Anything welding

Use Coupon Code 20111338 for 20% off Vulcan (Harbor Freight) items. No expiration date. I used this to get a discount on the Vulcan Arcsafe Auto Darkening Helmet.

 

Played around with some scraps of 3/16" experimenting with some butt welds. I've only got a 120v Flux welder, so welding thicker materials with proper penetration is more difficult. I did a little test of a straight butt weld, chamfer on one side, and chamfer both sides. Then I cut them in half and wet sanded them with 800 to get a better look. Of course chamfer both sides will have the best penetration, but I was curious what it looked like. These I also did with the work surface vertical and welding horizontal direction, since I was also practicing to weld something in that position

I'm not an expert or anything, this was purely for fun and learning

Straight butt, no chamfer. Voltage also wasn't as high as I would have liked. Hard to see, but the penetration is a smaller V shape in the center, and doesn't penetrate that deep. Also looks like the puddle biases one side, which is probably a product of welding them with the work surface vertical. I also have 1000 grit paper, so maybe I'll polish them further for a better look


Chamfer one side (left in this picture) about 1/3-1/2 of the way down the face. Voltage turned up a bit. Again kinda hard to make out, but the penetration biases the chamfer side (left) and is visually wider


Chamfer both sides. Penetrated almost all the way through. I also tried to be more even with my movement of the gun into the top and bottom pieces

 

Looks good but it reminded me of the military

UCMJ Article 125 Sodomy: Penetration however slight is enough to constitute the act...

 

If I have to do a butt weld like that, I just leave about a 1/8” gap between the plates so the weld has somewhere to go. Helps it lay flatter rather than pool on top. No idea if that’s the correct way to do it, but that’s what I do.

 

The last one I did also leave a little gap, which I forgot to mention. Probably not 1/8", but maybe closer to 1/16". Probably another reason it had better penetration. The top one was no gap at all and the lower voltage, intended to be a worst case in my head

 

@y=mx+b ^ this. Flux core will tend to lay a hotter, although “thicker” bead. So you’d want to leave a bigger gap especially when welding thicker material. I’d say leave a gap wide enough where you can slide the welding wire between both pieces without resistance. That and chamfer the edges a bit. This way you can set yourself up to have good penetration and not leave a mound of weld over the connection that you’d be tempted to grind down (thus reducing the strength of the joint).


I’m no expert either and I’m self taught but I watch the YouTube’s and read tech articles in car magazines.

 

Thanks! I'll try to make some more coupons to experiment with and try various gaps and chamfer amounts

 

Coupons are good but I always try to recommend joints that are going to be more common as you build your skill set. Try t-joints and open corners. Those account for 99% of the stuff that I’m sticking together. I got my start on welding by doing bodywork so I got used to thin material butt welds. I will say that t-joints and open corners are a lot more forgiving so they actually help build your confidence in the craft.

 

Yep I've done a fair amount of T joints and open corners making my skid plate. I was practicing and experimenting with butt welds for a project that has a few of them, since they hadn't previously turned out how I would like them

Here are some recent ones I've done, open to feedback

 

Looks good to me. As others have said: slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

 

Can anyone tell why my A axis stepper and Slave axis stepper motor would not stay syncronized?

These home built plasma tables require constant attention!

I have to fuck with this thing Everytime I use it!

 

Had a couple pieces of sheet scraps laying around.

Made a couple cord hangers.

Thinking about selling them as a "you bend them and you paint them"

Anyone got an idea what I could get for them?

 

From one of my favorite childhood movies...

 

Bent up, ready for paint.

 

Is the Vulcan Arcsafe from Harbor Freight a good helmet?

Only $150, claims to have all the good features like:
-wide viewing screen
-lenses probably replaceable
-grind mode
-says the viewing picture is good quality
-people are happy with other Vulcan products like MigMax 215
-4 sensors

Any other helmet with those features by name brands seems like $300+ and is supposedly for rich people wasting money
ie ESAB Sentinel, etc.

 

I have one and I like it a lot. Been going strong for like 3 years now. I first had the $40 auto dimming from HF and this was a huge step up in every way. I would buy it again in a heartbeat.

 

just saw Hobart has their competing version for cheaper (around $110); the Inventor I think.
Which is odd. Would expect it to be the other way around. For a more known welding company product to cost more than HFT, not less.
However, it has a slightly smaller viewing lens at 9” or so vs Vulcan ~10”

I’ll look up offerings from everyone then pull the trigger on something that seems reasonably priced and good
ie Lincoln, Hobart, Miller, HFT, etc
Can already tell Miller, ESAB, and Lincoln may get ruled out due to high cost
May very well end up getting the Vulcan in that case
Glad to hear it works well

 

Huh, interesting. Another perk of the Vulcan is you can do shades 5-13, not just 9-13. I like using shade 5 when I’m using my plasma cutter. Hobart also doesn’t mention the clarity of the lens or the weight of the helmet, so something to think about/research.

 

I have the Hobart one. Found it on sale at tractor supply earlier on the year. Ibthinknj paid around 95 for it.

Been pretty happy with it. even more so once I put the cheater lense in.

 

I found a spool gun for my mig, question, Amazon has 20cu/foot tanks for $125, think that'd be too small and annoying to get some argon? I don't see myself doing a ton of aluminum, so trying to stay in a smaller budget