welder show and tell

[AHKustomz]

god my bad on the pics wasnt sure how to reply with one pic

[blksabbath]

you all are some skilled welders. how about the efforts of some newbies, and their newly purchased welders? bonus points for $100 welders

I bought a refurbished Clarke 90E stick welder for $18 from ToolMall.com. Shipping was like $15. Couldn't pass it up. So far I've welded new handles on my friends wok.

[big65]

The company is located in Newport News Virginia about 2.5 hours south of DC. http://www.huntingtoningalls.com/

Pay is dependent on what skills you have and how well you can sell yourself in your interview. Benefits are pretty decent for the typical stuff but then there's an apprenticeship school for blue and white collar work from welding to engineering as well as free night classes for things like GED on up. Job types range from blaster, painter, electrician, marine electrician, marine chemist, tack welder, ship fitter, pipe welder, structural welder, sheet metal, mechanic, refueler, equipment operator of all types, power plant, firefighter, all sorts of office and clerical, engineering, design, medical staff, ect ect ect. I started at the beginning of the year close to $20hr and I'm being bumped up $1.25hr next week now that I have passed three tests. There is a yearly pay raise but you can also go up by getting qualifications as well and there are some guys here that make over 100k a year that are not white collar.

I won't lie, its a dirty job and dangerous but the money is very good and gets better and then there's the pride in being part of building these incredible ships and a part of history for each one that sets sail. I'll answer what questions I can for those interested and will let everyone know now that there is a 10 year across the board background check by the company plus medical history to include any xrays, hospital stays, short and long term treatments and then there's the security clearance that I can't talk about but is done by the feds because of what your working on and around from designs to nuclear fuel.

[MKIGTITDI]

So say im a master fabricator/wlder would they be willing to start me out close to 30/hr? heres a couple of pictures of some bigger things ive fit. well alls i have anymore is this of a tankermans house i made that was roughly 15't*12'*12'. Thats not even the biggest things ive worked on. had some pics of psylo's i built but dont have pictures.(another top secret clause on that one.) Oh and a picture of something i made back in high school.

[big65]

I can't say what they would start you out at but I would hazzard that it would not be far from what your asking about. Even though you have welding skills and experience they will still send you through the welding school facility to see how well you can weld which if your good then you should be able to move through there pretty quickly and may be able to get put into the apprenticeship school when you get hired. There are two ladies that I am in the school with right now who are also going to the apprenticeship school as well because they also have met 4 of the 8 requirements to get into the school.

Figuratively speaking there are welders in the yard that are making over 100k a year and these are so far as I know pipe welders working on piping in the subs and in the carrier so if you want to get to that you may have to be willing to take a little less than the $30hr your wanting but like I said there are some good benefits and perks that come with the job. Oh yea did I mention that I'm within 20 minutes of the ocean front and that there are some nice women that come to the beach?

[MKIGTITDI]

Oh well i can literally fit and weld anything together from cast iron with a torch to aluminum inconel titanium and nickel with TIG, and everything in between. i generally let my welding speak for itself though. I used to weld Santa cruz and cervelos bikes as well before they all went to carbon fiber frames.

[DMVDUB]

I know this isn't the classifieds ( I already have it there.) but here's something for you guys:

I've got this welder that's just way more welder than I need so I'm trying to sell it. Only has around 3 rolls trough it and only a few hours of use.

SNAP-ON MM140SL $2500.00 OBO
(comes with full tank, 30lb roll, and self tinting helmet)

Description from: http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item....&group_ID=1736


Description:
140 amp output @ 100% duty cycle, 120VAC, 50 Hz/60 Hz. Use for continuous, spot, or stitch welding using .023" through .035" wire. Welds up to 1/4" in a single pass. For use in auto body collision repair, automotive repair shops, maintenance and manufacturing applications and custom fabrication shops where voltage input is limited to 120V. Highest duty cycle 120V MIG welder available. Includes cylinder rack, MIG torch with 10' cable, 15' feeder cable and 20' power input cable. Offers spot and stitch weld capabilities. Two-year warranty (except MIG torch).

Footnote:
Warranty does not include Cable or Torch

Additional Description:
Snap-on Muscle MIG welders weld continuous, spot or stitch all ferrous (steel, stainless steel) metals. Detachable feeder provides increased maneuverability and extended reach. Thin ferrous metals as well as copper can be welded with the optional TIG accessory kit. Each model is spool gun ready for welding aluminum with optional accessory. Each welder includes a flowmeter-regulator and parts kit. See SS2943 brochure for additonal information.


Additional Features:
Compare our welders. Common welders have 30% Duty Cycles, which means you can only weld three minutes out of ten at full load amperage setting. Snap-on welders feature 100% Duty Cycle – weld ten minutes out of ten at full load amperage setting. There Is A Difference™.




PM me you're offers! $2500.00 OBO (comes with accessories)

[bmxdarcy]

[big65]

Not bad on the tig work there, I'd like to see the dimes a bit closer on the bottom plug there but still good work.

[big65]

Oh well i can literally fit and weld anything together from cast iron with a torch to aluminum inconel titanium and nickel with TIG, and everything in between. i generally let my welding speak for itself though. I used to weld Santa cruz and cervelos bikes as well before they all went to carbon fiber frames.

Welding here will be anything from small detail work to filling in inch thick high strength low alloy steel, zero flaw stainless pipe as well as zero flaw structural welds on various sub sections, carbon arcing the back side of a root to fill it with metal, welding mild steel up to titanium.

There are safety rules on top of safety rules here and for good reason and generally everyone works with a partner. There are three shifts and overtime is available and there are certifications and training you can take to raise your pay.

http://pilotonline.com/ local paper for the area if you are interested in getting an idea about whats going on here. Keep in mind that this is a heavily military area with more bases within an hours drive than summer little league baseball camp and its also a tourist area as well. A significant portion of the population is also from outside of the country from area's like Guam and Russia and other area's to a lesser degree so that along with the military presence means there are allot of bad drivers on the local roads.

[bmxdarcy]

Not bad on the tig work there, I'd like to see the dimes a bit closer on the bottom plug there but still good work.

the plug on the radiator? not mine, it's a Mishimoto rad and it's low quality welds. I'm still learning but I know our production department at work does better than theirs.

this stuff you do out in VA seems interesting and well paid, might be something for me down the road...

[big65]

the plug on the radiator? not mine, it's a Mishimoto rad and it's low quality welds. I'm still learning but I know our production department at work does better than theirs.

this stuff you do out in VA seems interesting and well paid, might be something for me down the road...

Wouldn't hurt to put feelers out now if your interested, right now the company is really hiring to try and get production moving and they have had problems finding qualified sub contractors who can run a simple overhead T joint bead on mild steel. 9 out of 10 washout on the first 2 beads.

[xblueinsanityx]

[cabrlicious]

I want to see some flux core pictures

[CDJetta]

Ewww. Flux core

[cabrlicious]

Ewww. Flux core

to this I say look at the post of mine earlier in this thread about a guy building home made turboshaft engines with a flux core welder. Flux core may not be a favorite but it certainly works in the right hands.

[cabrlicious]

my loaner mig ran out of wire last night just when I got set up to tack something together. hah figures. I'd like to know what are the good brands of wire... I want to try to make it as easy as possible, since before my welds came out pretty inconsistent. The funny thing was, I'd make a nice bead, and then a terrible one without changing settings on the welder... don't get it.

[Fast Bumpers]

Here's some typical stuff we work on.


Name that process...

[Taiden]

I can't even tell what's going on, so I'm going to say sub-arc.

[MKIGTITDI]

Here's some typical stuff we work on.


Name that process...

It is indeed sub-arc. do you work at nw pipe?

[Taiden]

I don't. I'm just a wannabe welder. I have a miller maxstar 150 stl that I mess around on with TIG. Love stick, hate mig, love TIG but I suck at it.

I really hope that some day I can shadow someone while they build a set of headers / turbo manifold.

[MKIGTITDI]

Not you bud i was refering to fast bumpers

[Taiden]

[MKIGTITDI]

Heres some welding that i did outside of a costco with a 125 hd flux core welder, grinder and a chope saw...

[cabrlicious]

so I gotta ask again, can anyone recommend a brand of welding wire to get? I don't want to buy cheap-o wire that's going to add to the difficulty of learning how to mig weld.

amen to shadowing a pro building headers / intake manis etc. If there's anybody in NJ who runs a machine shop / custom car fabricator who needs someone to keep things tidy and maybe do some Mastercam drawings... I do have an associate degree in Mechanical Engineering Tech, just gotta put myself out there.

Can we get some close ups of your flux core mig welds on those beefy orange storage racks?

[MKIGTITDI]

Yeah and ill get some of the extended beems i made for our pharmacy separtment. I also have a couple of pictures of a smaller project and ill have a couple here soon of my $100 flux core welder from oak harbor freight.

[blackvento36]

my loaner mig ran out of wire last night just when I got set up to tack something together. hah figures. I'd like to know what are the good brands of wire... I want to try to make it as easy as possible, since before my welds came out pretty inconsistent. The funny thing was, I'd make a nice bead, and then a terrible one without changing settings on the welder... don't get it.

You might be exceeding the machines duty cycle. Lower powered machines need to cool off longer before they will weld again at the same amperage. If I understand it right, a machine with a 20% duty cycle @ whatever amperage your welding at will weld for 2 minutes and need to cool for 8.

[cabrlicious]

You might be exceeding the machines duty cycle. Lower powered machines need to cool off longer before they will weld again at the same amperage. If I understand it right, a machine with a 20% duty cycle @ whatever amperage your welding at will weld for 2 minutes and need to cool for 8.

I don't think I was taxing the machine, since I've only been welding dinky stuff, but the welder is dinky itself so its entirely possible. I gotta look up its specs. But eh, still, any recommendations on what brands to buy / stay away from for wire? lol not one reply on that

[Taiden]

just buy wire and burn it! head over to your local welding shop they will point you in the right direction

[blackvento36]

I don't think I was taxing the machine, since I've only been welding dinky stuff, but the welder is dinky itself so its entirely possible. I gotta look up its specs. But eh, still, any recommendations on what brands to buy / stay away from for wire? lol not one reply on that

Well what exactly is the problem? If your beads are looking taller and not as uniform as they were the first time, then you're definitely hitting the duty cycle. You preheated the base metal with the first bead you laid, so it should be easier to melt with the second. If it's not your machine just isn't putting out the same amount of heat. 120v MIG machines are pretty lousy with the duty cycle, most people buy bigger machines to weld the same stuff, they can just do it longer.

If you're blowing holes or warping the metal on thinner stuff it's because it's too hot from the last bead. You need to move around to a cooler spot, lay shorter beads or wait for it to cool.

AFAIC, wire is wire. All it is is a strand of metal. You specify the alloy, any brand should conform to those specifications. Flux core may actually differ brand to brand since there's a little more to it, but if your running flux cored you should expect to be making boogers anyway. Actually the machine seems to play a big roll with FC too. I can throw a spool in one machine and get nice flat beads with low spatter, and a different manchine will just make a big mess. Just make sure you change the polarity if running FC.

[kkkustom]

wire isnt wire. Farm migg'ers might not feel, hear, see the difference but a pro will.

Purity of metal, cleanliness of the spool. Age and how it was stored. Heck a welder buddy of mine was having issues with his mig at work, sputtering and popping here and there then it would be fine, then start back up... and all kinds of crap. Fought with settings, changed gas tanks, tips, spool tension, roller tension... nothing seemed to be working.

Then he though you know this is a lot like when someone changes the wire to a thinner gauge and doesn't change the feed tip on the torch. so when it started acting up again he shut the machine off and stripped out a few feet of wire. put it through a new tip and noticed it was way too loose. pulled another 20 feet of wire and tested the fit in the same tip, and it was fine.

Turned out the spool of wire was apart of a recalled group of spools from Lincoln for having inconsistent wire gauges.

[MKIGTITDI]

Huh ive never ran into that problem fortunately. when was this recall? that would have pissed me off.

[blackvento36]

wire isnt wire. Farm migg'ers might not feel, hear, see the difference but a pro will.

Purity of metal, cleanliness of the spool. Age and how it was stored. Heck a welder buddy of mine was having issues with his mig at work, sputtering and popping here and there then it would be fine, then start back up... and all kinds of crap. Fought with settings, changed gas tanks, tips, spool tension, roller tension... nothing seemed to be working.

Then he though you know this is a lot like when someone changes the wire to a thinner gauge and doesn't change the feed tip on the torch. so when it started acting up again he shut the machine off and stripped out a few feet of wire. put it through a new tip and noticed it was way too loose. pulled another 20 feet of wire and tested the fit in the same tip, and it was fine.

Turned out the spool of wire was apart of a recalled group of spools from Lincoln for having inconsistent wire gauges.

But now you're talking about dirty and defective wire, which really has nothing to do with what I said. The guy was asking about brands. I'm sure he's not looking to buy a spool that's been sitting unwrapped in somebodys garage for 3 years.

[cabrlicious]

...I'm sure he's not looking to buy a spool that's been sitting unwrapped in somebodys garage for 3 years.

you know for what it's worth the wire that was in the machine might have been three years old and the machine does live in a garage hah. It's raining all week... not prime welding weather. I wish I had a garage myself.

[blackvento36]

i have a quick question about the Diversion 165 , it says the max thickness for alum is 3/16" , what does this stands for ? what if i wanna weld a 3/8" TB flange to a 1/8" thick plenum ?

or it stands for 3/16" max penetration or something? or just does not put out enough heat to weld thicker plate ? im on the hunt for a used TIG welder on a 1k$ budget

The thickness rating is what the welder penetrate in 1 pass. If you're welding 1/8" to 3/8" you're pretty much welding 1/8" since you're not looking to penetrate any further than that. If you need to weld something thicker than 3/16" you can weld from both sides or bevel it deeper and run root and filler passes. Sometimes you weld things that are thicker that don't need full penetration, in that case it's fine to use a smaller machine. Preheating will stretch the machine a little bit too.