Long Travel BS Thread

Have you had any welds x-rayed?

 

Jody at weldingtipsandtricks.com cuts, polishes, and etches various kinds of weld patterns. There’s a bunch of videos on YouTube and his site like this with various patterns and applications including mig like tig which he doesn’t endorse nor use for his professional work, however still said he appreciated the aesthetic part of it. It’s really about the specific weld prep, speed, feed, power, and staying in the puddle rather than any specific general one size fits all weld pattern that works or doesn’t work for everything. Maybe the guy doing the videos you posted does this too, I haven’t seen them to know yet. You can make any weld cold whatever pattern you use. If you run some beads and inspect them just like the videos I was talking about, you can see what gets you the results you’re looking for rather than taking someone else’s word for it who may be running welds on things that don’t apply to you.

 

As a person who went to school for welding and fabrication
And a person with AWS certs including having had my mig and tig X-ray’d for various applications

My mig looks like my tig.



In the context of this conversation and the point of views being voiced

one opinion is suggesting cosmetic welds appearing like tig or stacking dimes likely fails X-ray

the opposing opinion suggest
If that’s true
We need to X-ray every suspension kit made by every big name in off-road as all their production items are cosmetically appealing mig welds that post beadblast look very similar to their tig offerings

 

Bingo. I carried AWS certs for just over 8 years. Everything from x-ray to ultrasonic testing. All comes down to one’s skill level. I’ve seen guys stack absolute dimes running stick as well.

Pretty ballsy of someone to step in, that has likely never carried a single cert and call out some of the best builders in quite literally the world.

There are some super freaking talented mig guys out there that put out incredible looking welds. When’s the last time you heard of a dirt king arm failing?

But IMO Andrew Cho is one of the best with a mig in hand.

 

Mike here welds out full frames and suspension components as well as CNC and tig welding in a similar way to Andrew.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2QV98IyeIb/

 

Absolute weld porn

 

Cool and slow. Push pull. The proper way to make dimes with legitimate strength and penetration. Mad props to the guys that can put out mig work like that. It’s just as much of a skill as TIG.

 

So I sent my cousin this photo. He's a supervisor for Seaspan, a company that builds warships for the us military etc. he used to be a welder for another company that welded projects for NASA and other US Military projects that he wasn't allowed to know what he was building.

I asked if these welds from occho would pass inspection (they are really pretty welds). Here's what he said:

"Aerospace no, seaspan yes, structural maybe, race cars yes"

I'm not saying you can't make strong and nice looking welds, but I am saying that the best of the best welds won't look like that if the application is purely for strength and aesthetics are not a factor at all.

But the main point of the video I posted is that just because a weld "looks" nice, doesn't mean it necessarily is strong. I think in offroad especially, it is very common to focus more on what a weld looks like than how well a weld performs, and that's why I've seen and personally had so many different products fail.

All that said, I don't think the guy in the video is an especially amazing welder, but I don't know much about him.

 

The video you posted was tack and go type welding. Exactly like what was done on my steering clevis’s. Tack and go 100% lacks fusion and is not a strong weld. At no point, are the aesthetics of a weld part of passing or failing in real world certs unless it’s full of inclusions or porosity. It’s nearly impossible to say a weld wouldn’t pass via visual. Unless the above is noticed. I too have a few people I know personally in aerospace. And MIG isn’t even a topic of conversation.

 

Not until we build some garages on Mars.

 

About the only time MIG would ever be used in relation to space or flight.

 

I think this is the friendliest and quickest conclusion we’ve ever had in here for a “discussion”

 

@WormSquirts here's a good structural mig job - he repairs mining equipment and dozers etc. as well as machine work.

Link brings you to the welding portion of it

https://youtu.be/8sghJRYVHh4?t=1441

 

We do cut/etch testing at my work for our cnc welding. Been meaning to bring some of my welds in for inspection. My unprofessional opinion is welds can be pretty and strong, ugly and strong, pretty and not strong, and ugly and not strong. Continue your discussion

 

Well what about on Martian garages?

 

You guys should see my soldering dimes!!!! Oooooh weee they ugly and not strong! I havnt ever welded a thing so can’t contribute sorry.

that said I’m planning on taking a welding night class at local community college so I can start doing my own repairs and work up from there.

Some of you guys have mad skills!!!

 

Love cutting edge's videos. Dude does good work. I will say you don't see him stacking dimes though. Just straight shot.

 

Depends on the job. I know one of the projects my cousin helped build was the rocket carrier that shuttles rockets to the launch pad. They used mig for that, though obviously it doesn't leave the ground. I think the reason that the "dime" look doesn't pass is all the little humps along the edge of the weld can create inconsistencies in the weld and stress risers. And the welds aren't allowed to vary in thickness the way that the dimes do

 

When making 14 passes no one's going to appreciate the first 11.

I guess it depends on what the spec being called out is for a weld in reference to why they wouldn't pass - could be too much of a crown or anything

 

Well he usually turns all the welds down on the lathe anyway