Welding school to Graduation and stuff in between!

When cutting use anything you can to make it easier .

Just think if you needed to prep those last 2 pieces to fit something and weld.

 

Had my first project, way ahead of schedule



Two 3/4" sized holes, with two slots 1 1/2" wide

The holes measure out 5/8" from the edge of the plate to the outside diameter of the hole on all 4 corners.

 

What you can`t slip over to the machine shop and use the milling machine?

 

I'm not even supposed to be this far in

I saw a few other projects done by those ahead of me, and I was like oh shit they're much cleaner looking!

Instructor pulled one on me because the 2 he brought over were plasma cut....he wanted me to do this project with oxyfuel to see how well I'd do versus others.

Says I got a real steady hand and wants me improving.

Looking like I'll use the plasma cutter next week as well as starting up some gas welding.

 

So uhm...my angle grinder must've been busy with my M18 impact because now I've got an M18 angle grinder

 

Gotta watch those things always be nice to them you don`t want surprises when your sleeping

 

Today, I learned to preheat the metal and move towards the edge after it was orange-hot to cut and enlarge the holes.

Did this one today from start to finish; passed with flying colors -



Everything from the top edge of the plate, to the slots and holes, were cut with oxyfuel.

 

Much better then the first one.

You have a talent with the torch !

See how you do with the Short bladed light sabre !!

Funny how old school welders hate change in some places when Plasma machines got smaller and more affordable they wanted nothing to do with them. If they seldom did Stainless or Aluminum

 

Thanks!

Yeah we've got one but apparently it's rarely used and only really used for instructional purposes.

There's a whole ton of saws, including a big ass band saw.

 

Week 3: Gas Welding!

To start, I had to learn how to do some tack welds. I tried both with my passive and auto darkening helmet; I'm loving the auto darkening a lot! Was a pain trying to see anything through the #10 shade before starting.

I had issues with the tack welds holding; they'd fall off like cold solder joints...what the hell -



Anyway, I did that to multiple pieces in order to create rectangular boxes.

From there, I took them to learn brazing -



The right edge of the second box, was just playing with the heat and everything. Plus I had a booger tack weld so that played a role in it.

The next ones were much better in comparison.

Issue? Far upper left edge of the first box, has an air gap. One of my tack welds failed causing it to "open up" and create a huge gap.

Fortunately, I worked from the other end downwards to fill it...so the gap is much smaller.

Oh and Carhartt? Your shirt already has a hole and it's FUCKING MINT



To end the day, we found out the welder wasn't set right to begin with which explains why the tacks didn't hold for shit

 

Ok you can slide on not having the welder hot enough if it is to cold or hot adjust things which you will no doubt be learning

One learns the nodding of the head with passive hoods much more fun when stick welding this habit looks quite funny when your nodding your head years since you last used a passive hood.

Clothing used for welding the more often it gets washed the more holes you will see.

Some brutal jobs a pair of jeans got worn for a work week and tossed Though now I see people pay big money for that look .

Keep up the good work your going to have bad days just learn from the experience.

 

I’ve learned that FR clothing just means it won’t continue to burn once it comes into contact with something hot enough to ignite it. Spend the money on a good shop apron (leather or waxed canvas). They last longer and that’ll let you wear regular clothes for the most part.
I’ve burned through a lot of FR and (less expensive) regular t shirts while grinding let alone welding. Now I keep my apron handy even for quick jobs in the shop.

 

Thing about the welder is, it's the MIG-only welder which randomly gets used by any of the 3 classes. Some people even stay after class to do miscellaneous stuff.

So because I'm not at the "MIG welding" portion of the class, I have not been taught at all about settings and whatnot.

And yeah, I'll pass on the head banging. Already went through a few concussions and suffered TBI

 

Maybe my cold heart will act as the only FR coverage needed

 

With the week coming to an end, I finished off the 2 rectangles and played around with stick welding.

Stick wasn't part of the agenda, we just had extra downtime so one guy decided to teach me. He said I did good not sticking as much as others do; I did the "tap" method but he already had the settings dialed in.

As always, pics of my progress -



Today differed from yesterday as I changed up my flame. I was running too much oxygen yesterday which caused my puddle to fly forward. This initially caused me to hold the torch farther away, but also go back and forth in heating the center of the joint.

The pictures in post #70 show just how far my heat spread versus here now -



This one here is a little tighter which I'm more proud of.

You can see the two types of welds below; I changed my angle and stance altogether and got my acetylene dialed in -

 

Week 4: Gas Welding with Filler Metal!

Today is the start of my box project.

Pretty easy starting off as it's just the use of common tools such as saws, grinders, and so forth.

Focused a little more on getting the mill scale off and tacked this bad boy together -





The tacks are much better this time around; come to find that the Lincoln has this finicky cable that likes to come loose. Made for interesting tack welding but hey, it's ok for a surprise or two to come up.

Not having a flat surface to work on, I did my best to square everything up.

Hoping to close up the gaps when I gas weld this sucker up.

 

Doing vertical up yet??

It sucks when your tacks break !

 

Nooo; I don't think I want to try that with gas welding on a small box

Not doing MIG yet as I'm maybe a week or 2 away still.

 

Today, the box was shut!

Did my first pass only to notice my torch was running a bit dirty. After that, all my other passes were much nicer -







So, after that I was told I need to learn to use a filler metal. Off to cut out some more pieces for another box and learn filler, which I'll do tomorrow -

 

Looking good for someone who has never done this!

Now your using brazing Rod .

Are these the flux coated ones or do you need to dip the hot rod in the can all the time?