Okay, this is my difficulty. I have to weld this sucker all the way around. Schedule 80 DOM and AISI 4130. Filler is AMS 5030. My lead guy is having trouble getting the torch into the space to finish the weld on the second part. I looked into smaller torches, but there's nothing I have found that will fit in there. Any suggestions? BTW the spec I'm welding to is customer's proprietary info...but it doesn't address this particular type of problem.
Bozaktwo1, check the weldcraft site and look at these models of torches: WP24-W, WP-50, WP-125, these might be a size that could possibly work. In a real bind you could possibly use one of these torches without the ceramic cup on it and put the job in a glove-box or make a chamber that could be used to allow access and being able to see the end of the tungsten down in that tight access area. Just a bit of food for thought. Best regards, aevald
Along those lines, what about using some sort of a trailing shield setup so shield the weld zone, and going without a cup (don't even bother sending argon to the torch)?
Does the entire length of the tungsten really have to be shielded perfectly, or just the part in contact with the arc?
Your shielding gas is there to shield the puddle so no its not. What about trying to make some sort of purge containment with heat tape. Ive done something similar to this and made a purge box out of clear lenses (large ones 4x5s) and heat resistant tape. Put a good purge in and used a torch with no shield straight tungsten. I dunno if this would apply to your problem but just throwing ideas out. Make sure your customer knows what had to go into this darn thing when you invoice...... lol....good luck!
Curt
Did you consider Plasma Needle Arc welding for this application.
You're a funny guy, Joe! Small business....unfortunately, this is an item that we make perhaps 4 or 5 times in a year and that rig sounds expensive just by its name! :-). The present practice is to GTAW the joint all the way around into the gap, then SMAW the inside. I have thought about making a box enclosure for it, but the amount of time vs. the amount of use we'd get out of it doesn't make good business sense. I might try one of the tail-less torches with no cup and splash the gas on with a separate hose. Or maybe just switch it up to 8018C2 all the way around.
I appreciate the input, gentlemen. Thank you.
I'm assuming that the saddle is being welded to a pipe. If so, is the pipe large enough so that you would have access to the inside? If so, would it be easier to mill the saddle out of a solid piece, mill a hole in the pipe, stick saddle through hole and then weld to inside of pipe? i wish I could draw what I mean. LOL.
If a bolt goes thru the saddle why not talk to the EOR about welding the outside and wrapping the ends as far as possible. sometimes it only takes a phone call or email to get something changed. It could be something that was not thought about during the drawing process.
another thing I have done is weld 1 plate first all around, weld the next one on the inside with SMAW!
another way that has worked for me in the past is to ask the engineer if you can make the accesable side a partial pen weld the same depth as the specified fillet, along with the fillet on top.
If you use a gas lens you can use a longer stickout of you tungsten. This may let you reach far enough.
Griff
The way I would approach it, boz, is close to what you were thinking in your last post. I'd use a lot of stick out with maybe a ceriated tungsten because it will arc start at the tip more consistently than, say zirconated which might arc from the middle of the tungsten from time to time. Gotta watch those gas lenses, as well, because they can light up from the screen sometimes and you'll get arc strikes outside your weld that way as well.
Then, I'd have a helper with another hose and a screen (I make up one with a bell reducer) and purge from one or both angles while you weld. I use this trick on lots of stuff.
Hi bozaktwo1 I don't know if this will help you are not .Have you ever bent your tungsten to get into a tight place sometimes this has work for me.
M.G.
Hey, right on Milton. I heat my tungsten red and then bend it 90 with a Miller mig pliars all the time.
Bozaktwo1,
You probably got your best answer switching to smaw all around. I have a similar problem with a pair of legs on a machined piece of t6...our gap between them is 1/2 and they are about two inches tall. I don't know where it come from but one of our guys has a really odd 3-4 inch long cup thats only about 1/4 inch OD (it necks down after the collet). We have used that but the gas coverage is not great. In the end a big lens, ridiculous stickout and a secondary gas supply was what worked best for us.
Best Regards
Tommy
Ridiculous stickout. That's what I'm talkin' about.
Yeah, I already looked into this as far as the SMAW angle goes. 3/32" 8018C2 it is. Since it's single application, I'm going to do a workmanship sample with destructive test. Fun stuff.
Thanks again, everyone for the suggestions.
Forum
