Sealing up tubular weldments

Date 06-16-2008 19:18

So you need to drill a vent hole in tubular structures to complete the weld. How do you weld {GTAW}up the vent hole when you are done? Well I recently made an aluminum canoe paddle, so it needed to be airtight. I drilled a .063" hole for the vent, and then took a short length of .063" filler and pounded it into the hole and spot welded it. It worked great.

By DaveBoyer (*****)

Date 06-17-2008 05:11

You sure wouldn't want an open hole in the paddle, just in case You found Yourself in Shi* Creek.

By swnorris (****)

Date 06-17-2008 13:50

My teachers used to drill holes in their paddles, making them resistant to wind, allowing them a much stronger swing, but grossly misleading them into thinking that they were inflicting maximum pain on my rear end. I was always a step ahead of 'em though. I had several pieces of discreetly folded up notebook paper in each of my back pockets and I wore two pairs of underwear to school every day.

By sbcmweb (****)

Date 06-19-2008 01:59

I guess it's better than no paddle at all :-) S.W.

By Metarinka (****)

Date 06-17-2008 17:17

I just left the about a 1/4" gap in my root pass. Then after I finished my root and maybe my first bead I would fill in the gap. Not to code but I was much too lazy to drill a hole when I could just weld it up instead.