Anything welding

Thats cause they dont make thanth filler rod I had never heard of it either till we got a new foreman a few years ago, now thats just about all I use. Makes it much easier to weld zinc also.

One more tip, DO NOT USE the purple crap they suck balls, it's ok for mild but anything else it's terrible. Airgas told one of our guys it was the best so he got a pack

 

Yesterday I got all my paperwork squared away to start welding class on Monday. Looking forward to it!

 

Take the time to read your operators manuals with your welders .

If you don`t have them you can download them online

So many people don`t use lots of features then when they do think the welder is now broken.

 

Yeah that's the biggest downside to the AHP welder so far. The owner's manual is extremely basic.

 

Lol my grandpa said he has difficulty getting on the truck to unhook the gooseneck. So I made a step

 

So my dad has his grandads 62 f100, and about 20 years ago he began restoring it ( like had it primed and got a rebuilt motor. About 6 years later he started workin on it again a little and i could help some and we fiberglassed some pin holes in the floor board and did a ver small amount of block sanding. Any way a few years ago i did an even smaller amount of bondoing. Today i decided to try somethin. There were pin holes in the ends of the tail gate. I initially was just gonna filler the holes but this only burned the severly rusted body. So my parents had a washing machine that blew up, and i thought to my self hey sheet metal. And indeed i cut out a 2.5 x3.5" piece and that size hole in the body and welded it up and ground and sanded it down. Ill need a lil bondo for the contour but im pretty pleased and a lil shocked

 

Why would you be shocked washing machines and swimming pools make great body panels

 

Well shocked in part how well in worked and how easy it was. Usually my first idea works great in my head and needs a few tweeks after application has started before its smooth sailing, but this was a one hitter quiter

 

Started our first week in the shop for this semester on Monday, 6010 is a PITA so far, tough for me to get the whip and pause timed right.


Anyone know much about a miller bluestar 2e? My dad has one that he uses every now but doesn't know much about it.

Also, thoughts on welding truck vs trailer?
It wouldn't be for hire, just equipment repair when my dad needs it, so I'm leaning towards a trailer setup for cutting and welding.

If I went with a trailer rig this is what I have to work with.

 

As long as you live in a place the keys stay in your truck most of the time when parked outside.

A trailer is nice as long as you can secure it so easy to just tow the trailer away .

Then some people have a habit of pulling things from the trailer and not replacing .

A trailer does free up your truck for other truck type duties .

 

Open root flux core plate test in 15 minutes for my job. First time running open root for flux. Should be fun.

 

I like the idea of being able to leave the trailer at a job and get supplies.

Sounds like fun, I didn't care for open root flux with ceramic tape backing, I couldn't imagine no backing.

 

I cheated a little. I was struggling with a keyhole blowing out while going up hill with the 1/8" gap...no idea how the hell to get it to run without blowing out.. So I cranked it up and ran it downhill fast. Its going to get back welded anyway.


They also made us bend 4-1" coupons. Not used to that. 3 were perfect but 1 had about a 1/16" spot in the side. QC wont be here until the 28th so i got a while till I find out if its okay or not.

 

Ran 120' of 7018 weld today. Lord have mercy. Doing it again next week

 

Depending what code your going for downhand is enough for a failure just by visual !!

If asked about that fess up and tell the truth you can always retest

 

I'm gonna retest anyway later on just to practice with it some more.

 

I will admit it was one of those 'fake it till you make it ' situations. I am experienced in flux core welding since my last job was 100% flux core. But the thing is, every flux core test I've done was with a backing strap. Not open root. So it was a whole new situation for me and I couldn't find any videos on YouTube or anything to get an idea of how to do it too

So yea I went against the procedure and just backgrinded the hell out of it to hopefully get any pockets of slag out.

I need to buy my own machine to practice at home but I can't buy the machine without money and need the job to make money.

I definitely want to practice more with it though to be prepared for the next test.

 

Stick skills are on point tho!

 

Haha, slag still on there?

 

Yea that's the slag peeling off the weld.