SMAW pics

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Here are a few practice beads I layed the other day, I got bored and my grinder pooped out so I couldn't TIG weld. This was using 6013 in my Squarewave 175 on about 1/8" or so plate. This is all horizontal but I will post some overhead stuff tonight when I get home from my welding contest. Any comments/criticisms are welcome!  Lean mean TIG weldin' machineSquarewave 175
Reply:Custom Welds;You mentioned welding contest. Are you involve with "VICA"? Years ago my oldest son was National champ for two years. It's a real good program, with a lot of benifits. I hope you did good
Reply:Yes sir, VICA Skills USA. Our contest was slapped together and poorly at that. We ended up having three hours total to do an 8" V-groove with a 6010 3G up hill root and 7018 3G up cover passes, an 1/8'' aluminum lap joint that was 8 inches long 2f, 3g up 7018 outside corner, 3g down and up 6010 outside corner, GMAW down outside corner, 4 overhead 7018 and 4 2f 7024 beads. I think that covers it. The catch was, that 3 hours included fit up, cutting, NO GRINDING ALLOWED PERIOD!!! Wire wheels were allowed though...I had to share a booth with two other guys whom one of which took 30 minutes on his root pass alone, then after the first hour and a half, I went and did all the fitup on the big project, etc...I didn't get to clean my welds fully, I had to turn it in with 4 slag covered beads . Good news is, I got 5th place anyway...Bad news, you have to get third to go to state Oh well, it was fun and I'll do tons better next year!Lean mean TIG weldin' machineSquarewave 175
Reply:Brings back memiories. back in the eighties Jerry the instructor at "PETC" Clearwater always had student at the Nationals. He drives his contestants merclessly. I remember my Son Spending all day on saturdays in the welding booth. doing Plate and pipe. I use to Go in with him and bevel plate with a track torch, and bevel pipe, so the boys could keep on welding. Custom welds, Did you win any goodies?. Jimmy won a couple of welders, A miller mig, I don't remember what flavor. A couple of Torch outfits, a Helmet, leathers Etc. . I still use a Harris outfit that was Donated by Biships welding. Thay have since been bought out by Valley Air gas. I still do business with them.Keep up with it. VICA can be a path to a good job. Jimmy got in the"Millwrights" union. He's making obscene ammounts of money, of course he works his a$$ off long hours. He's never home, but he enjoys the work. They even send him to Los Vegas for his annual safety training. MAC 702 probably knows where the Milwrights training center  there is.Last edited by fla jim; 02-20-2004 at 07:25 PM.
Reply:Customwelds, the time frame allotted doesn't sound that bad to me, in fact it sounds generous, unless you are forced to share facilitys with a professional time waster.As far as no grinding allowed on fitup, that isn't outrageous either, it's more a test of your ability to run a torch properly.  There are a lot of things you don't learn in school that you do in the real world, and one is how important the man with the torch is.  Good cutting plus a hammer will handle 90% of fitups without grinding.Appreciation Gains You Recognition-
Reply:The fitups weren't exactly the problem with grinding. I just would have liked to have been able to feather stop starts etc. As for as professional time waster, you hit the nail right on the head. By the time I was even able to take my pieces together and run my root pass, there was only 15 minutes left for me to finish it. I finished, BARELY, but I did. It would be indeed a generous time allotment if I were able to have my own booth set aside, or something like that. BTW just one of the joints was prepared with a torch. It was to cut a circle in plate to weld a small pipe in. Didn't even consider using a hammer . Fla Jim, I won a small treasure chest of stuff! I got a medium quality helmet(fixed shade, not auto), a few pairs of gloves, some penetrating lube, tip cleaners, etc etc...My welding teacher and I both wish they would have let me clean those last four welds...Would have taken merely 30 seconds and we figured that would have bumped me up to third! It's a little frustrating something so seemingly trivial can have that large of an effect. I'm not to worried though, there's always next year.Lean mean TIG weldin' machineSquarewave 175
Reply:I'm not a welding instructor, but, from what I see....the first pic. is a real nice tack weld.....the second & third are nice too, but i'm wondering if there's just a little bit of undercut there ?Mind you, i'm not being at all critical.....just putting my 2 cents in.Nice job custom ! I'll be the LAST one to let you down !
Reply:Thank you Marko! I'm having troubles getting a good photo of welds, every weld i've taken a pic of looked undercut so far wether it is or not...Does anyone have any ideas on how to keep it from shadowing that way?Lean mean TIG weldin' machineSquarewave 175
Reply:Try putting a piece of white cardboard next to it for the "flash to reflect off of. That should soften your shadows.Congradulations on your VICA competion. I bet You'll killem next year. First time "jitters" are rough. Next year you'll be a veteran.
Reply:Fla Jim, thank you very much for the kind words. It's hard to get em anymore! Seems like everyone is around to critisize someone else, lol. That's one reason I love welding, for the most part people who know or want to know anything about welding help each other out every time and are friends with practically anyone. The only weldors I don't care to be around are the self proclaimed "experts" who can't do anything but weld a stinger to a table, hehehe. Anyway, thanks again guys.Lean mean TIG weldin' machineSquarewave 175