the guys actually get more time at home, which makes a huge difference. But keep in mind, I'm used to major construction, which is usually a 45 minute to one hour drive from civilization, so you're always adding an extra hour and a half to 2 hours to everyone's time away from home.

 

[Rickenbacker]

4-10 day shift would probably be the best of both worlds.

Definitely recommend trying to find that sooner rather than later. From what I’ve seen irl people can get stuck at nights

 

[Based Opiate Enjoyer 1488]

Yeah it doesn't have any real applications since brazing is faster and easier. Another problem with it is the filler has to be almost identical to the base metal copper or it will be brittle. Trade schools teach what will get you hired. If you want to fleece the guys out of some cash on the job site bet them you can stick weld glass together.

You take two pieces of untempered glass about an 1/8 thick and butt them together. Lay a strip of 1/8 steel over the joint and clamp your ground on. Weld the plate where the joint is underneath. When you pull the steel off the glass will have melted and fused under the weld.

It's like magic and might get you a hundred bucks from a couple guys or a case of beer.

I've got to try the glass trick. Do you go particularly slow, penetrate the steel very close to the glass? Should I be quick about getting the steel off before the glass fuses to it or is that not a concern?

 

[Brenda Holiday]

Definitely recommend trying to find that sooner rather than later. From what I’ve seen irl people can get stuck at nights

Oh definitely, I'm already stuck. Hopefully here soon I won't be doing welding as anything other than a hobby. Until then I'm coping and sneeding.
Day shift is 5-8s but some people just work overtime and do 4-10s.

it breaks up the day so much that as soon as the craft workers get into a rhythm, they are pulled away.

This is so damn true.

so you're always adding an extra hour and a half to 2 hours to everyone's time away from home.

This is ESPECIALLY true. I like to joke I actually "work" 14+ hours because that's how long I'm out of the house, with an hour commute. It sucks.

 

[Lou Sassle]

T

I've got to try the glass trick. Do you go particularly slow, penetrate the steel very close to the glass? Should I be quick about getting the steel off before the glass fuses to it or is that not a concern?

The glass won't stick. You'll want to keep from burning through the steel. It'll take a couple tries to get it but after you figure it out you should be able to do it consistently.

 

[Barry McKockner]

This is ESPECIALLY true. I like to joke I actually "work" 14+ hours because that's how long I'm out of the house, with an hour commute. It sucks.

I did 5-10s for 4 years, an hour total time in car each way due to plant traffic. So waking up at 4 AM, to leave at 4:30, giving me time to pick up breakfast on the way, arrive and clock in at 6, clock out at 4:30, get home at 5:30, then you just need a fucking break for 30 minutes to an hour. So you're waking up at 4, and only getting to "live your life" after about 6:00. But remember, you really need to be in bed by 9 so you can rest enough that you don't need to OD on caffiene.

3 hours. You have 3 hours to enjoy the day, eat, and shower.

 

[Brenda Holiday]

I did 5-10s for 4 years, an hour total time in car each way due to plant traffic. So waking up at 4 AM, to leave at 4:30, giving me time to pick up breakfast on the way, arrive and clock in at 6, clock out at 4:30, get home at 5:30, then you just need a fucking break for 30 minutes to an hour. So you're waking up at 4, and only getting to "live your life" after about 6:00. But remember, you really need to be in bed by 9 so you can rest enough that you don't need to OD on caffiene.

3 hours. You have 3 hours to enjoy the day, eat, and shower.

This is exactly my life except I get maybe an hour at home to shower, simple chores, eat, and watch some youtube before I can't keep my eyes open and pass out. 5-10s sounds rough, I dunno if I could handle that. Because you get no time at home everything is pushed on the weekend so even if I get my three days off its mostly dedicated to chores and errands. Only having two days would really fuck things up.

 

[Barry McKockner]

This is exactly my life except I get maybe an hour at home to shower, simple chores, eat, and watch some youtube before I can't keep my eyes open and pass out. 5-10s sounds rough, I dunno if I could handle that. Because you get no time at home everything is pushed on the weekend so even if I get my three days off its mostly dedicated to chores and errands. Only having two days would really fuck things up.

You get used to it. I work the road, so it's much easier to be away from home doing it where there are no life distractions from work. But the inverse is also true, that working a regular 40 hour week on the road is torture because you have so much free time it makes you miss home.

 

[KittyGremlin]

Edit: Also, INVEST IN A PROPER ANGLE GRINDER.

I personally love having one that plugs into an outlet for longer/more difficult jobs and one with a battery for convenience/harder to reach places. If you have an air compressor, pneumatic grinders are quite nice to use.

 

[The Grognard]

I personally love having one that plugs into an outlet for longer/more difficult jobs and one with a battery for convenience/harder to reach places. If you have an air compressor, pneumatic grinders are quite nice to use.

I agree with most of this, though if possible it should be three grinders. A big one for big cuts, small corded one for the long jobs and the battery one as part of your gig collection. Air tools are something any serious shop should already have anyways.

 

[KittyGremlin]

I agree with most of this, though if possible it should be three grinders. A big one for big cuts, small corded one for the long jobs and the battery one as part of your gig collection. Air tools are something any serious shop should already have anyways.

Make it four or go home.

 

[Rekeita's Kidneys]

Make it four or go home.

Keep several grinders with each different kind of disc, fuck having to change discs every 2 minutes, shit gets ANNOYING.