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A Website Full of Welding Information

Tinkerer

Senior Member
Joined
May 21, 2009
Messages
9,342
Location
The shore of the illinois river USA
I found this website a while ago and thought some HEF'rs would like to see it.
It is run by some very passionate and experienced welders. If you visit their website be sure to check out their Blog.
Far upper RH corner of the homepage has the box to click on.
Don't miss the flower spoon guide and the links in it.
https://www.kingsofwelding.com/
 

aighead

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2019
Messages
2,541
Location
Dayton, OH
Thanks for this link Tinkerer! I'm going to start welding a bit more on my rock screener project so it was good timing for me to see this.
 

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,260
Location
Canada
The biggest problem is an outsider being able to figure out if the info is 100% accurate. Welding tips and tricks and is one of the best for comparison. Wall.Mountsin put out some video's that were OK. I will point out I only bought 1 of them but it failed to mention looking for a key hole when O/A welding and suggested using the dials on the gauges to balance a welding tip. If you have backfiring that is the biggest reason, the tip itself will tell you more than even the accurate gauge world ever could. There are some good books but it's so hard for non tradesmen to decipher. I was very fortunate to have some of the best schooling in the world. Nobody is going to pay to to decipher all the stuff out there. I certainly don't know everything, nobody does and I will never claim to. Other's might. NAIT video's are 100% on point.
 

Stick-man

Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2014
Messages
15
Location
chitcago, hellinois
I took a look at kings of welding, under stick welding, they repeatedly state stick welding produces a low quality weld. That is really all I need to read to tell me that site has no clue about welding. Stick welding can produce x-ray quality welds. In fact, I would be willing to bet a beginner welder can produce a better weld with a stick than a mig. The mig might look better but I have seen perfect looking mig welds, that had zero penetration to one side of base metal. And too many people buy a small mig welder and weld on stuff that requires much more amperage.
 

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,260
Location
Canada
It took a long time for dualshield flux-core to be approved for welding pressure vessels. Stick was specified even if the vessel was several inches thick. It's still used a lot. For many welders, including myself, stick is the go to when you want the highest strength and least chance of flaws. Some of stuff on the net is so far off the mark it should be banned. Welding Tips and Tricks is good and is done by an actual welder.
 

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,260
Location
Canada
I know... 6013! ;) I might agree if that was the only rod available. Even on the Weldingweb there are some that try to justify 6013 for general welding. It is OK for welding sheet metal. For almost all other applications there are much better choices. It gets annoying having to keep trying to explain the difference between static loading and dynamic loading. It's the very 1st thing to consider before welding anything. Sometimes it doesn't matter and you can use just about any rod. Other times the proper rod/ filler metal is critical. It's the jobs in-between where it can be confusing. I usually error on the side of which would provide the most strength. That's why 7018 is most welders go to rod. The other thing that is really annoying is trying to explain that 7018 does not have to be kept in a rod oven unless you are doing critical X-Ray quality welds on vessels and piping. Does it run nicer coming out of an oven, yes but as long as it is kept dry it is still the strongest of the mild steel electrodes. Some people refuse to accept that even when one of the most respected members ever on WW did a series of fillet weld break tests years ago of the 4 most common rods. 7018 out of an oven was the strongest. 7018 just laying around and never in an oven but also never gotten wet wasn't as strong but still the strongest of the basic electrodes by a good margin. 6013 was pathetic in comparison.
 

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,865
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
I took a look at kings of welding, under stick welding, they repeatedly state stick welding produces a low quality weld.

What I read was this statement;
"The weld will not be as intricate or high quality as TIG."

I know this statement to be absolutely true. Perhaps one should copy and paste those negative statements or let us know where they are? I spent a few years with some people in the nuclear industry who were only allowed to use TIG welding on pipe and fittings.
 

Truck Shop

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2015
Messages
16,556
Location
WWW.
When I worked for a domestic well/irrigation outfit in early 90's we did work for Bureau of Reclamation
every time for every different job which was three total, I would have to pass the welding test for pipe.
Each time stick was the required method.
 

John C.

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Jun 11, 2007
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It's fine until you have a pipe handling primary coolant on a nuke plant. Stick is fine and I'm not throwing rocks at it. I scrolled through the web site and did not see where it stated that stick welding was a dirty and poor process. The dirty stuff has always been the squirt guns.
 

Truck Shop

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2015
Messages
16,556
Location
WWW.
I find that interesting, My dad worked at Hanford {I know that was then-not in the now}. I don't
think any of todays welding equipment existed then. Stick and heli/arc was the thing. Anything
that was welded there used in the nuclear process had to be x-rayed plus I know in those days
crews spent time polishing welds. Because anywhere there could be a small ripple it could contain
radiation/contamination which made it harder to decontaminate. I remember as a kid a welder that
worked there had a small shop on the side in Benton City. My dad would take him stuff to repair,
thinking back that guys work was mighty fine.
 

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,260
Location
Canada
TIG is ultimately the highest quality welding when done by a competent welder. It is most often used for stainless and exotic metals and non ferrous metals such as aluminum. TIG root pass is specified on the most critical steel vessels and piping. On smaller diameters it can be specified for root to cap. The problem with large diameters is it is a very slow process compared to other welding methods. Stick, sub-arc and increasingly more, gas shielded flux-core is acceptable on critical welds such as nuclear. A friend did some work on nuclear spec. piping using orbital TIG welding apparatus. The nuclear spec. basically means the x-rays have to be perfect. Even the very slightest flaw can't be repaired like it could be on a standard x-ray quality weld. The complete weld has to be cut out and redone from scratch. For the longest time gas shielded flux-core wasn't approved for pressure vessels. Stick has always been approved where Tig either isn't practical or would be impossible to use such as welding nozzles on a vessel. I worked with a friend welding a 20in. nozzle on a 2 1/2in. thick vessel about 10ft. in dia. It was welded on the inside and the outside was beveled for full penetration. Before the outside could be welded it had to gouged to insure complete fusion with the weld done on the inside. We used 2 tiger torches (weed burners) to preheat it and then had use 7018 to fill up the bevel. Lots and lots of 1/4in. rods. On top of that there was also a 2 1/2in. repad that had to have full penetration where it went around the nozzle. It was beveled too but somebody screwed up and the repad was cut for a 24in. nozzle. They decided it was better to use the repad they had instead of having another one made. Additionally the repad had to be cut in half because the nozzle was too close to allow the repad to be tied up out of the way. This meant 2 more full penetration beveled welds 2 1/2in. thick. It took 2 1/2 shifts (one of them a 10 hour night shift) just to weld up 1 nozzle. It took a long time to cool off too. I liked that job though. You grab a box of rods, climb up on the vessel and just pour rod for 10 hours straight. Had to be careful not to build up the oversized repad weld too much because the weld had to be ground so it looked flat. The design called for only a 3/8in. fillet weld showing around the repad to the nozzle. The 2 repad halves had a 3/8in. NPT hole so they wouldn't build up pressure from welding. I've heard they put a grease fitting in but not sure if they pump grease in to fill up the slight gap. Flux-core would have been much faster but wasn't allowed. The same vessel had the head fall off and crush a wire feeder. Interestingly the root passes for the heads and shells were done with short circuit Mig. Then a 7018 hot pass before going to the sub-arc manipulator. Burning through with sub-arc is a terrible mess to fix because the flux hides the arc and you don't know you've burnt through until you have about an inch or longer groove and the flux falls through.
 

92U 3406

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Jan 3, 2017
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Location
Western Canuckistan
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Wrench Bender
For the stuff I most commonly weld its MIG all the way. Mainly for convienience as changing rods constantly is a PITA.

Anything outdoors or in a spot I can't get the MIG gun to I burn the rods.
 

Welder Dave

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Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,260
Location
Canada
For the stuff I most commonly weld its MIG all the way. Mainly for convienience as changing rods constantly is a PITA.

Anything outdoors or in a spot I can't get the MIG gun to I burn the rods.
Mig or flux-core? Solid wire Mig on heavy equipment would be OK in spray arc mode but I wouldn't trust it in short circuit mode unless it was for something that wasn't under much stress.
 

92U 3406

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Western Canuckistan
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Wrench Bender
Mig or flux-core? Solid wire Mig on heavy equipment would be OK in spray arc mode but I wouldn't trust it in short circuit mode unless it was for something that wasn't under much stress.
Flux core with C25 mostly. If I'm doing hardfacing it depends on the wire I'm using. Some is gasless and some isn't.
 

John C.

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Each process has its place. I’ve been seeing people use hard wire more and more in the last few years in places where dual shield was the choice when I started.
 

Welder Dave

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Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,260
Location
Canada
Maybe it has something to do with the newer machines having much better pulsed arc characteristics. It can allow higher amperage spray transfer when welding out out of position. Metal-core is getting popular too that is like solid wire on steroids. Burns hot and no slag to remove. Can be a little hard to tell the difference from solid wire.
 

colson04

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2016
Messages
2,057
Location
Delton, Michigan
Solid wire Mig on heavy equipment would be OK in spray arc mod

This is how most of Caterpillars welding is done at the factory. When I worked for them in 2007-2008, I was surprised you couldn't hardly find a stick welder anywhere in the factory. Everything was high amperage spray weld. Mostly .045 wire. For the really big frames, they used dual shield .063 Flux core to get the metal deposition rate they needed. I worked along side their welding engineering team as an intern and got to learn a ton about welding, though not in a hands on method.
 
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