|
 Here is where I'm spending the next few days. welding on a new high pressure steam heater for the power plant. 18" diameter 3" wall thickness. 300f preheat. Up close view. 
SmokeyXIII fucked around with this message at 04:47 on Feb 10, 2012 |
#
?
Feb 10, 2012 04:43
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2024 16:14 |
|
|
Z3n posted:
As far as cleaning tips for tomorrow. 1. Hit the surfaces hard with a wire brush 2. Some strong isopropyl alcohol also will do you good to help remove greases, solvents, etc. As far as welding. 1. I weld aluminum really hot. On 1/16th" sheet I will weld around 125amps to 150amps or higher depending. I just adjust travel speed accordingly. 75 amps seems really really cold for AL. That kind of amperage would be more typical of steel or stainless. Because it is such a good heat sink, a lot of people have trouble getting the puddle to form up at the start of the weld without getting cold lap. You could turn your balance over to more DCEN DC straight. You don't want to cold lap that short seem, so I would recommend turning the amperage way up and burning that bastard in.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2012 04:46
|
|
|
duck hunt posted:Plate is usually rolled out mechanically with huge rollers. These rollers apply pressure to even the thickness of the plate out as much as possible. One thing that I notice is that plates (I'm taking about steel here) acquire a bit of work hardening from this process. So the "skin" of the steel is a bit harder than the underlying metal. The rolling also produces stretching. This is especially true with sheet metal, and this stress can either weaken or cold work and harden the sheet depending on the material. Cool, thanks for the info. Ordered my stock. I expect that amazon will be getting even more of my business now that I know they sell metal stock that's prime eligible. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2012 04:47
|
|
|
SmokeyXIII posted:
Smokey, you have a way of finding the coziest little vacation get-aways. What kind of root, hot, fill, and cap passes are you making? 6010? Dual shield? TIG? e: looks like induction pre-heating.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2012 04:51
|
|
|
SmokeyXIII posted:
What plant is that?
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2012 07:03
|
|
|
80S TIG root and hot passes, no purge. 7018 stick fill and cap. its actually ceramic coils for the preheat. they're computer controlled and perpetually in the way. they're cool though since you can heat them to a billion degrees they can be used for post Weld treatment. Its at Keephills unit 2, coal fired power plant west of Edmonton. Also I will second the idea to crank up your heat a bunch on that aluminum welding job. grind the surfaces before you weld and it should go fine as far as cleaning goes SmokeyXIII fucked around with this message at 07:13 on Feb 10, 2012 |
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2012 07:10
|
|
|
Holy poo poo man, that looks as big as the grand loving canyon. Good luck with that weld smokey, I salute your fortitude.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2012 19:23
|
|
|
Slung Blade posted:Holy poo poo man, that looks as big as the grand loving canyon. Thanks, we got two of them done now, 4 more to go. Hopefully the xray and the phased array goes well! They would be a massive pain in the rear end to repair. I took a couple shots of the root and hot pass I did on another 18" horizontal chrome. Couldn't really get a picture of the inside of the root but I promise it looks about as good as the outside    The washed out parts on the bottom on the weld is where I pulled my torch to the side to freeze my wire in the puddle so I could adjust my hand on it. It's a little trick I learned to keep me going longer without having to tie in again. Also better clean up those arc strikes before the QC man peeks his head in there on Monday. SmokeyXIII fucked around with this message at 08:28 on Feb 13, 2012 |
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2012 08:23
|
|
|
Just on the chain mail thing. You can successfully use sprung steel washers. Counter twist them to "open" them up and then link them up before twisting flush. And they won't pull apart like wire. It doesn't take as long as you think and you can watch tv or do something else at the same time. I might still have a bit lying around somewhere.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2012 18:14
|
|
|
Alright metal heads I am planning on buying a plasma cutter this year and I have a few questions for the group. First off I am going with plasma because it is so much cleaner that O/A and because I need to cut Al and SS as well as steel. I'm buying it to allow me to cut curves faster than using abrasives. I will be mostly free hand cutting with it, so no crazy duty cycle needed. Thickest material that I would be cutting with it would be 1/4." I'm pretty sure I want to get a Hypertherm cutter. I was thinking this. If you have experience with these machines, please post itt. Pretty much, if you own, or use a plasma cutter a lot I'd like to know a bit about what you use and how you use it. Other than the cutter, I am going to need to buy an air compressor. I'm actually surprised I don't have one already, but I need it to be able to run the plasma mainly. I might purchase some other pneumatic tools for it, but plasma is my number one purpose for the compressor right now. My buddy just bought this. It runs like a loving champ. I don't know a ton about compressors because compressors have always just been "a loud thing on the truck that you need to run x,y, or z." Any good resources or war stories on buying a compressor would be much appreciated.
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2012 01:58
|
|
|
I thought cutting stainless with plasma you wanted compressed nitrogen instead of air for a cleaner cut? Quincy makes awesome air compressors and you'll never regret buying one. They're expensive, but worth every penny. Ingersoll Rand and Campbell Hausfeld are also good brands to look at, and can be had a little cheaper. Unless you need it portable don't bother with anything smaller than a 60 gallon and never, ever, ever buy anything with an oilless pump.
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2012 02:12
|
|
|
You could use compressed nitrogen but that costs money. Oh is that surface oxidation on the cut edge? *grabs flapper disc on grinder*
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2012 05:21
|
|
|
I'd buy the nitrogen, but I'd want a big tank so I could use it for various chemical applications. As a completely unrelated side note, this guy's blog is amazing. http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/things_i_wont_work_with/ Especially the parts about nitro groups.
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2012 18:10
|
|
|
0000-grade steel wool is 
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2012 21:23
|
|
|
Side track. I got my welder tuned up for welding some 5052 for an upcoming project.  While I was loving around, something for Valentine's day.  See, having a heart of cold metal isn't that bad.
|
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2012 00:32
|
|
|
I'm trying to make a scalemaille gorget- just a big ol tapering wedge of scalemaille with a neck-chain. I'm trying to give it a 'backbone'- a 12-gauge copper wire, hammered square and curled slightly to follow the general curve of the chest, with 16-gauge wires welded to it at regular intervals (matching the spacing of the top row of scales, natch) to be curled into hooks to support the whole thing. I'm having trouble fixing the wires, though. The main spine- the 12-gauge wire- is soaking up too much heat. I've only got one torch at the moment so I can't hit it with another flame (what I'd normally do). I want to weld the wires together, which I can do no problem on an individual scale, but the entire piece just sucks up all the heat I can throw at it. I'm running MAPP gas, too, so I can't cheat there either. Right now I figure either assemble the spine 'separately' (i.e., cut the main spine up into a couple pieces, weld the hook-wires, and then somehow put it back together in a way that doesn't look like poo poo), or find a way to put more heat into it. I was thinking of putting a steel plate over one of my oven's gas burners and doing the work on that, so the piece sucks less heat out of the weld site, but I don't have a piece of steel suitable for it (aside from non-garbage pans and such that I'm not going to sacrifice). e: I think a charcoal block's kind of what I'm looking for (it'll burn and amplify the heat of the flame instead of absorbing it like a firebrick, also the reducing atmosphere doesn't hurt), but I don't have one/nor any lumps of charcoal bigger than an apple. Ambrose Burnside fucked around with this message at 02:26 on Feb 15, 2012 |
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2012 01:21
|
|
|
Ambrose Burnside posted:I'm trying to make a scalemaille gorget- just a big ol tapering wedge of scalemaille with a neck-chain. I'm trying to give it a 'backbone'- a 12-gauge copper wire, hammered square and curled slightly to follow the general curve of the chest, with 16-gauge wires welded to it at regular intervals (matching the spacing of the top row of scales, natch) to be curled into hooks to support the whole thing. I'm having trouble fixing the wires, though. Post a picture of what you are doing if you can. Also, you can always take a piece of 2/4 or 2/6 (not treated lumber) or a generic piece of dry log and hit it with the torch for a few minutes to give it a thick charcoal surface. That should help.
|
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2012 08:11
|
|
|
Slung Blade posted:I'd buy the nitrogen, but I'd want a big tank so I could use it for various chemical applications. As linked from that particular post, and bringing it right back into topicality for this thread (sorta): the anvil chorus from Il Travatore. ok, jeweler's anvils, but I guess they needed something the stagehands can easily drag onto stage and off again, and also not have one fall over and crush someone's foot
|
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2012 18:18
|
|
|
iForge posted:Post a picture of what you are doing if you can. Also, you can always take a piece of 2/4 or 2/6 (not treated lumber) or a generic piece of dry log and hit it with the torch for a few minutes to give it a thick charcoal surface. That should help. I went all-out with the MSPaint. Broke out the curvy-line tool and everything. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2012 01:50
|
|
|
I don't think that the charcoal block is going to do what you think in that case. I think it will just dirty up your joints and make it harder to braze/solder. You may want to dress up your joints by wrapping your ends over the main string like I have in the (horrid) mspaint. Using a toothpick to apply a tiny bit of flux to the joints may let you solder it while preserving aesthetics and not getting solder everywhere. I don't know that you will be able to braze that small of a joint with a mapp torch (and actually make it look good), as the metal will lose heat way too quickly. I recommend being careful about where your flux goes and use some thin wire solder to do the job.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2012 05:01
|
|
|
Now, given that there are a metric shitload (thousandth-load) of posts in this thread, you might forgive me. I'm learning machining/CNC/toolmaking after a stint in the military and I'm looking to find a very small propane tank to fit inside of a 2" ID rocket fuselage. I have looked locally, to no avail, all they have is regular 3.5" or whatever, which are way too big and heavy for my aeronautical applications. I plan on running my stout-rear end machined rocket engines on very aggressive fuels like N2O/Propane. but this won't happen unless I find tanks that will fit in a 2" ID fuselage. Goons, Help! bitches, come!!
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2012 05:02
|
|
|
iForge posted:I don't think that the charcoal block is going to do what you think in that case. I think it will just dirty up your joints and make it harder to braze/solder. You may want to dress up your joints by wrapping your ends over the main string like I have in the (horrid) mspaint. Using a toothpick to apply a tiny bit of flux to the joints may let you solder it while preserving aesthetics and not getting solder everywhere. I don't know that you will be able to braze that small of a joint with a mapp torch (and actually make it look good), as the metal will lose heat way too quickly. I recommend being careful about where your flux goes and use some thin wire solder to do the job. Yeah, I'll try that. I tried something kinda-sorta like that- wrapping the hook-wires around the spine- but it was only a precursor to trying to fuse the entire thing together, which wasn't working because [not enough heat]. I'm just leery about soldering because I don't have an electric iron or anything else appropriate, just a torch that's super-super-overkill for soft solder-work. e: And yeah brazing is kind of a disaster on this scale, although it's still fun to play with. Sometimes I braze flattened pennies together and then 'work' the 'billet' to try to make baby mokume-gane, but only a few lil pieces have turned out decent-looking. I might turn em into earrings or something. Ambrose Burnside fucked around with this message at 15:11 on Feb 16, 2012 |
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2012 15:09
|
|
|
This is apropos of nothing, but- where can I find the material properties of various metals? I'm mostly interested in the hardness of various materials- I'm going to do a Non-Ferrous Roundup from RotoMetals and I'm probably going to get a pound or two of linotype alloy, which is, what, 22 Brinell Hardness? I want to know what I'll be able to reasonably mark with punches or dies made from that. e: Never mind, figured out how MatWeb works. Only tin/pewter and aluminum and, oh yeah, cadmium and indium and tellurium I think?? There's apparently one single copper alloy that's under 20 Brinell but it's a special alloy intended for glassworking moulds. Oh well. Ambrose Burnside fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Feb 16, 2012 |
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2012 15:46
|
|
|
Mr. Samuel Shitley posted:Now, given that there are a metric shitload (thousandth-load) of posts in this thread, you might forgive me. I'm learning machining/CNC/toolmaking after a stint in the military and I'm looking to find a very small propane tank to fit inside of a 2" ID rocket fuselage. I have looked locally, to no avail, all they have is regular 3.5" or whatever, which are way too big and heavy for my aeronautical applications. I don't think they exist. Are you making small arms or something? You'd probably have to make your own out of pipe fittings or something. What kind of pressure do you need and how much weight can you allow?
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2012 17:43
|
|
|
drat, I was dreading that. For what I'm looking for it would be about 200 psi tops. I thought about using pipes, but leaks seem likely. Also I've never made a pressure vessel from scratch. e: as far as weight, as light as possible. Looking for a high thrust/weight ratio. Mr. Samuel Shitley fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Feb 16, 2012 |
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2012 18:24
|
|
|
Mr. Samuel Shitley posted:drat, I was dreading that. For what I'm looking for it would be about 200 psi tops. I thought about using pipes, but leaks seem likely. Also I've never made a pressure vessel from scratch.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2012 20:00
|
|
|
I have a "pencil torch" which is a tiny little torch that runs on butane. It has a tank in it for the butane obviously, which is under some amount of pressure (not much). You fill it with those cigarette lighter refill bottles. There are also CO2 cartridges that are used in applications like paintball, which hold a lot more pressure than that. While neither is intended for your purpose, perhaps you could get ahold of them and experiment a bit?
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2012 20:08
|
|
|
Mr. Samuel Shitley posted:Now, given that there are a metric shitload (thousandth-load) of posts in this thread, you might forgive me. I'm learning machining/CNC/toolmaking after a stint in the military and I'm looking to find a very small propane tank to fit inside of a 2" ID rocket fuselage. I have looked locally, to no avail, all they have is regular 3.5" or whatever, which are way too big and heavy for my aeronautical applications. Have a look in airsoft forums maybe, my brother has a refillable airsoft pistol that uses "green gas" which is propane with silicone oil mixed in. maybe you could cannibalise a gun for its pressure vessel
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2012 21:06
|
|
|
Dongsmith posted:I think I might sit next to you in blueprint class! Are you a tall guy with black hair who was wearing an Air Force shirt today? I'm the short redhead. I've been meaning to ask which forums you post on but I'm too goony even to bring the subject up in real life. The rocket nozzle looks pretty cool (unless you happen to be a different ex-mil machinist student who turns rocket nozzles and posts on SA, which the odds are pretty low but maybe not as low as one would expect) Yeah, that's me. Small world, eh? I think a small (9-12 oz. or so) paintball tank would work. The best part is, they make them in aluminum, so I can save on weight. Aside from that, they're easy to obtain and cheap. I would like to actually scope one out at a store to get a feel for it though. Appreciate the input!
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2012 00:17
|
|
|
Mr. Samuel Shitley posted:Yeah, that's me. Small world, eh? It always weirds me the hell out when this happens 
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2012 00:38
|
|
|
Ambrose Burnside posted:This is apropos of nothing, but- where can I find the material properties of various metals? I'm mostly interested in the hardness of various materials- I'm going to do a Non-Ferrous Roundup from RotoMetals and I'm probably going to get a pound or two of linotype alloy, which is, what, 22 Brinell Hardness? I want to know what I'll be able to reasonably mark with punches or dies made from that. From what i've read, you're going to have a hard job finding actual hardness values for specific metals. It's especially complicated since different lumps of the same alloy will still have different properties based on a whole mess of factors. If you have the actual metal to test you could buy a set of hardness testing files.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2012 02:14
|
|
|
Lets Play Arson posted:From what i've read, you're going to have a hard job finding actual hardness values for specific metals. It's especially complicated since different lumps of the same alloy will still have different properties based on a whole mess of factors. Oh, I know- I'm flattening a lump of bronze into sheet by hand for no good reason other than I don't like working out without performing 'productive labour', and it's kind of mindblowing how quickly a bit of work-hardening will affect something prone to it. Even rough ranges would be useful, just to give me an idea (which I was able to find)- i.e. copper alloys are 20-~300 Brinell, which means it's pretty effectively out of my reach with linotype alloy even if by definition it isn't. If I had decent durable positives of the faces of whatever punches I wanted to make and a big lump of casting putty for really quick one-sided castings, I bet I could even make sacrificial one-time-use punches for marking things harder than the punch itself. Well, not -that- much harder, but you could probably still get one good impression out of a linotype punch on copper or something else in the neighbourhood of 22 Brinell before it deforms into uselessness. /emptyspeculation
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2012 02:56
|
|
|
Welding progression!    Comments/concerns? When I'm done with it I'll take pictures of all the welds on the subframe...I didn't think to grab pictures of anything but a few of the ones I did today.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2012 07:58
|
|
|
For flat tig on MS that is pretty ugly to be honest. Its not very straight, the beads are inconsistent in size and spacing, and it looks like your heat mightve fluctuated quite a bit as the welds start out flat/almost concave and end up in a somewhat convex glob. For practice, scribe a line on some flat metal and try to follow it the best you can. Try to keep the same speed and just slowly dip.....dip.....dip..... Whats up with the metal there? Is that rusting through? Are those globules of weld bead on a crack in the subframe? Those look especially bad though I am not sure if thats a crack or if those are just practice or what.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2012 08:36
|
|
|
Lord Gaga posted:For flat tig on MS that is pretty ugly to be honest. Its not very straight, the beads are inconsistent in size and spacing, and it looks like your heat mightve fluctuated quite a bit as the welds start out flat/almost concave and end up in a somewhat convex glob. Looks like a globby weld that didn't get the slag cleaned off yet or.. spray paint.. or something. On the actual joint, it's hard to tell, but it looks like the penetration isn't that great.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2012 11:15
|
|
|
hailthefish posted:Looks like a globby weld that didn't get the slag cleaned off yet or.. spray paint.. or something. This is TIG, there is no slag
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2012 16:15
|
|
|
It's burnt paint or primer.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2012 17:50
|
|
|
Lord Gaga posted:This is TIG, there is no slag And there's something that prevents there from being multiple types of welds on the same piece of metal? Paint seems a lot more likely, though.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2012 18:51
|
|
|
Lord Gaga posted:This is TIG, there is no slag Bald kid from the Matrix holds up a TIG torch and looks at it. "try to tell yourself that there is no slag" duck hunt fucked around with this message at 05:47 on Feb 18, 2012 |
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2012 21:40
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2024 16:14 |
|
|
Lord Gaga posted:For flat tig on MS that is pretty ugly to be honest. Its not very straight, the beads are inconsistent in size and spacing, and it looks like your heat mightve fluctuated quite a bit as the welds start out flat/almost concave and end up in a somewhat convex glob. TIG welds, while known for their aesthetic appeal, don't have to be pretty to be strong. Honestly, I don't think that is that bad. Try to be positive. Sure it is not pretty, and it is a little overheated, but it will hold just fine. No big deal. Keep up the work man! Practice makes perfect.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2012 21:43
|
|