good welding job

Learning from all the old hands after being hired as a new, green hand at the oilfield/agriculture repair and maintenance facility I started my career at.

bad welding job

Finding out I was to be treated like crap and do every lousy job that no one else wanted to do because I WAS the new, green hand. Nothing like being in that nice warm shop on a day when it was 20 below wind chill factors outside and having the boss tell me I needed to go power-wash the cow manure off a bull-dozer from a cattle feed-yard so I could weld some cracks on it! That meant I got to fight a high pressure water hose, and dodge cow dung as it shot back at me while getting soaking wet in the biting wind. It was so cold I had to thaw my words with a cigarette lighter just to hear myself gripe!

Continue reading The Diversity of Welding Jobs -2

Welding jobs are about as diverse as they come. You can be welding in a nice, safe, air-conditioned, carpeted shop or 50 floors up on a high-rise office tower. You can be ten miles out in the ocean on an off-shore rig, or UNDER the ocean repairing that same rig. I’ve worked in an oil field maintenance and repair shop, black iron shop, and out in the field as a structural welder. Some of those jobs I loved and some of them I hated so much that I dreaded Monday morning at quitting time on Friday afternoon! And that was with a paycheck in my hand!

Continue reading The Diversity of Welding Jobs -1

Most welding needs, for both individual and commercial use, can be met by using a fewcommon welding rods. Listed below is a question about a welding machine and short descriptions of the characteristics and applications of five welding rods.

Continue reading Welding Rods Applications

The Internet has revolutionized the way we live our lives and the way we do business. Finding discount welding equipment on line is no exception.

Here are a few tips for buying on-line:
PLAN. Set aside at least two hours when you start surfing for welding equipment. Have a list of things you want to price. You will need to compare prices and details. The sites that have more details are a better option because they cut down the chance of returning the merchandise. Avoid websites where the pages that don’t load quickly. (Other problems follow.)

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Many things need to be considered when planning a welding project. For this article we have elected to build a test tank out of 3/8″ mild steel plate that measures 4′ wide x 5′ long x 2′ deep. We are in a remote location so we have a portable DC, gas driven welding machine, an Oxy/Acet burning outfit, and our portable Rod Oven that ensures the integrity of the welding electrodes. Our two-man crew is ready to go. They’ll be using E6010 rods for tack-up and E7018 Low Hydrogen rods for “stick” welding the joints.

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The type of job, the size of the shop, the power available, and your operation will determine the welding equipment needed. Facilities can range from a small workshop at home to a multi-million operation as used in structural steel fabricating or automobile manufacturing.

Continue reading Types of Welding Equipment

Arc welding roots go back to 1800’s when an English scientist discovered that an electric current would form an “arc” when forced across a gap of steel plates. Electric was not used for “arc welding” until 1880’s when DeMeritans, a French inventor, used it to join plates in a storage battery with a “carbon arc.” The procedure was improved on and it was discovered that a bare metal rod, now named an “electrode,” would melt off by the heat of the arc and act as filler metal in the weld.

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There are many types of welding electrodes. This article will cover a “mild steel electrode.”

Welding electrodes are metal wires with baked on chemical coatings. The rod is used to sustain the welding arc and to provide the filler metal required for the joint to be welded. The coating protects the metal from damage, stabilizes the arc, and improves the weld. The diameter of the wire, less the coating, determines the size of the welding rod. This is expressed in fractions of an inch such as 3/32″, 1/8″, or 5/32.” The smaller the diameter means it requires less current and it deposits a smaller amount of filler metal.

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Welding machines and joining machines encompass those devices that are used for numerous joining processes. These processes include:

• arc welding (MIG, TIG, stick, submerged arc)
• resistance welding
• laser welding
• electron beam welding
• stud welding
• orbital welding
• wave soldering
• hot dip brazing
• torch brazing
• induction brazing
• ultrasonic
• friction welding

Continue reading Types of Welding Machines

Welding is the most economical and efficient way to join metals permanently. It is the only way of joining two or more pieces of metal to make them act as a single piece. Welding is vital to our economy. It is often said that over 50% of the gross national product of the U.S.A. is related to welding in one way or another. Welding ranks high among industrial processes and involves more sciences and variables than those involved in any other industrial process.

There are many ways to make a weld and many different kinds of welds. Some processes cause sparks and others do not even require extra heat. Welding can be done anywhere… outdoors or indoors, underwater and in outer space.

Continue reading What is welding and what do welders do?