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Modified JK TechTech related bulletin board forum regarding subjects such as suspension, tires & wheels, steering, bumpers, skid plates, drive train, cages, on-board air and other useful modifications that will help improve the performance and protection of your Jeep JK Wrangler (Rubicon, Sahara, Unlimited and X) on the trail.
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ok I showed this to my neighbor who is a certified pipeline welder with about 40 years experience and he said no. He is not a jeep guy or a car guy just a welder guy who welded for a living. He first said to get a good weld you need to really prep the area and have clean metal and he said that was not done here and he said it looks like poor penetration and that gas shielding was not properly done and a bunch of other stuff but bottom line he said he could easily see those welds not holding under any kind of stress. I hope he is wrong and it lasts and holds up to whatever abuse you put it thru.
Im not a professional welder and barely even a hobbyist. However, if someone is going to critique something I would appreciate some feedback as how to do it properly. Just saying “no”, “no prep”, etc does nothing. If he has actual information that will be helpful then please post that as well.
The paint was removed, metal cleaned with acetone, residue burned off with a torch and preheated to 400 degrees. What else am I missing? I’m not opposed to grinding and re-welding but I need more info than just “no”.
ok I showed this to my neighbor who is a certified pipeline welder with about 40 years experience and he said no. He is not a jeep guy or a car guy just a welder guy who welded for a living. He first said to get a good weld you need to really prep the area and have clean metal and he said that was not done here and he said it looks like poor penetration and that gas shielding was not properly done and a bunch of other stuff but bottom line he said he could easily see those welds not holding under any kind of stress. I hope he is wrong and it lasts and holds up to whatever abuse you put it thru.
If you're gonna knock the guy, at least have a comment that adds value or at least know what you're talking about. Have your neighbor type the comment next time.
Originally Posted by Sv_dude
Im not a professional welder and barely even a hobbyist. However, if someone is going to critique something I would appreciate some feedback as how to do it properly. Just saying “no”, “no prep”, etc does nothing. If he has actual information that will be helpful then please post that as well.
The paint was removed, metal cleaned with acetone, residue burned off with a torch and preheated to 400 degrees. What else am I missing? I’m not opposed to grinding and re-welding but I need more info than just “no”.
Issues I'm seeing are porosity and undercut. Your travel speed also seems to be inconsistent, and probably a cause for your undercut as well. Are you welding outside? Or was your garage door open and slightly windy outside? Porosity is a sign of shielding issues.
Slow down a bit or turn the wire speed up, and try to keep a consistent speed.
Definitely run another pass on the axle tube welds, and where the bottom of your truss hits the part of the diff the tubes go into.
Nowhere near the worst welds I've seen, and it's clear you're trying. Keep at it. I've seen worse looking welds hold fine with groups I've wheeled with. The truss is not load bearing, and it ties in at so many points. As long as you have good penetration, your welds will all hold. Don't let jadmt scare you.
Issues I'm seeing are porosity and undercut. Your travel speed also seems to be inconsistent, and probably a cause for your undercut as well. Are you welding outside? Or was your garage door open and slightly windy outside? Porosity is a sign of shielding issues.
Slow down a bit or turn the wire speed up, and try to keep a consistent speed.
Definitely run another pass on the axle tube welds, and where the bottom of your truss hits the part of the diff the tubes go into.
Nowhere near the worst welds I've seen, and it's clear you're trying. Keep at it. I've seen worse looking welds hold fine with groups I've wheeled with. The truss is not load bearing, and it ties in at so many points. As long as you have good penetration, your welds will all hold. Don't let jadmt scare you.
I was welding in the garage with the door open, I don’t think wind was a big factor but it’s always windy here so I didn’t even think to pay attention to it. If I remember correctly, I have my regulator set at 17-18 CFM.
I’ll look it up to be safe but can you explain to me about porosity and undercut?
I’ll finish the welding tomorrow morning and I’ll post pics of the finished work. Thanks for the nudge, I was contemplating taking the axle to a fab shop, this is something I want to be right and work as intended. If this is good enough to be worry free then I’ll continue doing my thing and run with it. I’ll run a few practice beads again on some scrap to tune myself a bit more before I burn in everything else on the axle.
Here’s another pic, this is a close up on the diff housing just left of the diff cover. Feel free to chime in on this.
So after a little YouTubing on porosity and undercut I see what my issues are. I wasn’t exactly at a 45* angle on the pieces since I was favoring the axle side a little and letting the puddle bleed into the truss since the axle tube is 1/4” and the truss is 1/8”. I’ll try to be at a better angle tomorrow. As for the porosity, I’ll bump up my gas pressure as well and see if that gives me better results. Thanks for the tips.
Sure thing. Keep in mind you don't need to oscillate if it's messing up your consistency. It seem like you're focused on the welds looking good, but you can just run a steady bead left to right slowly, and this will give you better penetration. If the arc sounds like chirping/bee's, turn the heat up. You want it to sound like sizzling bacon.
Good luck. Don't be afraid to grind your welds and lay a new one until it looks solid. It's all about finding the right voltage and wire speed, so definitely tune your machine.
You've got some overlap on the diff weld. I'd probably leave that one, but understand why it's happening. Grind the one on the tube, you can lay a better bead than that.
If you are just starting off welding and need some examples of how to weld and what to look for, weld.com is a good resource. They have a lot of youtube vids featuring tutorials on how to weld, what process to use, prep work, travel speed, direction, etc, etc.
I've been welding for thirty years and honestly, this will help you out more than me trying to explain what is right and wrong with your welds over an internet forum. That link will give you good instruction and visuals you can see and learn from.
I hope this can help you out some and good luck with your project.
If you're gonna knock the guy, at least have a comment that adds value or at least know what you're talking about. Have your neighbor type the comment next time.
Issues I'm seeing are porosity and undercut. Your travel speed also seems to be inconsistent, and probably a cause for your undercut as well. Are you welding outside? Or was your garage door open and slightly windy outside? Porosity is a sign of shielding issues.
Slow down a bit or turn the wire speed up, and try to keep a consistent speed.
Definitely run another pass on the axle tube welds, and where the bottom of your truss hits the part of the diff the tubes go into.
Nowhere near the worst welds I've seen, and it's clear you're trying. Keep at it. I've seen worse looking welds hold fine with groups I've wheeled with. The truss is not load bearing, and it ties in at so many points. As long as you have good penetration, your welds will all hold. Don't let jadmt scare you.
Sorry this was taken out of context, I will keep that in mind next time. for the record no where did I knock anybody. I took the time to show it to someone who I knew welded for a living. The guy does not do forums, he simply told me from looking at the photo what his opinion was. No where was I trying to scare anyone and if you read that from the post then perhaps you read it wrong. In fact I said I hoped my neighbor was wrong and that it held up for him.
Sorry this was taken out of context, I will keep that in mind next time. for the record no where did I knock anybody. I took the time to show it to someone who I knew welded for a living. The guy does not do forums, he simply told me from looking at the photo what his opinion was. No where was I trying to scare anyone and if you read that from the post then perhaps you read it wrong. In fact I said I hoped my neighbor was wrong and that it held up for him.
It’s all good.. I don’t think anyone took it as a huge foul, it’s just best to give some advice as to why something is messed up and how to fix it if you’re going to announce a mess up.
Here’s the track bar bracket. This was a bit easier to weld than the axle since it’s all the same thickness. I don’t see any deformities that we’re talked about in a weld.com YouTube channel. I did turn up my heat and gas a bit too.
Got the rest of the truss tacked in and will attempt that now. It’s difficult for me to gauge the setting on the welder since I’m welding 1/8” truss to a 1/4” tube. If I have a good weld on the truss it looks like a cold weld on the tube, maybe that’s why I was setting myself up for the undercut in the previous photos?
I tried to pay more attention to the welds today. I think they’re a bit better but I can use practice for sure. I feel the axle is much stronger than before and the welds should hold. If not... then time for a pro rock axle because I’m not about to re-do this or pay someone to re-do it. Here’s some of today’s work.
05-25-2020, 12:55 PM
