So Anyway, I Can't Torch Weld For S***. Can You?

In My Humble Opinion
1
      • Practicing with a acetylene torch I recently purchased, I can’t do (hardly) sheet: I have steel between 3/64 and 1/8" thick, a #1 Harris tip and copper jacket/steel weld rod 1/16" diameter. I never took any actual education in this, so I am not sure how it all should quite work…
        -Even when the steel is perfectly clean, when I edge weld two pieces together without rod, much of the steel seems to burn away into flaky ash. Such as: edge welding two 1/16" thck pieces held together, about 1/16 of the edge burns away. I suppose that this is what chipping hammers are for, but it seems rather excessive to me; I am more familiar with brazing, where all the metal you put on the join actually stays there…
        -Using any rod at all is near-hopeless. The rod metal boils up into a ball and doesn’t join with anything. It burns away or gets chipped off afterwards. I can cover the whole edge with a bead of molten rod, but after it cools, it becomes flaky ash that cracks away in chips. Often the weld has a crack lengthwise, and the pieces never joined. The rod metal tends to pop violently a lot too, throwing metal chips. I have tried fuel-rich, ox-rich, neutral, large flame, small flame. None of this seems to make much difference, unless I am just not adding enough rod material. The rod material doesn’t melt until it is boiling, and after it has boiled it seems to be ruined—it cools burnt to a cinder, joining nothing. The few pieces I have managed to actually weld together were all done without filler. ~ The rod metal appears to be melting/burning at a lower temp than the workpieces. I can get steel solid rounds in the same alloy as the workpieces; would using a rod of identical steel as the pieces help any? The solid round wouldn’t have the copper coating, what does the rod’s copper coating do? Do I need it? ~ The rod I have tried to use is 1/16", but I have some 3/32 and can get some larger sizes if that will help. I have a #3 and #5 tip, but the #1 is the recommended size…? - MC
2

I don’t want you to feel lonely over here in this neglected thread, so I thought I’d speak up ;). I am not a welding expert by any means, but I have done a little torch welding.

The basic idea is to melt the parent material into a little puddle (it’ll look glossy) then dip the end of the rod into the puddle, thereby melting it. You move the torch in little circles (say 1/8 diameter), progressing along the line of the weld. Your comment about the rod material just balling up make me think that you’re playing the flame on the rod. The flame should be mostly on the parent material.

Popping, I suspect you’ve got your torch too close.

If the parent material is disappearing, you’re getting it too hot. You want to back away a bit, move along the weld line a little faster. Remember, you want penetration to about 3/4 way through the parent material.

I’ve heard your rod should be about the same diameter as the thickness of the material you’re welding (but obviously there’s an upper limit to the rod diameter). Most of my welding has been sheet metal, and going to a small diameter wire as my rod really helped.

I’m not a sophisticated enough welder to know anything about rod materials. For my sheet metal work I just used a coil of iron wire. I also used a very small tip, OOOO.

3

Soooooo
you guys are Welders, eh?

[link broken. JBJ, you know better than to post a link like that, especially in IMHO. Of course, if you want to e-mail the link to interested parties…:wink: -Czarcasm The Prude]

[Edited by Czarcasm on 09-14-2001 at 05:47 PM]

4

I don’t weld. But this thread reminds of my favorite scene from The Full Monty. They watch the movie FlashDance to see some dancing moves and one of the guys jsut critizes her welding. ‘Look at that her mixture is too high that will never hold’

5

----cough coughcough— jeezlouise, what was that?

Jarbabyj, the chances of you ever admiring me in a subway are just about nil…

  1. I never ride the subway. Isn’t any in Seattle…

  2. I’m not, to put it tactfully, the type girls admire.