mig penetration and what should be full break streanth

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Hi all,New to mig welding but done some tourch long ago.Picked up a Lincoln 100 weldpak 100hd a week ago, and doing some welding with it. So far, my welds are pass, or to much weld material. The question I have to know is, how can you test how strong a weld is? Is there standards that are used against welds to see how much stress thay can take, before breaking? I am making a slide out platform that slides out from my truck. The length of the platform is around 94 inches long by 56 inches wide. I want it to handle 1,000 bls. What grade of angle iron or tube steel should I buy? what wall thickness? Also, how do I know what full penetration should look like? Should I see it on the other side of the metal? I did some welding and it was really strong, but did not see penetration on the other side of a butt weld. Should welds break, or bend? Thanks
Reply:Lo, the final yeild of a weld depends on many factors.  If you are using 70-6 you should get a yeild of 70K psi, but if properly welded the base metal usually fails in the heat affected zone and not in the weld itself.  Conditions, depth of penetration, cleanliness, fit up and a bunch of other thing all affect this so overkill is always better.  The tests you were interested in are the Bend, Notch, elongation and even X-ray.  There are a ton of tests depending on what you are welding and how critical the weld is.  Cant speak to material size off the top of my head since so many things come into play, send up a drawing and maybe the smarter guys can give you some direction on material and strength..  Hope this helpsBobI'm spending my Kids inheritance, I dont like him that much anyway!!!!!!Enuff tools to do the job, enough sense to use em.Anybody got a spare set of kidneys?  Trade?
Reply:Originally Posted by lortechPicked up a Lincoln 100 weldpak 100hd a week ago, and doing some welding with it. So far, my welds are pass, or to much weld material. I am making a slide out platform that slides out from my truck. The length of the platform is around 94 inches long by 56 inches wide. I want it to handle 1,000 bls. What grade of angle iron or tube steel should I buy? what wall thickness? Thanks
Reply:Originally Posted by joedirt1966Your Lincoln 100 weldpak may not adequately penetrate 1/8" even if you use fluxcore (which runs a bit hotter than MIG).I'd be a little nervous about being too close to a fully loaded (1000 lbs.) and fully extended slide out platform welded by a novice with one of the smaller 110Volt welders.It would be advisable to perform a lot of practice welds on the type of material you will be using, cut them up, and then inspect for adequate penetration before considering any welding on a project that experiences significant loading.If your welds cannot adequately and consistently penetrate 1/8", i'd think twice about proceeding further with this project.