joint design for sanitary welds

admin

I'm doing some brewing related work for a friend of mine and thought somebody might be able to give me a heads up on what works best for joint design. I'm working with 2" .065 304. The job has a few butt welds and a 'T' as well. I've thought about a small gap with square edges, small bevels, tight but with or without bevels. I'll have some extra material to mess around with if I need to but I was hoping that the weldingweb community could save me some time. I'm also curious if the solar flux or similar products are worth while for this kind of work.TIA.
Reply:When welding .065 with the orbital machine, it is pushed together face to face with no gap. About 65 amps. Good thing you have some extra material to practice with.UA Local 598
Reply:I would say ZERO gap,  Amazing fit up, and a good back purge you might be able to pull it off.Vantage 500's LN-25's, VI-400's, cobramatics, Miller migs, synch 350 LX, Powcon inverters, XMT's, 250 Ton Acurrpress 12' brake, 1/4" 10' Atlantic shear,Koikie plasma table W/ esab plasmas. marvel & hyd-mech saws, pirrana & metal muncher punches.
Reply:Fit it tight, tight, tight, make sure you de burr, purge, and burn em' together. I will get you some pix of the sanitary pipe cutter, as well as some finished joints this week. I run about 45-65 depending on how it is running 3/32 tungsten and just walk it around.Disclaimer; "I am just an a$$hole welder, don't take it personally ."
Reply:i'm guessing it's not gonna be orbital welded ...prep : no gap, no bevel , backpurgeamps : freehand 40ish A  , 4 sec downslope min and 8 sec postflow ,1/16 tungsten.           walk... what Tozzi saidwirebrush (ss brush) between welds and tacks, weld in 4 opposing segments to avoid warping.If backpurge was good you should see no colors on the inside.Also, the T's and bends are made from 2mm stainless so go up to ~45A for them--------------------------------------------------------------www.becmotors.nlyup, I quit welding.. joined welder anonymous
Reply:I was planning on coping the T and welding it in, not using a fitting. Unless you guys think that is a disaster waiting to happen that is. Any places to buy 2" fittings on line? I wouldn't be opposed to using one if it wasn't asspensive.At the ~50 amps you guys are mentioning are you running the first pass without filler?Dulaie, thanks for the confidence in me  I've welded professionally for a while although I don't anymore. I know I can pull this off but I haven't done and sani tube work before.Last edited by quasi; 12-29-2010 at 10:08 AM.
Reply:You must not leave a crevase where bacteria can attach and grow.Solar Flux is a no-no in that the resulting glaze cannot be completely removed and would contaminate the brew product.
Reply:Sanitary tube fitting and welding is a very specialized field. Not meant to discourage you but I'll let you know a little about it as my company has a sanitary division. Our tube saw's are all Georg Fischer. They will cut within .005" of square- just to give you an idea of how precise the fit up needs to be (no bevel). The saw's cost around $6,000. each and the blades are $40 each. Our orbital welders will not tolerate a poor fit up. In most cases we will use a end prep machine before orbital welding. We have around $35,000.00 in each orbital welder. For hand welding we "walk the cup" 95% of the time. Walking the cup means resting the cup on the tube and moving the torch side to side and progressing from bottom to top. this takes lots of practice. On the average it takes the novice tig welder about 2 to 3 months to get to the point where we will let them go on their own. All guys start out fabing hangers and then progress to the tube and pipe. If there are schools that teach sanitary welding I haven't heard of them- I was mostly self taught and some was passed down. I train all of our guys. The state ag and markets licenses us to install dairy equipment and then the plant's Q/A takes it from there. It's almost all reputation that allows you to do this kind of work- don't risk it! AWS dose have d-18.1 (i think thats it) if you want to take a look. Our welders cert to that. We sell sanitary fittings& tube. Do not attempt to make your own for a process line. Hope this helps.
Reply:Originally Posted by quasiI was planning on coping the T and welding it in, not using a fitting. Unless you guys think that is a disaster waiting to happen that is. Any places to buy 2" fittings on line? I wouldn't be opposed to using one if it wasn't asspensive.At the ~50 amps you guys are mentioning are you running the first pass without filler?Dulaie, thanks for the confidence in me  I've welded professionally for a while although I don't anymore. I know I can pull this off but I haven't done and sani tube work before.
Reply:I found a place locally to get a T $24 no shipping, didn't think there was anybody that dealt with that kind of stuff hear in Bend. Thanks for all of the advice guys, I'll post some pics next week when all of the parts show up.
Reply:Are we talking a serious home brew system or commercial brew equipment?
Reply:Lets say really high gravity and leave it at that. I'd like it to be of commercial standards even though it won't see that kind of use.
Reply:Here are a few pix of the start of a project I have in sanitary piping.Pile of partsFerruleTeeClamp and gasketThe cutterI will get more pix up as the job progresses, I hope you made out on your brewing system.Last edited by TozziWelding; 01-02-2011 at 04:41 PM.Disclaimer; "I am just an a$$hole welder, don't take it personally ."
Reply:Cutter looks interesting, is that better than a cold saw? Granted it's probably a little cheaper and portable but looks pretty specific.  thanks for the pics. I should have most of my material by the end of the week and it shouldn't take to long to get the process down and get this thing running. I'll post some pics when I get it all done.
Reply:Thats all that machine does is cut sanitary piping, nothing else. I will cut larger sanitary on the band saw but the blade has to be new and the pipe gets a good cleaning after the cut.Disclaimer; "I am just an a$$hole welder, don't take it personally ."
Reply:Here is a few pics of our orbital and one of our smaller GF saws. This saw is good for tube up to 4". We like it for the portability aspect- good for smaller jobs. Our larger GF saws will do 4" pipe or tube. Orbital will weld from .5" to 4" tube. Attached Images
Reply:Originally Posted by quasiCutter looks interesting, is that better than a cold saw? Granted it's probably a little cheaper and portable but looks pretty specific.  ....
Reply:do you guys have any pics inside and out of the welds the machine makes? I'd like to know what I'm up against.