critique my weld (with pic)

[tigster]

hey all. i've been playing with my ta 185 tsw. please let me know what you think of the weld i did this morning. i welded a 3/8 grab hook to a piece of 3/8 plate MS. the edge of the hook was beveled at roughly 45 degees. tig weld, 1/8 electrode, 185 amps, 100 % argon gas, no filler rod. i realize there is undercut on the hook itself. i am more interested in the appearance and quality of the bead itself. i am still in some need of practice adding filler rod. it seems to boil and bubble with porosity as the end result. so anyway, am i on the right track here? any and all suggestions are much appreciated.

[Sberry]

One of the metelurgist types will likely be along but I wouldnt want to use the material from the hook as filler. I would like the alloy filler material between the 2 pieces. Hot roll mild steel is different, fusion is acceptable in many cases. I have seen hooks welded on every which way but here its 7018 or wire.

[Pangea]

Why does it have ripples if it is an autogenous weld? I'd add some er70s wire or at least some coat hanger wire. Run a little cooler to stop that bubbling.

[Rocky D]

Never try to weld mild steel without filler rod! You need the filler and you won't get the bubbling. I wouldn't have done that type of joint with TIG either...too much heat input....destroys the integrity of the hook...first choice would be stick, then MIG.

[thingy]

Yeah,you knowed they was undercut,so,,its a bad weld,,probably won't break easy,but a bad weld,,undercut is something you try to get none of,hard to achieve sometimes but that weld had way to much of it,rejectable,,thingy

[tigster]

thank you, Rocky D.

[Wheelchair]

As was mentioned in one of the threads use stick or mig, I would never use a coat hanger as was mentioned on a weld that would bare any kind of load. I am not trying to make any snide remarks about anyone's advice.I have seen welds made by using coat hangers and they are not very sound welds, where I have worked over the course of my welding career people have been fired for using coat hangers and just plain wire. Again I am not condeming the advice on the hangers and mean no adversity, but it is not a good idea.

Wheelchair

[Pangea]

I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you there, previous poster. Coat hanger would add to this weld, though it wouldn't be my first choice either.

[tigster]

i did not communicate clearly enough in the first post. what i meant to say was that the weld puddle sometimes boils when i do add filler rod. when i don't add filler, it never boils. i'm not sure what is going on with that and why. the pictured weld did not boil at all. thanks for all your posts. i'm still learning!

[OldSparks]

what i meant to say was that the weld puddle sometimes boils when i do add filler rod.

Tough to comment on your hook picture without knowing your intentions. Running the first pass without filler really serves no purpose here so I imagine you did it more as a matter of curiosity. The weld looks clean enough so it shows your torch can operate properly. Why the porosity when you add filler? You should give the particulars/pictures of that happening. I'm thinking you're trying to learn too much too quick. Running a pass at 185 amps is an acquired skill, not a rookie maneuver. Possibly in your efforts to feed enough wire you long-arced the torch and introduced the porosity. Do you know that once there is any sign of porosity it has to be completely ground out. You can not go over it to 'burn' it out. It will only get worse.

[Vipernut]

I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you there, previous poster. Coat hanger would add to this weld, though it wouldn't be my first choice either.

coat hanger wire is made from junk, so therefore it is junk, that's why it is never used for a filler metal

[Mr Meck]

I see grab hooks welded to many things, many places, for many reasons. Usually so they can throw a 3/8 grade 70 chain on it to pull some ungodly amount of weight. 70 chain has working load of 6600lbs so the weld should be to the breaking limit not the working limit.
As for the weld without filler no undercut is the goal. I would not send the hook out like that. As for the porosity when adding filler, I had that problem with our SP175 air cooled torch till I remembered about gas lenses. Cured my problem.

[Rocky D]

I agree with Viper...Although I've used coat hanger before, I found the welds are brittle and break quite often, depending on the application. This is one of those applications. OSHA will never allow welding on a hook...but you see it often.

[Sberry]

I agree with Rocky here and am sure he is more aware of the legalities, certainly they would have a hard time with it as hoisting and rigging equipment. As for possible failures I suspect design and other improper rigging practice as a cause for the majority of failures regarding welded hooks. Just by nature the hook is now fixed and other forces beside straight line pull become a factor, etc, I cant recall ever seeing one where the weld itself fail, I have seen them ripped out, twisted off but it doesn't scare me to use them, it would be hard to estimate, about like counting improper cable clamping but there has to be millions in use daily without incident. Same for improper rod storage. Biggest thing is general human error and specific training. I hook up a battery reverse polarity the other day, we do so much various stuff that eventually your not paying attn. Sometimes larger industry solves some of these problems with job classification, welders, electricians, line workers on special equipment where the scope is limited, etc.
Airplane maintenance amazes me.

[tigster]

think i may have figured out the weld puddle boiling issue. i read somewhere the filler rod itself should be wiped down. i didn't realize it. certainly makes sense, though. i wiped a rod down with acetone. got some black looking grime off it. weld puddle didn't boil after that. learn something new every day.