Just looking for opinions on the quality of the welds. Good/bad 1-10 ect.

Cheers!

Well it was my first time. Trying to teach myself how to do it.

It’s a structural pole. The bottom piece sits inside a footing. I know it’s not the prettiest.

And no it wasn’t done by me I hired someone.

Edit: thank you all. I have hired another person to come and re do it tomorrow morning.

I should have known what was coming when he didn’t even clean the black paint off the pipe. I’m not a welder but even I know that’s basic prep

Like best welds or weld sheild

I’ve welded pipe a few times before but it’s been a bit. looking at doing a project involving some 3” sch 40 carbon steel butt weld joints. it’s not inspected or code welding, just water.

a couple questions though…

6010 vs 6011 root? right now have an inverter machine that wont really burn 6010. Does 6011 have major disadvantages compared to 6010? Could also just use it as an excuse to buy a 6010 capable machine…

Root, hot pass, then for the cap, weave or a couple stingers?

Thanks to all that showed interest and offered insight on my last post. My plan to repair the cracks along the bend is to grind the cracks down, TIG weld and then weld an aluminum plate over the line of cracks to give it support. Would it be better to weld smaller plates in between the ribs? The ribs have no cracks and are much thicker. Thanks

what should i be looking for? i dont think they’re supposed to be dull gray but idk.
and for the width it should be around 2-3x the tungsten rod right?

1/4” mild steel
180 amps
3/32” tungsten and filler
argon is around 20-30 cfh

Hello all I got my certification for structural welding with stick in New York but I’m concerned that I really learned the bare minimum, most jobs that I see want me to know how to read welding blueprints I looked at local 4 metalworker in manhattan but I’m deathly afraid of anything over 50 feet in height. So I started to look into fabrication shops and I have no clue how to read the blueprints. So I’m really asking if I should buckle down and start studying more before I enter into this career or should I just send it into any job that accepts me because I’m getting pressure from my parents to get into a career.

Any advice is appreciated

Learning flux core. Any pointers are appreciated.

what do i needa do to make it less ugly, i hope there are options other than painting over it. Thanks

i'm at tulsa welding school. i've gone back and forth with the wire speed, voltage, gas output, gas nozzle, wire spool, completely ground the metal to shiny before starting, and more or less messed around with and tested every other setting/circumstance available. still nothing fixes it. my instructor and a few others haven't been able to fix anything either. going to another booth isn't an option because they also have the same problem. i'm starting to have a failing grade because im behind on labs due to this never ending issue.

when trying to weld its never a happy medium. i don't get the "bacon frying" sound, more so various popping noises. for the bead it either has a bunch of wire in it (wfs too fast or voltage too low), a bunch of medium or large holes (voltage too high or wfs too low), it just doesn't let me get a steady bead going, or the more common being all three. i've gone to four separate people (two outside the school two inside) and they all say my gas nozzle is fine.

please someone help

Hi, it is my third day running 6010 electrodes. What am I doing wrong?

I am running Lincoln Electric Pipeliner 6P+, 3.15 mm (1/8") rods with a 3.15 mm (1/8") land and root gap. With plate dimensions 600*75*10mm (23.5*3*0.39") and a groove angle of 45°. Current is at 72-75A. Machine is a Lincoln Electric Precision TIG 375.

I noticed that as I move towards the end, the root gap narrows even if I tacked them with equal root gaps.

Also I saw a lot of videos, some saying the whip is better and some just running stringers.

I am able to do okay-ish when doing the whip (start of the weld on the left). But with stringers (end of the weld towards the right side), I either blow through or just don't get enough penetration.

How do I improve this??

I am stil on 8mm 170 pipe, the root is better but it may have to little reinforcement? The cap is roughly 2mm over the pipe, any advice or criticism is greatly appreciated.
I am to weeks into my aprenticeship, plus to years of mechanical/Mettal higschool

Root run (ghosted)
Fill out run
Cap run

All in procedure, from amps, wire, material grade and torch set up. (no need for a split cap.)

Destructive testing passed. ✅

Hey everyone! Im 26 and in the middle of trying to figure out life and how I can live comfortably. I started exploring welding cause I wanted to learn fabrication for car modifications cause I love working on cars a lot as a hobby but then I went to my local welding academy and the guy was informing me on pipe welding or rig welding vs automotive welding and how thats where the big money is for welding vs doing local welding at a union where you would get paid less and so on. He did tell me that welding is a great trade because its more about showing them you can do the job and you have the skill, obviously you get your certifications to solidify that but doing the actual skill is what matters a lot in welding. Its a very hands on academy not so much book work, its more actually learning the trade and I liked that aspect alot about that place. Im just struggling to take that leap to make that change in my life because its so drastic because I currently work one of those comfortable office jobs where its $25 an hour, benefits galore, and so on but I guess I just want a change in my life because where I work now it would take you years and years to progress any further from the position im in and I wanna learn something valuable where I can actually progress and it mean something with a good reward at the end of it when I go farther to push myself and work harder. Idk if any of that makes sense, my family keeps asking me why I would drop such a comforting job like mine for something like welding. What are yalls thoughts about the trade being in it so long and if I did take that leap to start over but have an opportunity to make more money, would it be worth it all or am I wasting my time like my family is telling me?

I thought I knew how to weld, but I feel like I don't, and I don't understand why the tip of my tungsten melts so fast... I haven't done TIG welding for months and if I do weld anything it's small things like that.

Some info:

I grabbed this material off of our stock shelf to help demonstrate some TIG welding techniques to a friend. It was not meant for any specific part. Just something to light up on and make a mess of.

Presumably, it's aluminum ... of some kind ... it looks like aluminum. It feels like aluminum. It says aluminum on the stock tag.

But it refuses to puddle up under an AC TIG arc at 120hz, 70% balance. Argon gas through a lens and a 9mm alumina cup flowing at 20cfh. That one single tack was an absolute BATTLE.

4043, and 5356 rods won't fill. Just drip into the area. It's some of the cleanest stock I've ever handled, and still managed to have bits of shit boil up into the weld zone.

I immediately struck an arc on a dirty piece of scrap I dug out od the recycling bin with zero issues.

I don't see any yellowing, so I dont THINK it's 7xxx aluminum. But I also don't know what else the issue could be.

What do you guys think?

Broken 90year old gearbox remote casting.
Pic 1 is how it started pic 2 is where I got it with grinding out the weld first instead of just cleaning.

Main learning point is you can never have it too clean. And that you really can drop the amps when there is some heat into the casting.

I got it structurally strong but not the best looking, had to grind it down anyway as it is a bit of a visual part.

Material was 3-5mm thick, 170-130 amps and I first did a pass without filler to float some crap out of the casting.

Other than test pieces my first actual TIG work as I needed the remote back as a spare for my racecar

Is there anyway to return some of the oxide onto the cast iron stove top I did a silica bronze weld repair on? Will it re oxidize with time? I know the silica bronze will always be a different color I just don’t like the look of the silver iron around the weld site. This was my first time welding cast iron with silica bronze so any advice would also be appreciated.

I’ve got about 45 rail road spikes and really want to make some cool shit out of them, any ideas?