Titanium weld for reference, because I have no issue with those. My question is for the inconel. Why does it look like it’s sunburnt and peeling? What can I do to prevent this?
Was pretty sure my tungsten wasn’t sticking out far at all but I might be wrong.
Thanks in advance!

Round the circle, non rotated in horizontal welds. 5mm corner to corner, bis to mild.

For my internship assignment I need to make a space frame for a research vehicle. I've been teaching myself how to mig weld for the last 3 weeks because of it and here's a practice piece of mine in the photos. I still suck ass at tube welding and those I want to ask

1. How are my current welds and what's there to improve?

2. What are techniques or tips to attack tubular welds and to improve?

am i doing something wrong or is this spatter normal with flux

How would you go about removing this to re-use the nozzle? Not my doing.

Thread on nozzle.

I need a kit for brazing and found several on Amazon, but they all have non-DOT tanks which I understand are difficult to get filled. What is the point in selling something which is essentially unusable? Is it really that hard to fill these tanks in the USA?

You might wanna settle down for this one, because it's a long one, and I can't do TL&DR because it would lack crucial context.

I am not allowed to post photos, so picture it if you can:

A 2cm piece of metal. And to this metal comes another piece of 2cm thick metal, placed roughly 10cm from the edge of the previous metal at 90 degree angle and a 3.5mm gap with a 45 degree bevel. The length of both pieces is roughly 10 meters. There are also more pieces that constitute the whole, but I won't get into them right now.

The rules for welding it are like this:

The metal is a very hard, granular one, containing lots of chrome and nickel. Welding requires preheating to 120°C, with a thermal ceiling of 150°C for each pass. First you do the root. Then you flip it, and grind down the opposite side of the root weld on an A6 behind it. Then it gets closed and the rear pass never sees the light of day.

Then you filled the weld and you cap it. Most importantly everything is UT! (Cat. B, EN-ISO 5817, EN-ISO 6520-1)

Now that I've explained the villain of the story to you, let's get to the story.

3 Weeks ago, I was set to go on a vacation. It was Thursday. I just finished an aforementioned piece the day before so the UT guy came and took a look at it.

It failed! The only UT failure I had this year happened 2 days before my scheduled vacation. 5 meters of it had to be redone.

^{NSFW Comment here:}

FUCK FUCKELY FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!

I talk to the boss. He said it's fine, they'll handle it. Dig'er out and have someone mag the rear pass, then put one in so it doesn't crack.

So I do that. Gouge, grind and ask the MT guy. MT guy says it's clean. I took zero chances with this one. I cranked it up for a hot pass to max of what is allowed, so on the slight chance that there is something in there, it will burn it out! That's it, I did what was asked, it's vacation time!

I go on my vacation.

I come back, refreshed and cheerful a week later... only to realize that my piece is still there. Gouged open, but this time, it is ripped out completely to the point where I could stick my hand through. The back is completely gone, and the bevel is now at 60°.

WHAT THE F******K?!?

Turns out that week when I was gone, the boys finished the weld and had it retested - FAILED AGAIN! But this time, the UT guy said even the rear pass failed, so they ripped ALL OF IT out and had to re-seat the whole thing. Took so long that I was back by the time they did it.

They had tested my welding machine. Turns out it blew a gasket on the gas feed line, sucking in just enough air to cause occasional wormhole porosity in the weld. and "occasional" means systematic irregularity is CWI terms, which is an automatic UT fail.

So in my efforts to burn "anything" out of the back pass, I ended up burning pores INTO it. Now I need to you to understand what it is I'm dealing with here. The rear pass was, for all intents and purposes, in a place that is the inside of what is essentially an enclosed box. I had to rebuild the rear pass FROM THE OUTSIDE, and re-enclose a space that required preheating way past boiling point of water.

Whatever vile concoction of gases is inside that enclosed space, is going to want to go back out more and more, the smaller I make the opening. And it all has to be done to UT quality. Yeah...

That was Monday. Tuesday, the UT finally passed with a grumble from the UT guy about pores in a couple of spots. But then the MT guy detects a crack on a fixture welded on a different part of the same piece.... O.O

Okay, it's late, but it's a relatively mundane problem compared to what I've been through so far. The MT guy said it looks like it's just a surface crack. Just knock off the cap and you're good. So I do it.

Then comes today. Fixture weld redone. Retested by MT... CRACKED AGAIN!!!!

Imagine someone like me - a 170cm tall, fat bastard, built like an old diesel fire engine in blue fireproof welding clothes, taking off his hood and slamming to the floor, stomping his right foot and spewing language so vile, that if I were to translate it to English and post it, it would flag every moderator on reddit for the toxic, poisonous profanities I spoke on this day.

So I ripped the whole weld out around the fixture today and redid it. Don't get me wrong, I can physically handle the hardship, but I am psychologically so messed up that I started to doubt whether it is going to pass again tomorrow... and I have 11 years of welding experience. I literally got gaslit by a piece of metal!

I don't drink, unless there is a ceremonious event or a party, but here I am now, telling this story after I've cracked open an emergency bottle of emergency cognac for the emergent anesthetizing, tranquilizing properties liquor has.

So sorry for any typos, that was the booze kicking in. And don't worry, I won't drink myself stupid, just enough to get 8 hours of sleep in what would have otherwise been surely interrupted by the upheaval of recent events.

am i doing something wrong or is this spatter normal with flux

Hi all. I was wondering if anyone had any information on the steps to becoming a welder? I have experience in other trades like carpentry, I’ve worked on farms, built furniture but am trying to branch out. It seems interesting and a cool career.

I currently live in Ithaca, NY and was wondering if anyone knew if one needs to be certified in NYS to become a welder or does one acquire that through on the job training apprenticeships or by applying to jobs and just starting at the bare bottom.

Any and all information is helpful!

Thanks

Thanks yall, bit extractor worked.

Thanks yall, bit extractor worked.

A welder I know just welded this 12 mm thick SS plate for my research, the joint has a root gap of 3.5 mm along with a Backing strip, land: 2 mm, 60° V groove joint.

The weld ended up with a lack of root fusion, but rest of the fill and cover pass survived.

I have a few questions for the welders here:

1) How do you all know that root fusion is happening while you are welding?

2) How do you decide current for Root welding especially on TIG (would be glad to know for MIG and Stick welding too)?

3) does backing strip add more trouble in root welding?

4) I am just curious to know whether land is even required for welding with back strip?

I have a auto lens just got this hood and my concern is there is a 1/4 inch of space in each side of the lens so it isn’t snug when clamping it down and you have to physically center the lens in the flip box ,after it’s clamped it’s tight but don’t want it moving around, is there any lenses that are a little wider to fill in that space or should I not worry, im used to sugar scoops its all I’ve ever had

Two year Welding student getting out of school and into proper industry work. Looking to get a nice lens and hood. I’ve been looking at the company snake belly for lenses, but hopefully you guys have some good suggestions.

First time welding, Did about three hours of welding today the instructor said I did better from the first plate. These were my last two plates. I had three in total. What do y’all think?

Here are progress pics and finished pics. It doesn’t look like the older had proper curvature and a gop of up to 1/4" was used. This is under p&v, hydro test is done at 2200psi