Hello everyone! I hope all is well in the new year.
So I get to play with a bunch of .25" AR 235 plate jigsaw puzzle pieces that have to resemble a small box with a smaller slanted box on top of it. I'm not allowed to get pictures of it, sorry... This is the first one of a bunch to be done so we are still proving the part out before we cut a whole stack of bad parts. That also means I have to tack it lightly to check and see if all the jigsaw pieces fit. The issue I'm having with it is getting it to tack together and stay together long enough to adjust the fit and weld it. The fitting is tricky enough that I can only get small tacks while its clamped to makeshift fixtures and when I let the parts free they distort (of course...). In trying to shift them back to where they have to be they fall apart. I have tried 309, 70-s and 110-s with about the same results, pieces hitting the floor and me swearing at them.
We have worked with this stuff before on similar parts and have always had this issue with tacking and fitting, but never with welding. We have used both 70-s and 110-s to fill it all in with no issues.
These are all pulsed GTAW welds somewhere around 150 to 180 amps, .035 to 1/8th filler wire of above mentioned flavors depending on which part of the box is getting welded.
Anyone know of any other filler metals I can try? The tacks can be ground out and totally cleaned later after we know if they fit right or not so strange combinations are not out of the question (hastealloy x?)
Any tricks or magic that might convince the parts to stay together long enough to figure out if they are good or not? (Super glue and duct tape don't work..... don't ask how I know....
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I'll fill in any more details as needed, but I will add that these parts are nothing too super critical. They have to clamp together, slowly rotate and be abused by 2000 something degrees F and then sandblasted by black beauty or something just as savage. Repeatedly. Until they fall apart because the .25" plate is about .03 thick and all of the weld is gone.
Thank you all and have a good new year!
*edit AR 235 not 234...