"This is a gouger. You plug the lead in here. Hook the air into there, turn 'er up all the way, stick this funny looking rod in the groove, push the button and make some noise and sparks.
It has been my observation that the good old Gouger gets the least amount of training of any process. Probably 'cause I doubt anyone has ever said "I love gouging! Wish I could do it all day long, every day!" Well, hmmmm....Considering the option of grinding out 10 pounds of Hastelloy inlaid on 4140 steel with a 9" steel cased Wildcat grinder (After my first encounter with the air arc, I tried this!) ... MAYBE, gouging aint so bad after all.
The Arcair brand electrodes give recommended amperages for that size carbon on the box. Use them, they know what they are doing at the factory. I see welders all the time with half a rod glowing white and spitting chunks of carbon across the shop. If it spits cabon on the floor, it is doing the same thing in the gouge zone. Few things are more frustrating than following someone that has put so much carbon in the groove, that you can't even get the arc to melt it and air to blow through it.
Use as little stick-out as possible. Four inches is usually plenty unless of course the conditions/accessibility dictate otherwise.
Just like in SMAW, go for as smooth, long and contiuous as you can and clean after each pass. Letting all that dross build up just creates problems (yes, in the real world out there, I call it slag too so I don't sound like a smarttie-pants, but it is an AWS initiative is to promote education).
Flat carbons. I LOVE them! Great for smooth profiles ie. taking the crown off welds with reduced clean-up. Or my favorite, turn them on edge/sideways in the stinger and use them to cut narrow grooves or slice off run-off tabs.
Best for last. Take a pizza out of the oven, put yer hood on and crawl in there and do a couple of hours of gouging in the back corner. Kinda like some of the places they used to send us into at the old coal mine. It's one thing to blow sparks across the middle of a shop... quite another in a greasey hole it took five minutes to contort yourself into and then bast a blob of molten metal onto that special part of your anatomy. To reduce the amount and ferocity of the hot stuff flying around that WILL find the only gap in your leathers, I installed an air pressure regulator inline at the hose to gouger connection. Even made a nice cage for it so the glass on the dial wouldn't get broken while dragging it through and over everything. Amazingly, oftentimes, 50 PSI was enough to get the job done and not be engulfed in a fire ball (imagine how flammable pulverized coal dust can be!) and molten shower. Found that sometimes as little as 10 PSI (use very short stick-out, maybe 2" or less)was enough to blow the gouge clean, but other times you just gotta bite the bullet, take the pain and get burnt up!
Or, just tell the Foreman, every body knows that Carbon Arc Gouging ruins welding machines (see air ark under Shop Talk forum) and you as a conscientious employee do not wish to tear up company equipment!
LOL
good way to put it
Tom
"I love gouging! Wish I could do it all day long, every day!" - I've said that before, but I've never had to cram myself into tight spaces and gouge something out before.
We got to try arc gouging for about half an hour one day during school, and I loved it.
But when it comes down to it, I like my plasma gouger better. Almost no clean up and it's so much quieter, what's not to like?
-Clif
Very poignant John. I am surprised that you did not bring up the lung damage!!!
It is also significant that you said..."It has been my observation that the good old Gouger gets the least amount of training of any process." It is truly amazing that no code committee seems to require training and certification for this process.
Is that guy tied off to the ladder in the 2nd picture? Just curious.
I wondered the same thing, At least it might somewhat break a fall LOL
I wasn't trying to criticize - just noticed it is all.
No, I have no idea of what the actual conditions are. That's the beauty of photographs - they can really help or hurt because of what you can't see.
We recently went to a 4 foot tie-off in anticipation of some OSHA changes that are supposedly coming up and because some of the mills we go into have 4 ft tie-off as their policy.
You can imagine the fun I had recently- there were some welds to UT on a trailer that measured 4'-9" off the ground. Because I was performing work on the beam, Safety said I had to tie-off while on the back of the truck. Lotsa fun finding something to tie-off to in the middle of the yard. Meanwhile, right next to me was a crew loading a trailer to 13'6" max that didn't have to tie-off because they were engaged in loading the trailer. Different rules.
It seemed ridiculous but at least I wouldn't face a 3 day suspension.
Is the guy in the third pic tied off at all?
Our safety Manager says we don't have to be unless our feet are 10' off the ground. I haven't looked into it but he goes by the book so I assume thats the case! could be he isn't up high enough to need it!
Alright, Its just the camera angle I suppose. Ive had to tie off on scaffold 2 feet from the ground simply because it was yellow tagged for some reason. Rules are rules.
If you have basic laynards it is only going to work within 16 feet from your feet I believe. Thats what we have on the job I'm on but I may be wrong. They figure in the fall average distance from the hook on your back to your feet and laynard streach. We use self retracting laynards (yo-yo's) which are a pain in the rear. If someone could correct me I would appreaciate it because I'm curious if this is true or not.
P.S. Don't mean to hijack your thread
my company makes you 100% tie-off on any scaffold period, also any unsecure work platform. While working off a ladder it must be tied off and your body must make atleast 3 points of contact. We have the 4 foot tie-off rule, you as the employee must ensure that if you was to fall that you will not hit the ground even if you must go higher to tie-off so the landyard can do its job, not to mention theanchor point must be able to support 5000lbs. of force.
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