Totally agree with ya on this. I for one have used the coat hanger..but in a pinch...I wouldnt do it on something say a trailer hitch or even on a hinge for a gate for that matter. But if I had to, on that gate hinge I might consider it if I had no alterative for the weekend and I would make my darndest to redo it in the coming week. Course then again I dont use oxy fuel for much of anything weldoing wise. I use smaw and I know a guy who swears hes welded stuff with a coat hanger with smaw, I wouldnt. Not to say you cant, but its not proper and most likely will lead to failures.
Just my two cents
CHRIS
Quote:
"Generally when you make a weld on mild steel with the oxy-fuel process using the RG45 rod you will have a nice shiny clear puddle . . ."
But I do get that nice shiny puddle, even when welding with the cold rolled steel.
Quote:
"you will see a crusty film floating on the puddle which has a dull orange appearance . . ."
The only time that I see this is when there isn't quite enough heat in the weld. A little more heating and I get the nice shiny clear puddle.
Quote:
"One final note the original poster in this thread said that he was using 1/8" cold rolled wire for a filler metal, as one of the other posters stated, the makeup of this wire will not allow it to be used with complete success for a filler wire . . ."
Why? I don't want to get into the "my torch is a miracle torch" scenario, but when I'm up to full heat, the flame that is touching the steel is the flux. In other words, there is no oxidizing steel in the weld. There may be and probably is on top of the weld once the flame leaves that area, but I can physically see an "oxide free zone" about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter.
Please do not assume that the torch I'm using is a normal OA torch. It isn't. If you want to look and see how it works, here's a link: http://www.cut-like-plasma.com
As far as sparking in the weld. There is virtually none.
If I wanted to, I could do the complete weld in 2 passes. That means about a 1/4 inch weld each pass. How? Well, my welding pressures are 4 psi for both gasses. So it's hard to blow out the weld. So, here's my questions, and I'm sure that this will spark some conversation:
1. IF you know that your weld penetrates, or that your puddle is liquid for a full 1/4 inch can you put a 1/4 of filler on every pass?
2. IF I can see that everywhere that the filler flows into is liquid BEFORE I add filler, why would it be best to NOT do so?
Thank you again for your time, I really do appreciate the responses.
Josh
Hello Josh, in any welding process there is a certain amount of oxidation that occurs (this could be argued when it comes to certain high-end type welding processes), it will be either minimal or excessive depending on the circumstances and the process. Most metals also have alloying elements that are added to them when they are manufactured to give them certain characteristics, in some cases during the welding of these materials those elements are burned out or diluted in the process of making a puddle to weld them together. Proper fillers have additives that will allow for this loss or dilution so that the finished weld will retain the same basic properties of the parent material. When you are looking at the statements that I put in my previous post they are relative to specific conditions which occur with specific types of filler rod. Whether I was using the type of torch that you are using would not change these characteristics or results. A torch does not introduce a flux into the weld unless it is equipped with a supplemental flux injection system. The reason that welds can generally be made with oxy-fuel, is that the fuel gas combines with the oxygen and a part of the atmosphere surrounding the weld area as the weld is progressing and this keeps the surrounding atmosphere from contaminating the weld pool. You said that you had a clear weld pool as you were using the 1/8" cold rolled wire as a filler and that you didn't have any sparking, I certainly don't doubt that, but as I wrote at the beginning of this post you may not have the same strength and other characteristics in your finished weld as is present in the parent metal of the pipe. Hope this helps to explain my statements better. Regards, aevald
Hello aevald, Thanks for the reply. I can't argue with you there. The knowledge that I have from welding comes only from my personal experience. Which isn't a whole lot. I've only used an arc welder and the OA welder that I now have. So I'm a little bit at a loss as to what needs to be done here. I don't know what the exact properties of the pipe that I'm trying to weld are. . . Therefore I can't know what filler to use. . . The only thing that I know to do is preheat and postheat.
Josh
Hello Josh, I would suggest that you take a trip to a welding supplier in your area and see about purchasing some 1/8" RG45 gas welding filler rod, use this for the welding that you are doing on the pipe, it should do the job for you on this. Best of luck, aevald
By k7gvi
Date 01-31-2006 05:23
Thanks aevald, Done did it today, will try it tommorrow.
Just to clarify: the RG45 has the extra "stuff", needed to take the place of what gets "burned out" during the welding process? And that's why it's better to use it than say, mild steel or cold rolled steel?
Thanks again,
Josh
