The worst weld you have ever done

[jweller]

Welding inside of my smoker. No way you could ever clean all the smoke and grease out it enough to make a nice clean weld. Thankfully it wasn't anything critical.

[bretsk2500]

My worst as in difficult was probably the top rail bracket of an elevator addition. 35' feet in the air, no way to stage it, I was basically tied off, hanging upside down doing an overhead fillet welding the bracket to the beam.

Another was welding in a 4" tall "post" that mated the new addition structure to the existing W24X128 main roof beam. I had to cut off the W24 beam, weld a 3/4" plate onto the end of it and jack it up enough so I could slip the 6x6X1/2" "post" between the w24 and the new steel under it. I had to do this all through a 12" wide slot cut through the masonry bearing wall. I went through many, many 7018 rods with 3 bends in them.

[turboglenn]

Well, my worst weld which i hope NO ONE ever sees was welding a door back on a jeep on the trail. the door was barely atatched by the bottom hinge and the top was broken completely off. THe wner didnt want to take the door off it's hinges to fix it properly so through a combination of some 6011, covered and coupled by some MIG action in there too we got the door to stick. It looked about like some one put grey bubble gum on the top and bottom of the hinge.

Luckily I have a 4x4 that holds my generator and welders or he's be driving with no door at all still today. that was a month or so ago and it's still holding.. I've offered to pull the door, grind out the welds and fix it right, but he says the door's never sealed better and he's fine the way it is.. i told him NEVER tell anyone that's one of my welds :LOL:

[Ultrachop]

Depends on which process, We all made lots of bad ones when first starting I remember one time when all I had was 6013 and a buz box and I had more slag trapped in it then weld bead, just tried welding over it until it looked like a bee hive!!

35years later I get my new Dynasty200 and decide to teach myself aluminum! I welded a flat bead on some scrap stuff about 11ga and looking through the hood it looked nice, lifted the torch, the sparks flew! I got off the pedal, and was admiring my flat weld (wondering where that filler material went??? Turned it over and there it was dripping out the bottom (That is the day I got registered on this site and started asking questions (just cause I been welding for 45 years didn't make me a Tig welder)

Tim

[tom37]

I'm not a pro and will never claim to be !! First starting out I had so many bad welds I cant even begin to think of which one would have been the worst. I think the worst to work on was an oil tank on a cheep store bought log splitter. I for sure was not happy and defiantly was not proud, but when a friend needs help I try when I can. The happy ending was he left happy, had no leaks and thought it looked wonderful.

[Big_Eddy]

Some of the worst welds I've done - and the ones I hated doing the most were the other week, welding together a bust exhaust on my son's car. No ramps or jack, slushy mess on the ground, trying to weld the top side of a rusty exhaust, right by the clamp, under the heat shield. Couldn't see anything, not enough clearance under the car to move, my butt was soggy, couldn't get the gun in there, using the mirror and a flashlight. Mask kept fogging and snagging on the car. Basically it ended up look, position, shut the eyes and weld for 5 seconds, look in the mirror and repeat. Got it stuck together and I know it will hold, but I'm not proud of those welds.

[diamondback]

I would say my worst was on a hydraulic cylinder return tube. The one that comes out of the side of the cylinder and runs right down the side. The bend at the top was a 1" radius that was cut short and there was no way to get an angle on it for penetration. The return tube was 0.5" diameter with a 0.035 wall thickness so burn through was a big problem. I got a good wrap and overlap underneath and the weld looked great. I was happy with it until we pressurized the cylinder and it blew a stream of oil across the shop. I was the weld engineer and has 15 welders watching what I was doing. A little work and we fixed it. Instead of solid mig wire we tested, proved and went to metal cored wire and the change in penetration patterns eliminated the problem. So I ate crow for awhile with my guys.

[kcstott]

How about running a vert up fluxcore spray transfer on 1/2" plate for the first time while not being given enough time to prep the joint clean the paint or even get roughly comfortable to get a good looking weld. That thing looked like crap. Bubble gum welds with a side of pigeon crap. I learned quick though the last few welds looked like I'd been doing it for twenty years

[welderman23]

How about running a vert up fluxcore spray transfer on 1/2" plate for the first time while not being given enough time to prep the joint clean the paint or even get roughly comfortable to get a good looking weld. That thing looked like crap. Bubble gum welds with a side of pigeon crap. ......

i done that before.
and then there is the times you hurry yourself ,and your pissed off and nothing is going right.


my first tig weld looked like something i pulled out of the kitty litter box

[kcstott]

i done that before.
and then there is the times you hurry yourself ,and your pissed off and nothing is going right.


my first tig weld looked like something i pulled out of the kitty litter box

Most definitely been there more then once.