i have a fab class at school (tomorrow is the last day for fab 1), and this class was the first time welding and doing any sort of metal work for me. i didn't pick it up quite as fast as some other people, and my welds still aren't that great, but i've only been doing it for about a week or a week and a half, and there were test in between and various other non-lab time. we had a bunch of basic welds to do for practice, but today we had a free day to do whatever we wanted, so i made this...

its a bench for the boat that my dad and i are building at home. its one inch square stainless tubing with a 1/16" sidewall, and 1/16" plate on top. we have a swivel seat that will mount to the top of this bench. i've got 2 x 3 x 1/8" plate that will be welded to the bottom of the legs so that it will mount to the floor of the boat. i'll prob throw a rod holder on there somehow too.

please excuse the bad pics. the camera was one of those $20 walmart things and the pics had to be brightened up on the comp.






i know it will be hard for any of you to give me constructive critisism based on the pic quality. oh well.



its not done yet. i still need to weld the 2 x 3 plate to the bottom of the legs, i need to finish welding the top on (its just tacked now), and i want to grind down all the visible welds. the machine i was using was a lincoln 175 with 100% argon. most of this bench was made on the concrete shop floor, and i wasn't as comfortable as i would have liked to be, plus i had to work faster than i like to, so the welds didn't come out looking as good as i would have liked them to. i believe i am capable of better welds, but i did what i could.

let me know what you guys think.

 

The welds look a little bit cold/too much filler. Almost looks like you're feeding the filler as opposed to dabbing it in when needed.

As long as it can get the job done though.

 

i agree. looking at the pics without reading i thought you mig welded it and thought it was fairly good. but now that i see you use a tig ( .. wait isnt the lincon tig a 195 ?) well if its a mig then looks fine.. if its a tig. you could;ve done it cleaner

overall still looks good.

 

its a mig machine. i seem to have a problem with my beads being too tall. i guess i need to move a little faster to flatten them out. is that correct? maybe i should have turned the heat up a little too, but i did burn through an open end of the box tubing my other welds penetrated ok i think, so maybe heat wasn't the problem so much as my technique. i was welding on 3/16" plate, and i turned the machine down for this bench. i didn't turn it down far tho. i went from "D" to "C". i don't know how much amperage that is and i wish the machine told me rather than just having a letter.

 

DAMN! i just realized today that i have been welding throughout the entire class with a poorly running machine. the gas was flowing to the pressure regulator on the tank, but the pressure regulator wasn't allowing it to leave like it should. it spattered more than it should have, but i didn't know how bad it was until i used a friend's machine in class today. he came to check out my progress, and i asked him to lay a short bead so i could try to copy what he did and learn from my mistakes. well he starting laying, then he stopped after a few seconds and told me my machine wasn't running well, and i used his machine and his ran so much smoother. i was amazed. my welds looked so much better using his machine than using mine.

i was kinda thown off by how well it ran, so my welds using his machine weren't great, but they were much better. i didn't even know my machine wasn't running right. i just thought i sucked at welding. it makes me mad that every project i did could have been so much better if i had a different machine! GRRRR!!!! it really bothers me cause i wanted my bench to be as good as i could do, and its definately not. his machine ran like butter compared to mine. oh well.

here's a weld using my machine, then using his machine. my technique was no different.




this weld was the first i layed with his machine. after a couple more, they looked better. i should have taken a pic of the better welds, but i don't wanna take more and host them, etc.

sorry for rambling on and on. i am just a bit upset or disappointed.


Modified by Train at 8:14 PM 5/13/2005