As a fabrication novice this was really interesting. Mostly that it has little bearing for basic fabrication - short of having the settings right for the material you are using.
Welding Techniques
- Thread starter motorheadmike
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I welded and fabricated professionally for over 20 years , It depends what your doing but for the most part anything that can be welded in the flat position should be pushed always ! NO EXCEPTIONS. Now when you start welding out of position there are times if your welding thin sheet metal , where you can weld down hill if you have your heat and wire speed correct . The thing you are concerned with any time you weld down hill is getting proper penetration .Usually about 1/8 th of an inch is as thick as you want to go down hill , can you weld thicker down hill sure ! But quality and penetration are going to start to suffer . And if what your welding matters your not going to want to do that ! Now if your going to do anything other than flat weld or down hill weld you are going to need flux core wire , this is necessary for welding out of position and you will need some practice to become proficient at that . And people that dont know much about welding will try and tell you they do it all the time , B.S. ! that trigger popping there talking about doing is not WELDING , yeah you can make something stick kinda , but its not welding . If you have ever seen a coupon cut out of a test plate you would know exactly what im talking about ! Remember when you weld something the weld should be stronger than the steel your welding , example , if the parts welded together, break [your weld should pull metel !] IF IT DOESNT , you did not have a proper weld !
There is so much wrong with that video i dont know where to start . If you want to see how welds are tested in the REAL world , You can look up AWS [ AMERICAN WELDING SOCIETY ] plate test and there are some decent examples on there . I understand for the novice this probably seems reasonable , but those so called test he does are just silly ! And prove absolutely nothing !! . When people with such a limited amount of knowledge on a subject make videos like that it really does more to confuse the novice then help , because they see these things and then repeat them to others . I worked in the welding and fabrication field for 20 + years !
Again , to the novice the video you posted probably seems reasonable , in the real world you never stop a weld in a radius ! And again im talking about when a weld really matters and has to be right !
this pro late model circle track car was made in the real world, there were places that we had issues getting the weld in and most of it was welded by a very experienced millwright. There was areas where we could not get a continuous weld in a radius and he nor any of other chassis builders who came to look at the project had any issue with the welds...
I learned welding at the University of Northwestern Ohio (UNOH). Welded rollcages for the #13 Thorsport Camping World Series team, was Jeff Burton's son Jeb driving at the time. Currently I work as a machinist/welder at Norfolk Southern railroad where we mostly do stick (heavy steel) but when I mig I pull instead of push any chance I get. As far as vertical goes with mig you always go downward. Way too much heat for sheet metal going upwards.
Like i said previously it can be done in certain situations , but it is not desirable ! Any welder will tell you that . And the fact that you had a good experienced welder working on your project helped more than you realize. You see when you do that for a living your constantly looking at all the potential problems 3 welds ahead of being made , thats what a experienced welder does ! He also knows all the problem areas and how to do a good work around for the project hes working on . Thats a good looking build !
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