Hello JNEcnh, it is unfortunate that you aren't being shown the way to use this tool as it is a life saver for many different purposes once you get out into the working world. There are a couple of things to consider with the use of a carbon arc. Protection, protection, protection, this is one tool that puts out a lot of hot spatter that can burn you and many things around you. So before using this tool you need to be sure of your surroundings and also watch where you direct the molten spray that it will emit. Keep in mind any flammables or other items that could catch fire, the shower of hot molten slag that comes off of this can land in any number of places and cause delayed fires very readily. Always use a fire-watch when you put this to work and if possible wet down the area in the vicinity of it's use. Personal protection is a must as the combination of compressed air and hot molten slag will allow all of this hot stuff to find the tiniest hole in your protective gear and possibly burn you very badly. The arc from this process is also very intense so you should be using the appropriate shade lens in your welding hood to allow for the amperage that you use. You are likely already aware of the equipment needed to perform this operation, but I'll go through it very briefly. A special rod-holder designed for this process is used, it generally has a set of jaws of which both are able to rotate and one is drilled and connected to an air control button. These jaws have a V-notch in them to aid in positioning the carbon rod with respect to the compressed air stream. Generally you can start with the rod extended roughly 4 to 5 inches from these swivel pads and as you use this tool the carbon will burn off requiring you to stop and extend it out again as required to avoid burning the insulators and jaws off of the carbon arc head. You will need around 80 to 100 psi dry,compressed air of sufficient CFM, meaning that it may be a good idea to use a compressor that has a water trap or make sure to bleed the water out of the compressor tank before using it. When you go to start making a pass with the carbon arc, make sure that the holes on the swivel pad are positioned under the rod in the area that you are pushing the carbon rod towards. A push angle will yield the cleanest removal of materials, if you use a drag-type of motion the resulting groove will be filled with slag and require a bunch of grinding to clean out. In short the carbon rod provides the energy to melt the material being removed. The compressed air blows this molten material out of the path of the rod leaving a shaped groove which is influenced by the shape of the carbon rod. A round carbon rod will leave a somewhat half-round shape, a rectangular or what could be referred to as a flat-carbon rod will be used to flush-off welds and knockdown high spots on surfaces. There are many different diameters of carbon-rods available, the "flat" rods are also available in quite a few different sizes. Each of these rods will require different amounts of amperage to do the most efficient job. I don't have ready access right now to the amperages that are suggested for a given size or diameter of rod so I won't include that, likely others who reply will be able to provide that information to you. I can tell you that if you don't have sufficient amperage you will likely experience an arc that doesn't like to maintain itself, if you have too much amperage, you might notice the rod end being blown-off quite frequently and the end of the rod glowing back for 2" or more roughly. There are different methods for applying this tool. Some folks like to watch in front of the rod and gauge the depth of the cut by watching it from this vantage, others like to look behind the arc and follow it's progression. It takes a fair amount of practice to become proficient with it's use, so plan on spending a considerable amount of time if you want to get really good with it. Personally, I watch behind the rod the majority of the time as I am removing a weld, I watch for the point of connection, some might call it the crack, to indicate when I have separated one piece from the other. You can vary the depth of material removal by the speed which you move forward as well as controlling the depth that you push the carbon into the material, you will realize your cleanest gouging by not going too deeply and moving fairly quickly along the line of removal. I have already rambled quite a bit so I'm going to stop for now. One final note, this is a LOUD process, make sure that you use really good ear protection, two reasons, NOISE and JUNK getting into your ears, neither are going to be good for you. Good luck and best regards, aevald
WOW good reply Allan
Everything Allan said is true and accurate. I want to add to the protection statement....those leather covers for your shoes are a really good idea unless you have full tosul? guards on your boots. If you are going to work in odd positions ...full leather on your hood is also really good idea. Try practicing first with shallow angles and you will naturally progress into deeper one pass grooves. Always think about the direction that hot metal is going to blow...it can travel quite far. Amps will likely be hotter then you think...just get it to where it keeps an easy to maintain arc....if I remember right most of these rods have amperage and air pressure recommendations on the box.
Good luck
Tommy
whats the deal Scott...that was a straightforward reply...no stories about how your had to eat slag because your mother used an arc gouging rod to cook your breakfast???? Remember rehab is for quitters ...you said so...now its my motto!!!
Dear old Mom. I still greatly miss her. She raised two kids as a single Mom and did the best she could. We were so poor we couldn't afford to live in a two story Cheerio box. The house we lived in was so small, the front and back doors were on the same hinges. We couldn't even afford the last three letters on our welcome mat. It just said Welc. When people would come to visit us we had the roaches trained to trip them and take their wallets. Mom used to take some of that money and go to McDonald's to put a small milkshake on layaway for us. In the winter we used cigarette butts to heat the house. One day the repo man came to visit and stepped on the cigarette butt in the living room. I remember Mom came in the room and yelled at him for turning off the heater. In the summer we'd wave around two popsicle sticks for air conditioning. For entertainment, we used to pretend to watch tv on an Etch-A-Sketch. It had two channels: On and off, but the off one didn't work. If we wanted to watch real tv we'd all pile onto the family car, which was a '68 skateboard and ride to Sears. At breakfast, we used to eat our cereal with a fork to save milk. We couldn't afford to eat other meals, so we'd all just gather round the dinner table and listen while Mom read us recipes. The last time any of us had smelled hot food was when the repo man came to visit us and farted. Anytime we used the bathroom we'd always take two sticks with us. One was used to hold up the ceiling and the other was to fight off the roaches.
LMFAO rolling on the floor!!
it's also very bright! I weld with a shade 11 and I use a shade 12 for gouging.
Allan, as always you hit the nail on the head what is sad about this post is the lads instructor is not teaching him how to use this valuable tool as it is a main stay in the industry. I am not sure if anyone enjoys gaugeing that much but from my point of view if I had to choose between a couple minutes of gaugeing or a an hour on a grinder I'm going with the gauger every time. The one thing I do though is run the grinder over the gauged area to remove any carbon that may be left (go from grey to white) this will avoid any crackeing that may occour do to the carbon left on the surface. just my two bits
Hello makeithot, you definitely hit on a point that I should have included. Removal of the carbon traces that are introduced by the use of this tool are a necessity to make a clean and sound weld joint after it's use. I also whole-heartedly agree that anyone who works in this trade should feel comfortable with this tool as a resource and a time-saver. I don't ever cherish the thought of being on the end of a grinder when I can set-up a carbon arc and achieve so much more in a minimal amount of time. Best regards, aevald
not only for the speed of it, but sometimes you HAVE to use it because a torch would destroy the part, and a grinder won't even reach all the way to the root. an example is something I've worked on...6" heavy wall pipe with 1 1/2" plate welded all the way around it. the plate was beveled enough so there was at least 1" of weld BELOW the surface of the plate. they wanted to keep the pipe, but replace the plate. using a torch would make a mess, and probably wouldn't cut it cleanly, and a grinder is just out of the question.
Hello welderdude, very well said and most certainly the case many times. Lots of individuals don't have the type of appreciation for an air arc or even a torch for that matter, when it comes to the skill to use these and the time and material savings that these tools can provide when the user is skilled with them.
I use this as an example time and time again with students, a skilled torch or air arc operator can save the welder tremendous amounts of time and difficulty by performing cutting and air arcing tasks proficiently. No rocket science there, just the "rubber meeting the road", as Lawrence has put it a time or two on the forum here. Best regards, Allan
And if the gouging job requires more amperage than one machine's output. And, if more than one machine is available, parrallel the constant current weld outputs.
they teach you how to weld to pass a certification test, but they don't teach how to cut or gouge proficiently.
JNEcnh, best way I could describe it is.. it sounds like a "jet engine at idle" with the repeated paahh poof noises as the electrode gouges.
I had to use it on several cracks, and re-welded them. Had earplugs & earmuffs and others stop welding to play firewatch.
Haha thanks all for the advice, and yeah, protection and saftey were first in my mind when I first even heard of it. Anyway, still havent tried it, but going to soon. Boot gaurds hmm. never heard of em, I'll see what I find!
Watching your lead jump around when that arc is struck is a little intimidating. Air arc gouging is the closest I'll ever get to using a real light saber
Try using a ultra thremic lance thats a light saber, cuts everything including flesh and sears nicely too stops all that heavy bleeding.
One of my favorite characteristics of arc gouging is that it can have a very small HAZ in the right hands. This makes it invaluable in repair work.
You Thank Thats Loud Try AN Oxigen lance Cut through steel,slag,concret,refactory,fire brick,rock,any thing.Good thing the movies havent seen it yet blow sparks 40 to 80 feet used them to cut holes in 8" plate took less than 10 sec to blow through, bad and defintly not pritty try that with a victor #6-101 at 100psi
Man, that's nothing. I've taken a heart pacemaker, connected it to a single axis remote positioner, reversed the permissable exposure limits of the manifold, thus exposing the hydrostatic reaction to the rechrystallization of the thermiodic compound within the pressure relief device, which in turn created a capillary action, causing the child proof top to rupture and release adiabatic decompression forces into the atmosphere, causing frost to rather rapidly form around the rim of the cryogenic chamber. However, the heat gain quickly re-asserted itself and regulated the deactivation of the external crucible that was interfaced with the ferromagnetic heat conducter. While fully realizing that overpressurization could have resulted in a largly unnoticable yet subtle catastrophic explosion, the austenitic decomposition regulator was ignited. With loose fitted insulated gloves, adequate face shield protection, and armed with the latest operator factor technology, I was able to achieve detonation flame spraying that had a depth to width ratio unmatched by the prehistoric arc gouging methods used today.
Never will look at pacemakers in the same light ever agen cool. like to see what you coud do with a raidoactive dio from a alian space craft and a peace of piotectional coal lol
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