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Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / Welding at the lake?
- - By hercky77 Date 09-13-2004 07:33
I am going to build a boat dock at my lake house. I will be using 3.5" drill pipe for the pilings and wish to weld angle iron to the pilings to support the stringers. What method of welding should I use? What safety considerations are necessary?
Parent - - By jwright650 (*****) Date 09-13-2004 12:27
What methods of welding do you have at your disposal? I'd suggest a SMAW (stick) machine because of it's versatility, lots of rod choices and ability to weld out of position, etc. Just be careful not to let your leads fall into the water, and don't weld with wet gloves or boots.
Is bolting out of the question? Might could fab up a frame in the shop and then bolt it to the pilings.
John Wright
Parent - - By JTMcC (***) Date 09-13-2004 14:54
Me and one of my guys have welded quite a bit with leads in the water (it's unavoidable sometimes) and haven't had any problem because of it. I have pictures of one of our guys out in the water in waders, leads on the bottom of the lake, happily welding a pile splice. He had a crane mat floating alongside with his grinder, rod bucket and other tools on. Work on barges sometimes means your leads will droop into the drink. I'm not recomending this, but we sure do it at times.

JTMcC.
Parent - - By jwright650 (*****) Date 09-13-2004 20:08
JTMcC,
I guess I don't have to ask if your leads had any knicks or cuts in them like mine all do? Shucks that would tingle! :)
John Wright

OSUtigger,
Don't reckon you would volunteer to use that high freq. Tig machine of yours out there on the dock and weld that up for him, huh?
Parent - By OSUtigger (**) Date 09-14-2004 00:33
LOL-The guys on our team are always coming back to my cubbyhole to watch-so I always show them a few things like how hi-freq works so they know why its there(you know, run the high freq up and down your arm and theirs so they see that its not high amperage just a starter plasma stream). Its all fine until one of those little sparks hit the metal part of the pearl snap on your shirt or you don't realize that your sweaty arm is propped against the layout table. I doubt I would volunteer any time to this project with a TIG!

G.L.
Parent - By JTMcC (***) Date 09-14-2004 21:51
My leads have probably been abused as bad as any.
The first time I strung my leads over water, to a barge, I started out with them safely above the drink, by the end of the day they were of course sagging well below the water line. I didn't know what to expect but I've never been able to tell a difference with leads in the water.
On an engine drive, if you were losing a significant amount of current, the engine would go to hi idle, I'm guessing (?!).
There were quite a few fish in the area, but they were unaffected as well. My friend who strung his leads on the bottom, I'm guessing 70' or so, reported no problems at all.


JTMcC.
Parent - - By RonG (****) Date 09-13-2004 16:33
1) DC only SMAW (stick electrode) nothing else.

2) Keep the machine as far away from the water as possible. You can stand in the water with the secondarys (stinger & Ground) and weld if you can handle the low voltage shock (bout like an eletric fence). I goes away when you establish your Arc.

Parent - - By CHGuilford (****) Date 09-13-2004 20:53
A good incentive to keep working?
Parent - - By RonG (****) Date 09-14-2004 15:49
You would think so. It's a pretty simple thing to avoid the shock if it bothers you though.
Many years ago I worked in under ground mining and it rains constantly in some areas (water hot enough to bath in). The only way to stay dry was to not enter.
Most of the welding machines were driven by air motors.
Parent - - By jwright650 (*****) Date 09-14-2004 16:41
Always heard a little shock every now and then is good for arthritis.
John Wright
Parent - By RonG (****) Date 09-14-2004 20:54
Sure enough! It will cure all that ails you for while.
Parent - - By OSUtigger (**) Date 09-13-2004 18:18
Bolting is an extremely good idea in this case, but if welding is for some reason the only option, make sure someone is next to the machine ready to shut 'er down or disconnect a lead just in case. I have had a few buddies who worked gas lines in bell holes and they said some latex gloves underneath leathers will insulate your hands from the 30 or so volts of a DC welder if the gloves are wet, but obviously you would have to buy them long enough to fully insulate your hands from the leathers and not let the stinger ever touch anything but your gloves (they used them when it was raining and they were on a repair, obviously not standing in 4 ft. of water). Either way, as stated earlier, definitely stay away from AC.

G. L.
Parent - By JTMcC (***) Date 09-14-2004 15:24
On a boat dock he should not have any problem keeping the leads out of the water.

JTMcC.
Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / Welding at the lake?

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