First off i have to say that these are really shitty pics that were taken with my camera phone. They look so much beter in person!

I went in to class tonight to do a little practicing for the welding test i have with TRD/Bill Davis Racing next week. Ive already taken one and i was asked to come back to take another one(really good sign ). Anyway...i decided to take some pics of my welds to see what you guys think. I just wish that they wouldve come out better...but you get the idea

Heres a mig weld that ill have to be doing for the test(part of it anyway)



Heres a Tig weld that i did like a month ago(its starting to rust now)



Heres some Tig on al...this was the hardest thing ive ever welded. Its hard to keep a puddle on 3/32 of a surface. Talking about hailing ***



Let me know what you think!

Edit:Man these pics look alot worse than they did on my phone! Ill try to get some better ones tomorrow.


Modified by sCeRaXn at 4:44 PM 3/7/2006

 

beautiful that mig weld looks like a decent tig weld lol

 

Thanks man. No lets just hope that the people at TRD think the same thing

 

yea, that mig weld looks amazing

 

I'm really impressed by that AL angle weld. It looks so straight and flat. You get mad credit for that control.

 

I like your "talk about hualing ***" comment

 

I think you'll get the job , that is A nice mig weld

 

looks good

 

damn skippy that **** is hard to control on that AL weld. Good luck!

 

Thanks for all the compliments. I fixed the pics so they should all be working now. A guy that i went to class with works at Roush Racing now. I sent him a pic of the Mig welds and he said that hes never seen heat control like that. He said that its perfect all the way wround the pipe(you can tell by the coloration). That gave me a little more confidence for my next welding test.

BTW-Id be building chassis for the TRD tacoma and TRD camry in NASCAR. Alot of the best chassis builders for every style of racing started with NASCAR...i hope this will just be a stepping stone to bigger and better things

 

nice work!

 

that mig weld is awesome

 

thats a freakin amazing MIG weld...i thought it was a tig

 

Yea ive always been proud of my mig welding. Its definately my strongest point...and the funny thing is that i just picked up on it so fast. We have to weld plates in 3 different positions and have them bent to pass the class. Most people will weld 10-15 plates in each position before they have one good enough to bend. Well i never welded more than 4 plates in each position. In fact i passed my vertical on my 2nd fully welded plate. My teacher about **** a brick when i told him it was only my second one. Mig welding just comes easily to me...but i still prefer doing tig. You just have so much more control over tig than you do with mig.

BTW-Tuesday is the big day. Im nervous and excited at the same time. Its funny though cuz i hardly ever get nervous about anything. I guess im just so excited because ive been working on this for 2 1/2 years and its finally paying off

 

any tips on mig...?

 

Well the biggest mistake i see most people make is trying to weld on the wrong heat and wire speed. Ive found it easier to find a welding speed thats best for you...then adjust the heat and wire speed accordingly. Other than that just make sure you watch the puddle and dont move until you see the filler melt into the material. Mig welding has a bad rep because most people dont take the time to make it look good. You usually see mig welds with alot of spatter all around them...it isnt supposed to look like that. Alot of the time spatter means that youre moving too fast.

Another good tip is to listen to the welding as youre doing it. It should sound like frying bacon if youre doing it right. If its popping then youve either get too much stick out or youre moving too fast. Popping can also mean that youre welding at the wrong angle. It should be a constant frying sound if dont correctly.

As for welding on pipe. The biggest tip i can give you is to roll your wrist as you going around. You shoud try to mantain the same angle to the weld at all times. Ill tr and draw something in paint to show you what i mean. Im not good at describing things like that

Edit:Heres a crude drawing i did in paint. Its nasty looking but youll get the point.


Here you can see what im talking about with rolling the wrist. You roll it from left to right to keep the same angle and stick out as you can see in the pic. Hope this helped a little


Modified by sCeRaXn at 10:04 AM 3/9/2006

 

what kind of angle do you like best.
and my beads are sometimes a bit too high and round. like stick that would mean too low heat right?

 

It could be many things causing that. Its most likely too much heat, too much wire speed, or youre not moving fast enough. Like i said bfore...find a welding speed thats best for you and then adjust the heat and wire speed that fits best.

As far as the angle goes...i try to keep the tip at a 45deg angle to the weld. Sometimes you have to adjust it to see...but the most important thing is that it stays the same throughout the weld.

 

too much heat wouldnt cause it to be too high.

too slow yes, too little heat yes.
thanks for the advice though.

-derek

 

Youre right...i dont know what i was thinking. I meant to say not enough heat and i guess i mixed it up with too much wire speed. Good luck man...practice is the best teacher in this case

 

thanks

-derek