You’re Fired!

[Pile Buck]

Sum beach look what happened! :eek: :eek:


Ok help me come up with an excuse, quick!
I know the sun was in my eyes! The wind was blowing! My tongue was on the wrong side of my mouth! :D



But seriously tho, yesterday when I was welding the lid on I was having trouble at the very end. I know I was in a hurry to drain the last bit of my argon bottle so I could get to the LWS to exchange, being as they would be closed today, and tomorrow. I know this is really reaching but is it possible the argon is less efficient at the very end, or am I just reaching for excuses? When I tacked the lid on, I gave it more of a gap, like CrackerJack suggested. For a while I was thinking I might be loosing gas coverage, by means of what I like to call the chimney effect. I’ve seen this before when welding large dia pipe in the 2-G position, with dual shield, wonder if that could be the reason?:confused:

OK, I’m out of excuses, anyone care to help? This is embarrassing, but at least you guys know I’m honest. I could have left you thinking I can tig weld!:D :D

[KB Fabrications]

Carl,
What kind of regulator do you have, sigle or double stage? It's hard to say what happened but if your bottle was getting low and you have a SS reg, you might not have noticed your pressure getting low. Also, was the tank vented as you were closing it up? Sorry to hear about the troubles. Hopefully we can get some answers for you.

[GARAGEGADGETS]

Anyone who has welded tanks has had this problem onetime or another. Grind it out and fix it and go to the next job. As for what cause it, could be alot of things.:)

[tigman250]

Carl, don't be too hard on yourself, **** good if you only had 2 leaks concidering you are just getting started with aluminum tig!

are the leaks coming from craters? in my experiences most leaks originate from craters i neglected to fill:o you mentioned you were welding with fumes so to speak, last week i was Tigging some aluminum and had all kinds of problems with black specks and cloudy looking welds. first place i look is at my reg, 1000psi and 20 on the flow......check that off the list. the furnace was running so i thought i was getting a breese so i set up a flash guard to shield any cross breeses.....still didn't help. re-sharpened tungsten, changed cup, changed balance, every dang thing i could think of. nothing helped, so i headed to the welder set up for migging aluminum, rob the argon tank and put it on the tig, problem solved, bad tank of gas:mad:. normally if you see any contaminants in argon it dosen't affect the weld until the bottom 200 psi of gas left in bottle, this paticular time it was just under half the bottle was junk:mad:

with all that said just repair the leaky spots and keep your chin up, i have a few years on you tigging and i still get some leaks from time to time, but don't tell anyone LOL

[calweld]

Sum beach look what happened! :eek: :eek:


Ok help me come up with an excuse, quick!
I know the sun was in my eyes! The wind was blowing! My tongue was on the wrong side of my mouth! :D

Thats OK!!! You're union!!! They got your a$$ covered!!! :D :D :rolleyes:

Seriously, though, yes, I have noticed more problems with any shielding gas as the pressure drops, don't know if it's contamination or lower flow or what (I do use the floating-ball type flowmeter), in any case as soon as I notice problems I change the bottle.

[Pile Buck]

Carl,
What kind of regulator do you have, sigle or double stage?

Hi Kevin, yes it is a single stage flowmeter. It’s the one Miller sells with the tig runner package. HM2051A-580AGFAnd yes the bottle was on fumes. Again being cheap bit me in the azz. Really no big deal, couple minutes with the die grinder. Just want to make dam sure there is no leaks before I fill it with gas. I don’t feel like testing my luck repairing a used gas tank, diesel no problem, gas I’ll pass! ;)

http://www.smithequipment.com/products/pdfpages/page61.pdf


Grind it out and fix it and go to the next job. As for what cause it, could be alot of things.
Sounds like good advice to me!;) It’s funny I just did a steel tank twice this size, not one leak. But this is the first tank I’ve ever done in aluminum. I made a set of horse back packing boxes out of aluminum for a friend a couple years ago. They were just tacked, not completely welded at all. The purpose of these boxes is to protect your gear when the pack horse rubs into a tree. Couple times I wish I had them for my legs:eek: . But my horse caught on pretty quick after rubbing my leg against a tree, when I pulled my foot out of the stirrup and kicked him in the side of the neck. Pain is always a good teacher.;)


are the leaks coming from craters?
Hi Craig yes one was. I remember this one! I really thought I dipped one last time before backing off the throttle, but guess I was wrong:o . If you look real close you can see it under the red arrow.

[Pile Buck]

Thats OK!!! You're union!!! They got your a$$ covered!!! :D :D :rolleyes:

Where is that Windex bottle? :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[JTMcC]

Thats OK!!! You're union!!! They got your a$$ covered!!! :D :D :rolleyes:




I'm guessing I'm the only 798 hand here, so I'll say this.
The Pipeliners Union doesn't "cover" anyone if their work is not up to the required standards.
Make bad welds and you are instantly gone. Can't keep up and you are instantly gone. Don't supply a properly equiped rig and you guessed it...you are instantly gone. Miss two test's in a row and the hall will not send you out untill you go to the school and get squared away, miss a drug test and you're gone, fail to comply with company policy.. gone, show up late..gone, show up drunk/high...gone, and on and on it goes. 798 does not protect the weak. The weak get eaten alive quickly in this business.
The Steward WILL "cover" your butt (with the backing of the hall) when they don't want to pay you right, or when your benefits aren't paid, or when they want to lay you off and claim you quit, or when they try to make your helper a laborer, or when they want to violate anything else in the written contract. That's what he's there for, to see that both parties abide by the written contract. No more and no less. The contract protects the contractor as well as the welder.

JTMcC.

[Coalsmoke]

Sum Beech, you got bubbles:eek:

There's a reason why even guys who have been doing this for years still check for leaks. Quit being so hard on yourself.;) IMHO, You're cooking along better than most at this point. Of course, if you had went out and got that Speedglas for this job, you would have seen that bubble hole when you made it:p :D

[Pile Buck]

if you had went out and got that Speedglas for this job, you would have seen that bubble hole when you made it:p :D

Funny you should mention that. Just yesterday when I went to the LWS to exchange my argon bottle, I picked up a glass gold lens:cool: , No not one of those phony plastic POS:rolleyes: ! I mean real glass. I haven’t used a gold lens since the 1970’s. I quit using them when I was loosing hoods right n left.

Yeah I going have to break down and buy one of those fancy hoods one of these days.:D

[Pile Buck]

I'm guessing I'm the only 798 hand here, so I'll say this.
The Pipeliners Union doesn't "cover" anyone if their work is not up to the required standards.
Make bad welds and you are instantly gone. Can't keep up and you are instantly gone. Don't supply a properly equiped rig and you guessed it...you are instantly gone. Miss two test's in a row and the hall will not send you out untill you go to the school and get squared away, miss a drug test and you're gone, fail to comply with company policy.. gone, show up late..gone, show up drunk/high...gone, and on and on it goes. 798 does not protect the weak. The weak get eaten alive quickly in this business.
The Steward WILL "cover" your butt (with the backing of the hall) when they don't want to pay you right, or when your benefits aren't paid, or when they want to lay you off and claim you quit, or when they try to make your helper a laborer, or when they want to violate anything else in the written contract. That's what he's there for, to see that both parties abide by the written contract. No more and no less. The contract protects the contractor as well as the welder.

JTMcC.

Good to know JT! ;)


I had a hunch 798 had Balllllls!;)

[burninbriar]

As far as the argon is concerned, I had one bottle once that started out great and at about 400 lbs give or take it was so bad I couldn't use it. I posted here about the problem and found out its not that uncommon for the bottom of a tank to be contaminated.

[dandimand]

could be any number of things but if weld is shiny for the most part i would say operator failure tank looks big so it happens to the best of us. if black specs could be contamination either dirty rod or you touched your tung . i assume tank was vented? alot of times when i dont have the means to pressure test and this happens alot to cover my butt i weld normally then go over the whole weld with pulse to make sure fully fused . but hence if you can pressure check you can avoid this and just repair pin holes. Honestly it happens to the best of us.ps i find if you use 4043 it flows in a little nicer than 5356 . unless your going to anodize or job calls for 5356 i would use 4043of course this is just my opinion . ps for some reason i still find to this day that using a balled zirc tung works better on aluminum than the sharpend ceriated or lang .

[b-footn]

I'm so ashamed to know you, bubble maker:D

I think you are gonna be all right though. Other than the union hands here, I think you will still be able to hold your head high.:D


The problem is that you didn't pump the tank up high enough to blow it up and shrapnel yourself.:eek:

Happy New year my friend.

[Pile Buck]

could be any number of things but if weld is shiny for the most part i would say operator failure tank looks big so it happens to the best of us. if black specs could be contamination either dirty rod or you touched your tung . i assume tank was vented? alot of times when i dont have the means to pressure test and this happens alot to cover my butt i weld normally then go over the whole weld with pulse to make sure fully fused . but hence if you can pressure check you can avoid this and just repair pin holes. Honestly it happens to the best of us.ps i find if you use 4043 it flows in a little nicer than 5356 . unless your going to anodize or job calls for 5356 i would use 4043of course this is just my opinion . ps for some reason i still find to this day that using a balled zirc tung works better on aluminum than the sharpend ceriated or lang .

This tank is 2-foot x 2-foot square. Plus the fittings, and doubler plate, there is approximately 18-feet 8-inches of weld. Good dam thing I’m not working for JT, or I’d be kicking rocks out to the parking lot! :D :D

The filler metal is brand spanking new, right out of the tube. I elected to go with 5356, only because I did a little DT when I started this quest to learn aluminum tig. I was less than impressed with 4043 with a BFH test, one blow and the fillet weld broke. With 5356 it took 4 or 5 good blows to break.

Yes the tank was vented. Well at least both the 1 1/2, and 2-inch nipples were open.

I really wanted this tank to look somewhat appealing to the eye, so whenever I dipped the tungsten, I stopped and re-sharpened it.

Lesson learned on this project, it will be the last time I use the plasma to cut the material. I used hole saws to cut the holes for the pipe nipples. The nipples are 6061; I could really tell the difference in welding them to the lid. In the future I’ll use my skill saw, or sawzall if possible! ;)

[Pile Buck]

I'm so ashamed to know you, bubble maker:D

10,000 comedians out of work, and you’re scabbing on them!:D
Got to find that Windex bottle! :D :D :D




Happy New year my friend.


Happy New Years Chris, I know you’ll be going out chasing tonight, be careful out there, no driving! ;)

[calweld]

I'm guessing I'm the only 798 hand here, so I'll say this.
The Pipeliners Union doesn't "cover" anyone if their work is not up to the required standards.
JTMcC.

I had a hunch 798 had Balllllls!

That's as it should be, and in your business especially I hope it stays like that. Unfortunately, many unions today have gotten into the business of protecting the incompetents and unqualified (read: government employees and schoolteachers) and to some extent this influences my (and others) thoughts on all unions, unfair as that may be. And note, I did put plenty of "smilies" after that comment;) :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

JT, one question. As a 798 member, when you do a job, legally are you a subcontractor or an employee?? I've always been a little confused, do you get paid for your time, plus a stipend for the equipment (like an employee), or are you paid hourly for your time plus the equipment and the helper (like a subcontractor)?

[BigDTig]

Lesson learned on this project, it will be the last time I use the plasma to cut the material.

Plasma cutters leave a pretty nasty dross on stainless and aluminum unless you cut with Argon ($$$!). It makes TIG welding plasma cut joints nasty unless you grind a clean edge on the piece. And, on aluminum, it takes a pretty powerful plasma cutter to do a decent job.

With aluminum, the stuff is soft enough, there's no reason not to take a jig saw or even a skill saw with the right blade to it. Or, have your metal dealer sheer it to size.

The only place I use my (very underpowered) plasma cutter is on steel and stainless where there's really no other way to machine it.

[Cracker(Jack)]

Pile Buck, every once in awhile you will get a small pinhole leak. But, not very often. Weld will look shiny and smooth, but for no known reason the bubble will appear during the soap test. Grind it out, reweld and re-test. I feel the plasm cuts contributed to the pinhole leaks, but could have been trash or tungsten inclusion. Who knows.

[Scott T]

Plasma cuts can be nasty to weld but that is not the end of it. I was doing an aluminum motorcycle frame and was chatting with one of the guys at alcotec about filler material.
I had mentioned about cutting profiles with the plasma and was informed that I should grind at least 1/16 of an inch back from the cut line otherwise you can have a weld full of micro cracks. This would'nt matter for most things but it was important as far as the motorcycle frame was concerned. Just thought I would pass on some info

[JTMcC]

That's as it should be, and in your business especially I hope it stays like that. Unfortunately, many unions today have gotten into the business of protecting the incompetents and unqualified (read: government employees and schoolteachers) and to some extent this influences my (and others) thoughts on all unions, unfair as that may be. And note, I did put plenty of "smilies" after that comment;) :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

JT, one question. As a 798 member, when you do a job, legally are you a subcontractor or an employee?? I've always been a little confused, do you get paid for your time, plus a stipend for the equipment (like an employee), or are you paid hourly for your time plus the equipment and the helper (like a subcontractor)?


People use the term "union" as if they were all identical. I've been a union construction worker most of my adult life, and I'm a union contractor by choice, but I consider the NEA the last outpost for disenfranchised so******ts and social engineering communists. And I mean that, I'm not exagerating to make a point.

You can lump all unions into one pot if you want, but that's an ignorant view that many take. Just like a lot of people lump all Californians into the fruits and nuts category:eek: , you and I know that's not how it is in reality, even tho the fruits and nuts get most of the publicity. Unions have to be viewed as independant, individual organizations that differ widely in how they operate.


On a union pipeline job (in the U.S.) all hands are employees of the contractor, and rent their rig out. Scale right now is $41.50/hour on the man, $15/hour on the rig, 82.50/per diem plus benefits.

JTMcC.

[Portable Welder]

JTMcC, I can see why it would be different with your union due to the fact of your type of work, when they Xray it, it is a fine line as to wheather its good or not.
I cant think of any other job out there which is so cut and dry.
I have a cousin who works for Ford Motor company in Dearborn, Michigan.
He is a certified pipe welder with a 6G cert, however his classification is Millright which means he cannot weld, He was telling me that it took him four hrs to get a welder to come weld 5" when there was a welding machine a few feet away.
The welders excuse was that his green welding coat was dirty and the uniform company didd'nt leave him enouph clean coats.
Its stories like this that turn people against the union because the guy in the above story could not be fired.
Its nice to hear a story like yours JT, where the union gets a guy a fair wage for a hard day of work.

[JTMcC]

When I was in my 20's I worked in several car plants, new construction as well as outages. I observed the UAW goings on with amusement, I have quite a few UAW stories but they are long and probably only of interest to me. Suffice to say that I would many days just shake my head, chuckle and think to myself "you guys would never make it in my world".
That was in the 80's so the situation may very well be different now, I don't have any idea.

JTMcC.

[Coalsmoke]

As far as the argon is concerned, I had one bottle once that started out great and at about 400 lbs give or take it was so bad I couldn't use it. I posted here about the problem and found out its not that uncommon for the bottom of a tank to be contaminated.

This tank is 2-foot x 2-foot square. Plus the fittings, and doubler plate, there is approximately 18-feet 8-inches of weld. Good dam thing I’m not working for JT, or I’d be kicking rocks out to the parking lot! :D :D

The filler metal is brand spanking new, right out of the tube. I elected to go with 5356, only because I did a little DT when I started this quest to learn aluminum tig. I was less than impressed with 4043 with a BFH test, one blow and the fillet weld broke. With 5356 it took 4 or 5 good blows to break.

Yes the tank was vented. Well at least both the 1 1/2, and 2-inch nipples were open.

I really wanted this tank to look somewhat appealing to the eye, so whenever I dipped the tungsten, I stopped and re-sharpened it.

Lesson learned on this project, it will be the last time I use the plasma to cut the material. I used hole saws to cut the holes for the pipe nipples. The nipples are 6061; I could really tell the difference in welding them to the lid. In the future I’ll use my skill saw, or sawzall if possible! ;)
I'm thanking my lucky stars I didn't invest in a plasma for my last aluminum project. Alsmot did, but it wasn't quite large enough to make it pay. Now I see that maybe it wouldn't have been all that great:o
That's as it should be, and in your business especially I hope it stays like that. Unfortunately, many unions today have gotten into the business of protecting the incompetents and unqualified (read: government employees and schoolteachers) and to some extent this influences my (and others) thoughts on all unions, unfair as that may be. And note, I did put plenty of "smilies" after that comment;) :rolleyes: :rolleyes:


Boy Cal, you sure must have had some bad teacher experiences :confused: I for one am grateful to the great teachers I had, and while not all were great, enough of them knew their material and cared to make life as the student pretty darn good considering what a lot of less fortunate people in other countries don't have the luxury of in terms of public education (If you teach for a living, thanks:cool: )

[weld-tek]

The problem is that you didn't pump the tank up high enough to blow it up and shrapnel yourself.:eek:

Happy New year my friend.




been waiting to tell this story on myself.dec 17 2004 i started a rebuild job on our company pontoon(used to check intake of water supply at lake by divers),it was very old and had been taking on water for years and i was asked to find leaks,repair and install new floor.got setup to airtest,gauge on one end,air nipple on other.started the air charge,instantly heard leak,unhooked air charge and went to rear of pontoon to mark leak.leak was on bottom of pontoon,could hear it good(guage said around 5lb) and kneeled down to feel air and mark and BOOM.coned end was blown about 40 ft through our 14 x 14 overhead door,took the 4 bottom door panels about 30ft,and somehow i was laying on other side of shop.i got lucky and only had 2 broken ribs and a broken finger and spent most of the day and nite in emergency room.company had a engineer come in to find out what happened and they come to about 5 conclusions,but did say it was NOT too much air.just a little story to remind to be very careful.happy new year

[calweld]

Boy Cal, you sure must have had some bad teacher experiences :confused:

Nah, it's been well over twenty years since I've had any personal direct experience with teachers . . . I speak from experience as an educated, frustrated, disillusioned, voter and taxpayer. At least here in Cal, it has become easier to shuffle incompetents around rather than get rid of them. "Fire him????" Dam, what that will do to a guy's self-esteem!!:rolleyes:

[calweld]

Just like a lot of people lump all Californians into the fruits and nuts category:eek: , you and I know that's not how it is in reality, even tho the fruits and nuts get most of the publicity

Hey!!!!! I do very well in the "land of fruits and nuts";) :) , I can't speak for the fruits but I probably fit right in with all the nuts:eek: :D :D

In real life? No, I don't see "union" as a red flag in personal relationships. I've seen very very good, as well as very very bad, union members, just like I've seen both non-union. However, when I see "firefighter's association", "teacher's association", "police officer's association", etc. as a voter it does raise warning signs in my mind, their priorities as a group(welfare of their members) are not the same as mine as a taxpayer and voter(cost-effectiveness and competency). And in this part of Cal, anyway, the real "union power" is currently with the public employees, and government contracts.

[tigman250]

I have a cousin who works for Ford Motor company in Dearborn, Michigan.
He is a certified pipe welder with a 6G cert, however his classification is Millright which means he cannot weld, He was telling me that it took him four hrs to get a welder to come weld 5" when there was a welding machine a few feet away.
The welders excuse was that his green welding coat was dirty and the uniform company didd'nt leave him enouph clean coats.
Its stories like this that turn people against the union because the guy in the above story could not be fired.
Its nice to hear a story like yours JT, where the union gets a guy a fair wage for a hard day of work.

boy do i have stories about UAW workers, my wifes whole family is active or retired GM workers and they have a very interesting work ethic to say the least. i will say it's not 100% their fault they have the attitude they do though, if their line breaks down they cannot so much as touch a broom to keep themselves busy. if they do someone is filing a grievance (<-sp?) against them for taking a janitors job away from them:rolleyes: and they will be punished by the union for trying to keep themselves busy and save the company some money. (how can you not have a rotten work attitude??)

alot of them spend their whole shift sleeping or playing pranks on fellow workers. before my father-in-law retired he would wear slip on shoes to work so he could easily slip them off because he couldn't sleep with shoes on:rolleyes: :rolleyes: and he had to sleep with his fingers interlaced to prevent fellow workers from painting his fingernails while he slept. while they are sleeping and pranking at work they are making $30+ per hour with a benifits package that would choke a horse. heavin forbid you tell one of them these are the reasons cars and trucks cost so dang much, boy they have an opinion for you then LOL!

as you can probably tell i'm not a big fan of union's, in the cases where they fight for the saftey of workers i have no problem with them, but when they fight to save a lazy/incompetent worker i find it very disturbing and the UAW is famous for that. they tell stories where people come into work drunk/high and they get sent home (with pay:eek: )to sober up, if it happens 3 times to the same person, GM gives them time off (with pay again:confused: ) and sends them to rehab (paid for by GM of course) because it's classified as a disease. now what happens to me if i show up to work drunk? i get fired and they hire someone else who will perform like they need....end of story.

don't get me wrong i know all unions aren't like that and it's nice to hear about the ones that operate with common sence, i wish they all did. cars would be a heck of alot cheaper LOL

[burninbriar]

Hay Tigman;
Thats funny because a friend of mine got a job with the port authority and he had a very similar story. He almost got fired before he started for picking up a piece of paper to throw it in the trash, "janitor's job", which the janitor obviously wasn't doing. After working there for a while he discovered that one of the guys there was the owner of the beer distributer that he uses. The guy would come in, take off his shoe's and sleep on the couch at the port authority so he would be rested up for when he went to work at his beer distributer business.

[harcosparky]

That's as it should be, and in your business especially I hope it stays like that. Unfortunately, many unions today have gotten into the business of protecting the incompetents and unqualified (read: government employees and schoolteachers) and to some extent this influences my (and others) thoughts on all unions, unfair as that may be.


This goes back to my long winded posts about " Labor " Unions versus " Trade " Unions.

Plumbers, Wedlors, Carpenters/Construction, Electricians = Trade Unions
( Typically you serve some sort od apprenticeship in a Trade Union )

Teachers, Gov't Employees, Big Corporation Employee Unions = Labor Unions
( More or less all you have to do here is be an employee )

Labor Unions protect medicore workers and hinder excellent workers.

[FusionKing]

I love this thread.....BTW happy new year guys!!!
Hmmm I know i was gonna say something....but then I almost forgot what it was as I can only focus on one thing at a time so I'll comment on the original subject.
Pile you have been doing a fine job IMO and I sure do wish I had a fellow like you that I could work beside that I could walk away from and know that the job was being done with some degree of pride...and It is obvious to me you are such a man. It gives me hope. In fact I have a guy that I'm working with nowdays at my regular job that when I finally fly-the-coupe I feel he'll be pretty close behind me cause we just sort'a compliment each other. Like we work great together and I doubt I'll get another chance. Just gotta keep the money split right and everyone happy. If I wait for my son to get tired of the fantastic money he's making building a powerplant I'll be too old to start over.
Now back to that tank...If it was ME...and I mean that 'cause what you did was fine enuff...I would not be happy with that particular section and if was to be looked at everday I would be constantly finding my "welding inspector eyes" going straight to the defects...maybe even all the way across the room!
That said I (me) would get out my skill saw (crude to you guys but dang near surgical to me nowdays and anyone with a little carpenter in 'em) and just "drop in" thru the weld only and slit it at least in the bad area and prolly(me) the entire length of that joint as I would want to completely hide the fact that I went back. At work they use those little cut-off wheels a lot too for mistakes like this. Just know that they leave a little contamination but they may be exactly what you need in this case...I have just aquired a taste/skill for the skill saw thing. Anyhow chances are the cut won't be perfect so then I would take the time to ULTRA-CAREFULLY feather the weld edges that were left back flush with the surfaces of the 2 sides being carefull not to overgrind but to restore back to the original state before being welded. You will have to clean all the crap off or it will come back to bite you when you weld so use every trick you know like even to the point of re-burning the edge with the tig at a real low amperage (ie a small bead on the edge floating all the crap out). You prolly should use a stainless "toothbrush" here before tacking making sure not to leave visible scratches outside where the weld will cover. Then do the tack-up as before all the while doing this it will be showing you what the quality of the welds will be like...if the tacks or coming up nice and clean then the weld will..if they are crappy you didn't clean it enuff so fix that with your toothbrush. One of my tricks here is I spray some of that soapy solution to presure check with on it and brush it wet like a nurse doing a wound..it'll get blackish so use more soap again and again (dried soap don't sem to effect my welds so just flush em clean here) Make the fit-up as before,and then make your tacks doing the 2" or so intervals. Now brush again before you weld getting it as "white" as you can make it look within reason. Now weld it using all the skill you can muster and there is a very good chance that it will be as good or even better than the other welds as long as you didn't "overwork" all the area surrounding the repair with scratches and grinding etc..
I make mistakes all the time...every true craftsman does...it is what you do about them that defines your degree of skill. Always try new stuff and never get in to big of a hurry. I am sure in your area of expertise you know how to go back and re-work.
One thing I do different I am noticing is that you make short welds and jump around {I presume) and I understand why. I am so pre-occupied with the weld appearance that I prefer to go to great lengths in the tack-up process and then I can weld entire joints in one setting so they look much nicer. Just use the same way you are thinking now only modify it a little. Let that weld cool and think about how it will contract the part. I may do all the "like" corners at a time. The corners where everything comes together shows your skill level also and it takes time to make them look professional. I make ouside corner welds on 3003 britetread at work a couple times a week as long as 70" in one setting with only a 1 1/4" flange hanging of it with no warpage. A lot of screws and clmps and trial & error got me to this point.
What you have to remember is aluminum only remembers what you "give" it!
If you warp it it stays warped, if you dent it it stays dented, and if you weld it perfectly straight and flat that is how it will stay. It ain't like a piece of steel where you can "pop" a dent out. Or you unclamp it and it springs back out...unless you move on before it is done cooling. It only knows where it is now so how it cools is how it stays. This seems strange to a steel guy but after you learn how to use this line of thinking to your advantage you can start a whole new bag of tricks that you can bring back to you steel work! This is what makes welding so darn fun...it'll bring you down to your knees about the time you think you got it all figured out. One little trick can cause you to change your thinking...and that is what keeps some of us in a league of our own...always looking for a better way...a fresher newer simpler way...even if it comes from the dumbest people you could imagine..It keeps me humble and open minded!!
I'm not sure I would do all this to what you have there but if you decide you can't live with you have there maybe this could help you a little bit in the process.
Also am hoping to improve my computer savey along the way and get better at posting pics so you guys can see that my work ain't perfect either.

[Pile Buck]

FusionKing thanks for the kind words, and all the advice, it is much appreciated!;) ;)

I just have to ask you this one question tho, and please no disrespect intended! :o
But you don’t have a clue what a pile buck is, do you?
Basically all a pile buck knows is go forward at all costs, try not to kill to many, and if you do, hopefully they weren’t very good hands to start with!:)


1st picture is the only repair you can see. The other one is covered by a pad eye. I made the pad eyes this morning after making the repairs, and retesting. I must have bumped the valve on the acetylene gauge, when I plugged the air hose into the compressor, and before I could get over to the tank it had little over 3-pounds of air in it.:eek: :eek: :eek:
b-footn must have jinxed me. :D
Instead of having a 60-gallon tank, now I have a 70-gallon tank:rolleyes:

[FusionKing]

Pile Your the closest I ever come to knowing one!!
Looks good to me!!!
A pad eye is a new term for me...I guess I would have called it a lifting eye. I have now learned my first new thing that is job related for 2007!!!!
Thank YOU PileBuck. If I wanted I could now shut off this stinkin' computer and go watch a movie with the ole lady.
Hold it she just started playing monopoly with the 13 yr old son. Whooaa he beat her already...forgot that was an ongoing game for days.
Maybe i'll head on over to SFT and check that out for awhile. Anyhow good thread..I'll check back later.

[JTMcC]

Basically all a pile buck knows is go forward at all costs, try not to kill to many, and if you do, hopefully they weren’t very good hands to start with!:)





Carl we are not yet 24 hours into the new year and already you are in the running for my coveted "Best Quote of 2007" award.

I might even have to ask your permission to put that one on my website.

JTMcC.

[Pile Buck]

I might even have to ask your permission to put that one on my website.

JTMcC.

Have at er JT, what’s mine is yours!;) ;) ;) ;)


I figured if anyone here would understand that statement, it would be you.
I’m sure you’ve seen a few hard charging pile buck superintendents / foreman, who would rather stick something sharp in their eye than see their rig “plumb bob”! :D