Welding truth or wind up

Took about 30 seconds of video before "click, burrr"
"imagine, you are mid atlantic when "bang" your goose neck snaps....." ANY weld without shedloads of experience and top range kit wont even last as long as my patience for the vid.
 
Lon nan Gruagach said:
Took about 30 seconds of video before "click, burrr"
"imagine, you are mid atlantic when "bang" your goose neck snaps....." ANY weld without shedloads of experience and top range kit wont even last as long as my patience for the vid.
Click to expand...

This is true. The guy who managed to glue the rally car back together was a professional welder, and he produced as much blue air as weld.
 
Lon nan Gruagach said:
Took about 30 seconds of video before "click, burrr"
"imagine, you are mid atlantic when "bang" your goose neck snaps....." ANY weld without shedloads of experience and top range kit wont even last as long as my patience for the vid.
Click to expand...

Yes quite true especially as the gooseneck fitting would be an aluminium alloy.

I will let you into a little secret with You Tube videos, jump forwards till you find the interesting bit then watch that, invariably the first bits are a waste of time as you seem to have found out.:p
 
Back in about '81 I used one to repair the rear suspension of a Bond Bug in the outskirts of the Sahara desert. It was fine all of the way home!

The one I had used a copper sheathed carbon rod to create the arc, which you then used to melt a brazing rod. I see no immediate reason why it wouldn't work with one of the aluminium 'brazing' rods, but would definitely recommend:

A. Practicing beforehand because there is a little technique required.

and

B. Checking that it actually works on ally and also doesn't contaminate the weld etc etc. In my experience ally is a PITA to weld but I have no experience of the aluminium 'brazing' rods
 
My first arc welder back in the 70s used 12v batteries as its power source. I can't recall its name but it featured a special 'vibrating' rod holder that moved the rod rapidly back and forth; all you had to do was strike the first arc and then the thing started buzzing and vibrating and created quite a nice smooth arc for you and no sticking. I think they've been discussed on here before.
I ran it on old lorry batteries from the scrappy - a lot of charging for not much welding - but I successfully seam-welded an entire Hillman Imp bodyshell with it.
 
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halcyon said:
We all were, including arc, also gas cutting, but then you try buying gas welding equipment or even refilling bottles if you were not a company.

Brian
Click to expand...

????

I had an account with BOC in the mid to late '60s as a private individual and there were plenty of suppliers around for welding equipment. It was cheaper in those days to buy spare cylinders from the drivers:)
 
Graham376 said:
????

I had an account with BOC in the mid to late '60s as a private individual and there were plenty of suppliers around for welding equipment. It was cheaper in those days to buy spare cylinders from the drivers:)
Click to expand...

I forgot I lived then, and no one in our area had gas bottles in the shed, two mates had bottles, but very rare in our area, but then few people had cars, so little need.

Brian
 
Interesting a few years back some professional divers were contracted to remove railway lines that formed a rail type slip for raising boats at our club. The slipping system was outlawed because of environmental problems with river contamination. They seemed to use 2x 12v batteries in series to form an arc steel cutter that worked under water. I couldn't see it working unfortunately but it seems it was and still is a viable arc cutter and they got rid of the rails.
As for welding stainless steel I have used ss rods semi successfully. I am a terrible welder so have pretty much given up. It certainly easier with heavy metal and hopeless with ss tubing like stern rails. So I imagine emergency repairs might be just as difficult. I can't imagine his iductor of cable around a bolt would do much but perhaps a much larger inductance would help. ol'will
 
Ooops. Sorry about the rubbish original link. I meant to check it honest. Interesting topic. I've never tried to weld so a mid Atlantic bodge Ali attempt mightn't work well. Perhaps carrying a spare gooseneck would be a better plan? I did get a new rigging deck plate welded but got an engineering co to do it. And they did an A1 job.

Interesting thread though
 
Quite often weld 1.5 SS tube with stick, trick is short dabs, to avoid blowing through. Just done a 20mt railing, all 1.5 & 2mm, but with Mig. Not as tidy as Tig, but way faster.

Never tried the battery trick, but did see someone do a bit and it held together.
 
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