Check out this guys work. WOW

[fabr]

I'm going to get called an ass again before long.I can feel it coming!LOL!!!  I'm NOT a fan of the stacked dime look.IMO it is a weak weld. A bead with ripples,tightly spaced and with very little difference in ripple peaks and valleys is a nice strong weld.I don't know where the idea that a stack of dimes is a desirable bead comes from.

[fabr]

Doesn't look like you have enough heat on the main body, the blue glow barely extends past the weld in some places, the tack weld has a better heat radius.  Is the body thicker than the gusset you welded?

Well,SHIT!!! I agree.

[Engineer]

How can I adjust my camera so it is just a bit blurry, so no welds will be visible in the pictures?

You gotta be a glutton for punishment to post a picture of a weld at this point.  :P

I would ride with all the welds I have seen so far.

Also dimes, no dimes, who gives a shit.  That basically has nothing to do with the weld strength, just asthetics.  I have seen cold dimes that held nothing, and absolutely smooth beeds that had great penetration.

I am going to start taking pictures of the farm crap that comes to my shop.......  You guys don't know what bad welds are.

[fabr]

How can I adjust my camera so it is just a bit blurry, so no welds will be visible in the pictures?

You gotta be a glutton for punishment to post a picture of a weld at this point.  :P

I would ride with all the welds I have seen so far.

Also dimes, no dimes, who gives a shit.  That basically has nothing to do with the weld strength, just asthetics. I have seen cold dimes that held nothing, and absolutely smooth beeds that had great penetration.

I am going to start taking pictures of the farm crap that comes to my shop.......  You guys don't know what bad welds are.

I'm pretty sure there's a few inspectors that don't agree with that.
Can't argue with that.

[Carlriddle]

Most of my welds are fair to ugly.  Glad to hear they are more likly stronger than the pretty ones.  Still not posting up any close-up..

[fabr]

 

I have to agree with engineer tho that just because a weld is pretty does not make it strong any more than ugly makes it weak. I personally would not make the first round in a welding competition but I always try to ensure that I get full penetration and a nice fillet to spread the load out over a larger area. I'm happy with my welding and it has never failed me.I will not try for the stack of dimes look.A stack of very thin wafers yes  but not dimes. Most of the welds I've seen on all buggy sites is sufficiently good. However there are some times that I just cringe at what I see also.

[magnum4598]

i am not talking about laquer thinner
i am talking about solvent made by ies (international epoxies and sealers)
it comes in a quart can that has a squirt nozel that screws to the can its awsome stuff
3m also makes there own version its a red and white can it goes a long ways too
laquer thinner leaves a residue hate to hurt your feelings about laquer thiner its so flamible
the solvent i use is way safer for that reason

[Boostinjdm]

I am going to start taking pictures of the farm crap that comes to my shop.......  You guys don't know what bad welds are.

How bout the stuff that leaves your shop.....I thought you were a farmer.

I know what you're sayin.  I worked on a wagon the other day.  I removed the previous repair attempt with a chisel and pliers,  slag between "passes" (pigeon shit).

It takes me two to three times as long to fix a repair by someone else as it does for me to do the work.  Would have been cheaper to bring it to me first.

[Whiplash]

Doesn't look like you have enough heat on the main body, the blue glow barely extends past the weld in some places, the tack weld has a better heat radius.  Is the body thicker than the gusset you welded?

maybe so?

[matt(boily)]

Adam i think that your just a hater.

Of course there done with TIG no MIG can weld so clean. The HAZ(heat affected zone) is so big due to welding with TIG. If you've used it before you would realize that what you get from it.

Those welds are superb. Some of them have undercut(mainly the cage pipe joiners) but that is just due to the fact that they are solid bar welded to pipe which have been beveled anyway.I can guaranty that filler has been used on every weld. I would like to see you or anyone prove to me that you could weld pipe joins/fish mouths like that without a filler rod and not put a hole in the tube. If the impact wouldn't kill me i'd be strapped in that 15-20ft high and dropped

They are solid welds and have bugger all stop start runs. Usually most people weld a pipe 4 times. 1/4 each time then turn to the next side. You can clearly see that he hasn't done that even in his plate you can see that he has maximized the stops between runs. They were probably a full filler rod weld. This guy has mad fabrication skills and welding skills.
 
That picture on the first page of this thread done with the MIG definitely is stop started which is a big no-no with heavy industrial work. Buggies its fine. Yoshi has the right settings and technique. One consistent weld is obviously better than a stop start.

You are weakening the steel by expansion from heat and contraction from cooling when stop starting. You wouldn't think that it would do so much but hold a 500mm long piece of steel and tack it on one side and see how much it moves. It moves a lot. And thats transferring through out your welds.

Solvents should never be used. Not only does it contaminate your steel but why would you have a combustible material around your shop where your welding. Your asking for trouble. I've seen some ugly things from exploding aerosol cans/tins of solvents. You wouldn't believe that damage a cigarette lighter can do in your pocket(for all the smokers out there)

This might be blasphemy but check this forum out. http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=2503416. Toxic and some of his fellow welders lay some awesome welds down. And they back there's up by show the penetration they get. There is also some crap too but you can pick them from the crowd This guy makes artwork from manifolds. http://v8tvshow.com/forum/index.php?topic=2016.0 .

I agree with Masterfbr with the whole stacked dime look. With TIG its not too hard to do. In a fillet weld stacked dimes are weak. You need reinforcement for you weld which means a nice convex bead. The exhaust manifold they have on the forum posted above have some flush surfaces but they have mostly been made with schedule 40 elbows with beveled edges making it easier to penetrate and allow that change to get a nice weld. They also purge the pipes with an inert gas which also surprisingly make a hell of a difference.

One thing all these welders have in common. Practice and consistency which comes with practice .   
   

     

[Grimm Reaper Racing]

Adam i think that your just a hater.

Of course there done with TIG no MIG can weld so clean. The HAZ(heat affected zone) is so big due to welding with TIG. If you've used it before you would realize that what you get from it.

One thing all these welders have in common. Practice and consistency which comes with practice .   

Come on Matt, do you really think that I would make a comment as strong as my first if I didn't have a foot to stand on.  I'm not a hater, I just thought that I would play devils advocate as I thought this guy was getting way too many positive comments on something that mind you looked pretty, but would not be let out of my shop.

I saw comments about welding solid to pipe, what's the big deal?  It's all about the pre-heat, which I do for most of what I tig weld.  I weld 1/8" to 1" T6-6061 Alum all the time for Powerfilm Solar http://www.powerfilmsolar.com/   I make their vacuum chambers which are pulled down to 2*10^-5 atmospheres.  All of the components I weld for them undergo NDT.  Then they are assembled and pulled to vacuum for it's final test.   

Matt, have you seen my shop?  I mean the 9500 sq ft facility I manage.  I'm one of three people at our shop who still has a current  AWS cert.  I can assure you I'm not a hater, and I'm well qualified to make that comment.

For the record, I'll be glad to post some pics of my not so pretty work which has undergone NDT and passed

[matt(boily)]

I've undergone some pretty highly credited welding certificates myself. In Aussie term 3E in MMAW and GTAW is one of the certificates that is pretty hard to come by. About 1 of 25 pass this. I got it my first go. I've been blessed that the guys i worked with were all bloody great welders. The only thing that pisses me off is none of my certificates are US approved. Europe is fine.

I've been lucky enough that where i worked i was able to hone in a lot of skills. We've made lobster back ducting as tall as your shop. Straightened Drill Rig/Crane booms with nothing other than an oxy and a wet rag. I've done Acid plant pressure vessel welding with GTAW in vessels the size of buses. All GTAW welds too not root passes that cap with Stick/MIG. All of our welds are NDT/X-rayed and i haven't had one fail since(touch wood)

You should see the size of the workshop that i worked in. It would make your shop look like an office. And a lot neater and organized too :P. We didn't have CNC profile cutters. I was taught the old ways. All oxy cutting. If you washed out or didn't blow through properly you would be blasted(yelled at) then have to file your cut till it was right. That taught you quick to learn to cut right.   

But when you make comments like "Notice he didn't use any filler rod in those welds" I beg to differ. With someone such as yourself with such "great" qualifications realize that doing fishmouth joins in such thin walled tube without filler rods would be impossible to come out with such clean welds.

I give credit when credit is due. This ZTfab guy has skills. There are alot of people out there with these skills and knowing what its like to do such things and been so consistent you have to acknowledge that this guy knows what he is doing.

I'd be more than happy to see some of your welding skills posted. It might make for a bit of friendly competition.

[Yummi]

It might make for a bit of friendly competition.

Lets keep it that way?  Good clean fun?  No pissing matches please.

[Reidy02]

Man I had a look through the sites you put down up there, God Damn there's some talented people on those sites  some of the welds on the alli valley covers, (hey that rhymes), man they are outa this world.....

[Doug Heim]

Hey Reidy,,,

I bet my dad can beat up your dad