i want to learn to weld...

[JWelch]

Those look fun. I actually prefer thicker pipe so I can run more heat. Did you weld those up? Real slick looking.

 

[GHarman]

Those look fun. I actually prefer thicker pipe so I can run more heat. Did you weld those up? Real slick looking.

No, I did not. Those were "Boilermaker" (Go Dave V. ) certification samples off a powerplant outage in Kansas. My Friend was the CWI/QA/QC on that job. I will use the unwelded coupons for practice. GregH

 

[rbattelle]

I recently did a quick project to build a rolling platform for a lathe I just bought. (Hopefully there's a photo attached to this message... CURSES! why doesn't the image link ever work on this site?????)



The ends where the casters are are 3"x1/4" A36 angle with a piece of 2"x1/4" A36 flat bar welded on the bottom to provide enough width for the casters to bolt on (caster plates are 4"x5").



The longitudinal stringers are 1. 5"x1/4" square A36 tube.



I welded it all using Lincoln Excalibur 3/32 7018DCEP, cooked in the oven for 2 or 3 hours at 300°F. Welding current was between 70 and 75 amp.



The lathe weighs between 1300 and 1500 lb, and it rode atop the platform for 90 miles of shaking and jarring, through some of the roughest roads in the country! Held together quite nicely!



#ad




Ryan

 

[GHarman]

Outstanding RyanOo. !!! Now, How you gonna get that Lathe off the platform and onto some solid concrete? You do know that the lathe needs to be on a level solid surface so the ways dont get twisted and take a "set". Looks like the "work" has just started! Congratulations, thats a really nice Lathe. I bought a Teiwan copy of a Clausing-Colechester(sp). Couldnt afford the LeBlond (or "Le Redhead" for that matter:-laf) South Bends were not available for blood or money:{. GregH

 

[rbattelle]

Outstanding RyanOo. !!! Now, How you gonna get that Lathe off the platform and onto some solid concrete?

I don't know yet. I'm thinking of welding a jackscrew arrangement to the platform so I can raise and lower it to the ground.



For now it'll sit on the platform until I can decide what to do. I may even decide to simply level it right on the platform rather than dropping it to the ground.



Ryan

 

[GHarman]

Ryan, Does the door on the base, under the headstock have an opposing door on the back side of the base? If so, a piece of heavy walled round or square tube could be inserted through and jacked from either side, lifting the lathe from your base and supported with a couple of jackstands. The tailstock end could be done the same way, clearing your base. Remove your base, then lower the lathe down to the concrete. If you need to slide it, wet the concrete floor. It works really well as a lubricant for sliding heavy equipment and it dries nicely. I set my leveling screws on 1" thick steel plates. Not directly on the concrete, unless you have commercial mounts in mind. GregH

 

[rbattelle]

Ryan, Does the door on the base, under the headstock have an opposing door on the back side of the base?

No, the opposite side of the housing is solid.



I've made up some timber pieces to sit beneath the heavy end and take the load from the casters. That should be almost as good as directly on the concrete, but we'll see.



All in due time.



Ryan

 

[DValentine]

Here are some bad pictures of a tube repair job I was on last week. The pictures of the panel is not good, but the tube blew a hole in it and the steam wore on other tubes in that panel as well as others beside it. We replaced 6 loops in all.

The tubes are milled like Greg's pictures above with an air powered hand mill. The old tubes have wear on the inside and the outside... . so the new tubes match up a little different. The root weld is with a TIG and then filled with E7018

 

[DValentine]

Sorry about the poor picture quality... . cell phone camera. The panels are low temp superheats. They hang in the back part of the boiler. We had to cut the inlet and then the outlet to raise the panel up with chainfalls in order to work on them. The first night after the boiler shut down it was 150 degrees in their.
The contractor gave us tube material that was an 1/8 inch too big. The boiler had to get back on line so we went with it. Sure looks bad in the bottom picture. The tubes are 2 in x . 380 wall thickness. The one that is odd is 2 1/8 inch dia.
Oh yeah, Greg, we call them tubes here in the boiler... . LOL

Dave

 

[GHarman]

Hey Dave, Nice JOB. Great Pictures of the TUBES:-laf. GregH

 

[JWelch]

Cool. Is that in a CoGen plant? What amps are you putting your root in at?

 

[DValentine]

Hey is that you Jason? Did you work in Colstrip this spring?

That is just a boiler. 160 megawatt. The root was run in at about 75 amps. Then we put a hot pass on... with the tig, so that we don't blow through the root with the stick passes. This was an emergency job, so the welds were not x rayed. The power plant wants it back on line as fast as we can get the job done. We had some other work to do after the tube work. They got it back in 5 days.

Dave

 

[JWelch]

Sorry Dave, my name is Jeremy. Whats jason's last name? It wouldn't be westbrook?

Where is Colstrip?



That how I learned to put a root in but lately haven't been able to get them to go in with less than 110 amps.

 

[DValentine]

Jason Welch is the kids name. He is on here. He came up and worked in Colstrip, Montana at a power plant this spring.
Jeremy, what kind of machine are you running your roots in with... . a Miller 304 or a Gas powered rig? You running 1/8 inch wire. We had both but it just depended on the gap.

Dave

 

[JWelch]

that is with lincoln/miller electric machines. But I was using a Miller 304 with a Perkins diesel. But I also have had the privilige of using an old Lincoln Commander 400. That was a great machine tried buying from the company too.



If I have an 1/8" gap I use 3/32" wire burn it around 110 to 120 amps. If it is a 5/32" gap I use 1/8" wire at 140 amps.



I have no real problem with a gas powered rig but I am prejudiced against it. I was doing a CoGen steam lines. 20"

chrome 2 1/4" and all we had were Bobcat 225 even when we tried telling the company that they needed to get bigger diesel machines. They did listen and we tore up one of the ones reastats. Plus it didn't help that they were plugging into these generators for all of the power sources up in our area. Very poor planning.



Is this jason from rockwall, tx as well?

 

[DValentine]

I don't think Jason is from Rockwall. Wow man that is running hot for me. We break down the knife edge and push a little wire into the tube. In the old days a wedding band was desired inside the tube... but now they call it excessive push through. Is that 304 Miller set on stick or tig settings when you run that amperage you mentioned?

Dave

 

[GiesJ]

That excessive push-through is also called weld reinforcement in my area. There are maximums allowed by ASME code and I'm sure API or whatever governs the plants you are talking about.
Thanks for the pictures.
jason (not welch)

 

[JWelch]

I usually set it up on stick with the leads switched over. Thats another thing that urcs me is why bother putting a process selection switch on a machine and yet you still have to flip the leads.



Mine come out lookin' like a wedding band. I was having issues with the wire not breaking down completely or not burning out the edges is why I started running hotter. Plus on one job my foreman just bumped my amps up to see how I handled it. I also have gotten out of the habit of feathering my tacks. The need for more heat is there as well. I have also started free handin a lot of my roots. Faster and no suck back.



What do you use to sharpen your tungsten with? I have this slick ars sharpener from a man in OK.

 

[JWelch]

This is the address for those tungsten sharpeners.

The Gang Box - Advanced Specialty Tools

 

[GHarman]

1. remember to NOT leave a needle point on your tungsten. It can be lost by a scratch start, blown off by High Freq starts or burned off into the weld puddle. It leaves a high density inclusion in your weldment that is identifiable in an X-ray NDT. You should have a small diameter meplat (circular flat tip) of . 010" to . 025" depending on your tungsten size.

2' Remember not to breath the grinding dust. 2% THORIATED tungstens are radioactive. Thoria is a BETA emitter. BETA radiation is a particle that is extremely harmful to your internal organs. (Wear a good respirator, at a minimum, a good dust mask. ) Externally, it just washes off the skin. Just be aware and prepared. GregH