Originally Posted by Ravenworks (Post 481779)

Austin Texas is in a dry county?!:confused59:

Originally Posted by GregWeld (Post 486493)

If this is not a "structural" weld.... you could get yourself some silicone bronze...


By the way -- I don't think you could NOT have warpage on that flat plate of some kind. Any time you heat metal you expand it and when it cools it shrinks... since you're welding in only one area that area is going to expand and contract more (warpage).

What you may need to do is to make your gauges match --- but we don't know what you're building...

Does the piece require the two gauges of metal? Could you use an L shape and just plug weld it? Or use a thicker gauge and drill and tap it to attach your flat?

Originally Posted by GregWeld (Post 486507)

Well --- seeing it really helps!



You're welding too much bead....cut those beads down to half an inch or 3/4's of an inch let it cool down and add another half an inch if it needs to be longer. WAY smaller welds --- skipping around the piece will really cut the warpage. There's a lot of metal there.... but it can't take that much heat without warping. Looks like there's 3 inches of weld on some of them -- and that's where you're running into trouble. Ya gotta sneak up on it!!

Originally Posted by Revved (Post 486530)

Those 3" welds were done 3/4" to an inch at a time. I've been doing short welds just for that reason, quenching it and letting it sit till I can touch it by hand and then doing the next round of welds.

I'm going to think about the idea of breaking it up into separate pieces...

Thanks for the insight! If anyone else has ideas I'd like to hear them as well.. I know this can be done but obviously I'm not there yet! :lol:

Originally Posted by Revved (Post 486484)

OK just ruined V3.0 Better than the last one but still warped the edges. I clamped it with a piece of 1" square tubing in about 5 spots down the length as I welded the top and bottom. I've got the heat turned as far down as it will go and still melt metal. I've been using one wet rag laying across the inside and another small one to quench each spot after my weld. I even tried rolling a bead around the opening to see if that would help control the warpage but still not flat. Somehow I must still be getting it too hot!!! :bang: I wonder if a different type of filler rod with a lower melting point would help? I've often noticed that when TIGing mild steel with this rod it tends to be sticky (not wanting to fully puddle) and I have to get it right on top of the tungsten to get it to melt.

Or I just need to get better at my metal working to straighten out the edges...

I think I will try some 16g for V4.0 And I do have some aluminum bar laying around that I will try for the clamping next time.

Has anyone tried that Eastwood welding heat putty?

Originally Posted by Revved (Post 487387)

3/16 red stripe tungsten with 1/16 mild steel rod.

I do have some 1/16" red stripe tungsten I bought when I was learning on aluminum tubing but I never had luck with it.. kept melting down the tungsten before the aluminum. Perhaps I'd have better luck with it on steel?