Welding Round Stock?

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Hey All,New to the forum...I'm a hobbyist welder with a Millermatic and a 1975 Land Cruiser, and have no problem keeping myself busy with bumpers, battery trays, body work, projects around the house, etc.  I'm in the process of lengthening a piece of round stock (apx. 1" dia.) and am curious as to what method would be best to do this to minimize (well, eliminate) warping and assure a rock-solid weldment.  Torsional strength is the most critical concern.All of my welding to date has either been with flat stock or tubing, so this is a little different animal.  Would it be better to weld in a circular fashion (mounting the ends in a rotating jig), cut the ends into wedges and alternate flat welds, or...? Thanks in Advance,Mike
Reply:All I would do is 'V' it out, clamp the heck out of it in some heavy angle and go to town.Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.
Reply:I'm in the process of lengthening a piece of round stock (apx. 1" dia.) and am curious as to what method would be best to do this to minimize (well, eliminate) warping and assure a rock-solid weldment. Torsional strength is the most critical concern.
Reply:Well Mike, I aint gonna comment on torsional strength or whether this is a good move.  Without a picture I have no way of knowing what possibilites there are and how critical of a weld this is.  I'd hate to give you advice on something and then it go and kill something do to failure do to a detail I was not informed of.  However, from a standpoint of making a good weld on this here's what I would do.  As mentioned above grind a bevel.  Id grind it down like a pencil.  Id think around a 1/4" for this.  Best to go with a 30 degree angle.  This is  a classic bevel angle.  You will need to clamp it up pretty tight as this piece will want to move.  Most likely you'll want to take a piece of Angle and lay the two pieces of rnd inside and clamp them down into it.  Two clamps min on each piece of the rnd.  This will be good for getting started.  A gig I used to have for doing this with pipe involved a notch out so you could make welds on both sides without moving the pipe/ rnd stock.  Make your welds.   Let the piece cool between welds.  Make sure you keep it plenty clean between passes.  Will want to make it in several passes as its so thick.  Cleaning between passes, and keeping your passes smaller will take longer, but will result in a better weld.  If you allow it to thoroughly cool after welding, you can unclamp and move around in the angle before reclamping.  Failure to do this, or to not clamp will result in the rnd bowing with the heat.  Good luck to you.   If you send a picture of the application maybe more advice can be made.  As I mentioned at first, I am not advocating to weld or not to weld, but figuring youre going to weld Id rather give you my best advice.  Oh, I should say you best weld this is flat, rotating the parts to suit.   Also, you mentioned you have a millermatic, what size?  This is always an important detail in determining the quality of the overall weld with a thickness this great.  Give us a shout and well work this out.  Good luckCHRIS
Reply:Tx,That's about exactly what I just did on some 1 1/8th stuff about a month ago. Angle iron jig. Makes me feel better hearing it tho. Two pencil points like you said. I'd fill, roll it over, gouge it out with a grinder, fill, roll it over to where I thought it needed to be, gouge it out, fill and so-on real slow. It was hot out anyway so the cooling between welds was a welcome wait for me. I was grinding back out mainly looking for cold lap or porosity plus it's a little easier to control the shape of the fill. Looked okay, not sure I would want to put any of my stuff to a bend test tho .
Reply:Tx,Shoulda mentioned the top passes took forever. Trying to fill and tie in with the main shaft and keep it wet. MM175 with .035 solid and it was just more than the machine and wire wanted to do. Too much. Lighter wire may have helped wet it out--but I don't really know that and didn't feel like changing back and forth during this ordeal. You'd know more about that than me. My opinion is the machine is too just too small. I managed to work around it and felt okay with it but I dern sure wouldn't do it for someone or for anything that was going to hang above me!!!
Reply:Sandy youre right about that.  I kinda take for granted a lot, but fill and cap will take a while.  With a machine like a 175 or smaller Id definately run smaller wire.  Wil of course take that much longer, but will burn a lot better.   I would suggestion max of .030, .025 might be more appropriate.  Id even take flux if I had it and felt confident with it.  goood luckCHRIS
Reply:Hey Guys,Wow!  Thanks for all the input.  To clarify, I'm using a MM 210 and have .030, .025 wire, running 75/25 gas.  And this is for a power steering shaft to replace the stock Armstrong steering in the vehicle.  It certainly won't see the abuse of a torsion bar, but you can see my concern for the quality of the weld.I'll be paying close attention to things like weld cleanliness, root welds, cold lap and the like.  And I have some practice stock that I'll be welding up first and fail testing.To clarify my background, I got into welding in college, but didn't get serious about it until I got this rig.  I took several courses at the local college and got certified with stick, so I'm familiar with good welding procedure, but I don't do this professionally, so I figure caution is the better part of valor.I'm certainly open to red flags; I'm not too proud to take the shaft to a professional if there's a lot of concern.I certainly appreciate the input; glad I found this site!Thanks,Mike
Reply:Ah Ive done this with .035 on a 210 and never had a problem. Well actually truely it was a differnt application, but the same concept.  Anyways, .030 or .025 will be fine with this rig, just .025 will take a little longer.  As I mentioned keep everything plenty clean.  Avoid making too big of  pass or too wide of a weave in order to go faster.  Just isnt worth it right.  However, I think you know that.  Mig is a differnt animal than stick, lesson I definately had to learn myself.  However, keeping welds clean between passes is something that just doesnt change.  Make sure you get good tie in and youll be fine.   Good luckCHRIS