welding

[onionbargee]

What do you think of the welds on this over plate job ?

 

sole and uxter plate, 6 mm plate.

 

Done with a 150 amp MIG, by overlapping one tack next to another. No continuous welds in the entire job.

 

 

 

 

[madcat]

looking good .

 

 

Edit to add , I now know better after reading the link further down the thread

Edited January 4, 2015 by madcat

[Timleech]

I'm guessing the short runs are because the MIG set has a low duty cycle & isn't capable of long runs at full output?

150A must be a bit marginal for that sort of work.

 

Tim

[RLWP]

How wide is that fillet?

 

Richard

[John V]

Stitch welding is standard (good quality) stick welding technique to minimise distortion, I presume that's the reason here (Bit ignorant re MIG)......neat job by the way !!!

[Sea Dog]

I'd be pleased with it if I'd done it!

[Mike Tee]

Is that Tadworth getting some tlc?

 

Not - apologies

Edited January 5, 2015 by Mike Tee

[Geoff Taylor]

Hi, I assume that the welding was not done by a fully qualified welder, the best way to determine how good the weld is going to be regarding root and penetration is to make an identical weld on two offcuts and saw through it to see how the weld has performed. I have seen beautiful looking MIG welds that have achieved zero penetration especially when using an underpowered welder on thicker steel and even when done by "experienced" welders. They are often referred to as cold welds but still look good.

[the barnacle]

looks good but as said penitration is the key to a good weld - however i would prefer to see a continuous line of pulse/ whip welding and not as you say tacks. saying that a line of tacks if done correctly will never break, to do it correctly it is a series of small drags and you don't stop and wait for it to cool before you pull the trigger again.

Edited January 4, 2015 by the barnacle

[xadmx]

please stop welding like an american its not good pratice and the penitration is not very good, its a sure way to kill your wire feed motor aswell.

[onionbargee]

 

This welder is reccomended by a well known boat yard, and works out out of their premisis. Here's a clue to just how bad it is....

 

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/rate-this-weld.50931/

 

I should add its not my work. If it was I would shoot myself immediately.

[bizzard]

It looks like someone without a steady hand who's got the DT shakes or something has done it as they had to keep resting the shroud on the job at every tack as they went along to do overlapping tack welds. Not the welds best welder.

[madcat]

Interesting, I followed the link too. It just shows how something that looks neat can be less than functional and a customer wouldn't neccesarily realise . I'd be the first to admit I know little about welding , a few afternoons at tech many years ago doesn't make a welder of anybody.

[RLWP]

Ahhh, I did wonder if this was a boat yard bashing thread

 

Again

 

Richard

[madcat]

Nobody has identified a yard , as a customer with limited knowledge of welding I consider the post as a good warning . If boatyards do a bad job then bash away is my view. There's too many rouges and chancers infesting the waterways . I've heard some horror stories over the years.

 

This is not a dig at anybody on here before the shouting starts , just a general comment .

[MtB]

So what is your point, given you know it is shite welding?

 

 

MtB

[madcat]

A salutary warning that neat may not be functional maybe .

 

OK so Onion Bargee tells it straight and pulls few punches but I find that just fine , that's how I like things . Cat I may be but pussyfooting about just confuses me

[RLWP]

Nobody has identified a yard , as a customer with limited knowledge of welding I consider the post as a good warning . If boatyards do a bad job then bash away is my view. There's too many rouges and chancers infesting the waterways . I've heard some horror stories over the years.

This is not a dig at anybody on here before the shouting starts , just a general comment .

The OP has/had an ongoing dispute with the yard he moors at. If you have a dig he often puts up something about the yard and the welder there

 

Richard

So what is your point, given you know it is shite welding?

 

 

MtB

I know no such thing. I do know the OP has a running thing about the yard he used to moor at. That makes me wonder about the accuracy and objectivity of his post

 

Richard

[MtB]

Changed my mind.

Edited January 5, 2015 by Mike the Boilerman

[madcat]

.......

Edited January 4, 2015 by madcat

[Neil2]

I too know very little about welding but I have met a lot of welders and one thing you can be sure of. Most welders looking at someone else's work will say it's rubbish. Then again you can say that about a lot of trades.

 

But, most of the guys I've met in the boat building world seem to agree that MIG welding is not the preferred method "below water".

[boathunter]

I spent 2 decades specifying welds for bracketry to mount whopping microwave dishes high up in very windy places (amongst other things) so this thread is interesting to me.

 

That weld would simply not happen, the word "continuous" is all important welding thick stuff or it never gets hot enough.

 

Now I actually weld, but never anything thicker that 2mm and tack-welding with a mig as shown in the picture works well because it does fully penetrate, though I'm up at about 150A to do it with overlapping tacks every half a second so it doesn't cool down.

 

To try that with such thick plate and 150A is a non-starter. It would be interesting to try and whack it back off with a sledge hammer. If the boat suddenly floats higher in the water, then slowly sinks they'll know why.

[John V]

I'm just glad I said I was a bit ignorant about MiG welding !!!

[boathunter]

I'm just glad I said I was a bit ignorant about MiG welding !!!

It does look pretty though and that is actually important too, just not the main thing. I doubt it would leak between the welds but when a weld is "cold" it will have barely marked the steel. Enough of those blobs will have marginal penetration or it would fall straight off, but water will seep past where they are just sitting on the steel.

 

I would not personally weld stuff like this even if I thought I could, because I am not a coded welder. I really think you should be for this kind of work and they don't all charge a fortune.

[onionbargee]

Your seriously criticising me for warning people about potentially getting ripped off for thousands of pounds ?

Edited January 5, 2015 by onionbargee