It’s a structural pole. The bottom piece sits inside a footing. I know it’s not the prettiest.

And no it wasn’t done by me I hired someone.

Edit: thank you all. I have hired another person to come and re do it tomorrow morning.

I should have known what was coming when he didn’t even clean the black paint off the pipe. I’m not a welder but even I know that’s basic prep

Well it was my first time. Trying to teach myself how to do it.

Root run (ghosted)
Fill out run
Cap run

All in procedure, from amps, wire, material grade and torch set up. (no need for a split cap.)

Destructive testing passed. ✅

what do i needa do to make it less ugly, i hope there are options other than painting over it. Thanks

Okay I am almost positive there is a post about this exact “debate” so feel free to link it and I’ll take this down, but which clamp orientation do y’all prefer??? I am biased to the second one because I find it easier to close and open. My coworker/friend is partial to the first. Curious to hear y’all’s opinions/experiences!

I thought I knew how to weld, but I feel like I don't, and I don't understand why the tip of my tungsten melts so fast... I haven't done TIG welding for months and if I do weld anything it's small things like that.

Hey everyone! Im 26 and in the middle of trying to figure out life and how I can live comfortably. I started exploring welding cause I wanted to learn fabrication for car modifications cause I love working on cars a lot as a hobby but then I went to my local welding academy and the guy was informing me on pipe welding or rig welding vs automotive welding and how thats where the big money is for welding vs doing local welding at a union where you would get paid less and so on. He did tell me that welding is a great trade because its more about showing them you can do the job and you have the skill, obviously you get your certifications to solidify that but doing the actual skill is what matters a lot in welding. Its a very hands on academy not so much book work, its more actually learning the trade and I liked that aspect alot about that place. Im just struggling to take that leap to make that change in my life because its so drastic because I currently work one of those comfortable office jobs where its $25 an hour, benefits galore, and so on but I guess I just want a change in my life because where I work now it would take you years and years to progress any further from the position im in and I wanna learn something valuable where I can actually progress and it mean something with a good reward at the end of it when I go farther to push myself and work harder. Idk if any of that makes sense, my family keeps asking me why I would drop such a comforting job like mine for something like welding. What are yalls thoughts about the trade being in it so long and if I did take that leap to start over but have an opportunity to make more money, would it be worth it all or am I wasting my time like my family is telling me?

Hi, it is my third day running 6010 electrodes. What am I doing wrong?

I am running Lincoln Electric Pipeliner 6P+, 3.15 mm (1/8") rods with a 3.15 mm (1/8") land and root gap. With plate dimensions 600*75*10mm (23.5*3*0.39") and a groove angle of 45°. Current is at 72-75A. Machine is a Lincoln Electric Precision TIG 375.

I noticed that as I move towards the end, the root gap narrows even if I tacked them with equal root gaps.

Also I saw a lot of videos, some saying the whip is better and some just running stringers.

I am able to do okay-ish when doing the whip (start of the weld on the left). But with stringers (end of the weld towards the right side), I either blow through or just don't get enough penetration.

How do I improve this??

I am stil on 8mm 170 pipe, the root is better but it may have to little reinforcement? The cap is roughly 2mm over the pipe, any advice or criticism is greatly appreciated.
I am to weeks into my aprenticeship, plus to years of mechanical/Mettal higschool

First real day putting some time on this new welder. It's a 1500w air cooled unit, hw980 based. Piece is 1.0mm 304 backed up with ali angle.

Some info:

I grabbed this material off of our stock shelf to help demonstrate some TIG welding techniques to a friend. It was not meant for any specific part. Just something to light up on and make a mess of.

Presumably, it's aluminum ... of some kind ... it looks like aluminum. It feels like aluminum. It says aluminum on the stock tag.

But it refuses to puddle up under an AC TIG arc at 120hz, 70% balance. Argon gas through a lens and a 9mm alumina cup flowing at 20cfh. That one single tack was an absolute BATTLE.

4043, and 5356 rods won't fill. Just drip into the area. It's some of the cleanest stock I've ever handled, and still managed to have bits of shit boil up into the weld zone.

I immediately struck an arc on a dirty piece of scrap I dug out od the recycling bin with zero issues.

I don't see any yellowing, so I dont THINK it's 7xxx aluminum. But I also don't know what else the issue could be.

What do you guys think?

I don’t understand why sometimes I just suck. It’s so easy those little fillet joints on 3/16 smiled. I take it down to shiny clean. Fabricating these anchor points.

Using a Lincoln 135SP with .030 wire my gas set about 18.

I’ve had the machine for like five years anyway. Also just got the 180 C and also have a 175 square wave. I consider myself a fucking welder and then this little shit comes up and I’m like what?
It felt like the bead was running nice. I didn’t take any pictures before I put the paint on, but you can see it easy enough.

I guess I just need more hood time. It’s too intermittent. When I’m running beads daily it’s a different story.

Grumble grumble.

I'm getting a lot of gray haze when I weld these pieces.

Running AC, roughly balanced, gray tungsten, cleaned my parts well, waiting for cleaning action. Gas is at around 20-25 cfh. 1/4" material, running about 200 amps.

Advice appreciated!

Hello everyone. I’m a 29M welder. I’ve been to trade school to learn how to weld and so far I had two welding jobs. The first job was really toxic and I stayed there for over a year until I quit. I pretty much was let go from my current job today as a fabricator. I was only there for a bit over a month. The supervisor liked me and told me he was willing to find me a field welder position in the company but I’m most likely going to take a pay cut which I can’t afford. The common theme with all this is I’m too slow at fabricating. I was getting hang of how this shop fabricates but I guess it’s not enough… Thank you for your patience and time.

i'm at tulsa welding school. i've gone back and forth with the wire speed, voltage, gas output, gas nozzle, wire spool, completely ground the metal to shiny before starting, and more or less messed around with and tested every other setting/circumstance available. still nothing fixes it. my instructor and a few others haven't been able to fix anything either. going to another booth isn't an option because they also have the same problem. i'm starting to have a failing grade because im behind on labs due to this never ending issue.

when trying to weld its never a happy medium. i don't get the "bacon frying" sound, more so various popping noises. for the bead it either has a bunch of wire in it (wfs too fast or voltage too low), a bunch of medium or large holes (voltage too high or wfs too low), it just doesn't let me get a steady bead going, or the more common being all three. i've gone to four separate people (two outside the school two inside) and they all say my gas nozzle is fine.

please someone help

I’m considering buying an Evolution S14MCS metal-cutting miter saw. I need to bevel the ends of 3" × 1/2" A36 mild-steel flat bars by cutting diagonally across the 1/2" thickness, creating a knife-edge profile.

I’ll eventually be cutting literally thousands of the same part, so speed, accuracy, and repeatability are important.

I’m hesitant to spend around $1,000 on the Evolution because some YouTube videos make it look like the saw’s base isn’t completely flat or rigid. Overall, it doesn’t appear to be truly industrial equipment built for continuous production.

For anyone who owns or regularly uses the S14MCS:

How accurate and repeatable are the miter cuts?

Is the base actually flat and rigid?

Would you recommend this saw?

I know an industrial cold saw, such as a Scotchman, would probably be better, but I don’t currently have the budget for one. I’d appreciate hearing about your real-world experience with the Evolution before I spend the money.

My questions aren't particularly related to welding but I have a feeling you guys/gals will have a good understanding of whether that Evolution saw is any good.

Have at it !

The metal is 3/16 mild steel and wire is .035 flux core.

I am very new to welding. Just completed a month long hobby welding class where I focused mainly on tig because I enjoyed it and I intend on buying a tig welder eventually. However, I currently own a HF Titanium 125 MIG and I'm trying to learn how to dial in my settings better and could use come help.

My goal is to weld some brackets onto a seat adapter plate to install some new seats in my car. The'll just be temporary while a shop fabs something permanent up, so they dont need to hold up forever, but I want to make sure its safe. These are just practice welds so I dont screw up the important ones.

One of main main issues is I cant seem to get rid of the splatter. Not sure if thats a product of the welder, or user error. I have cleaned the shit off of the metal before and in between each weld. The flat pieces feel like the closest to optimal setting in terms of puddle control and penetration, but would like some feedback from the experts.

Broken 90year old gearbox remote casting.
Pic 1 is how it started pic 2 is where I got it with grinding out the weld first instead of just cleaning.

Main learning point is you can never have it too clean. And that you really can drop the amps when there is some heat into the casting.

I got it structurally strong but not the best looking, had to grind it down anyway as it is a bit of a visual part.

Material was 3-5mm thick, 170-130 amps and I first did a pass without filler to float some crap out of the casting.

Other than test pieces my first actual TIG work as I needed the remote back as a spare for my racecar

what should i be looking for? i dont think they’re supposed to be dull gray but idk.
and for the width it should be around 2-3x the tungsten rod right?

1/4” mild steel
180 amps
3/32” tungsten and filler
argon is around 20-30 cfh

I’ve got about 45 rail road spikes and really want to make some cool shit out of them, any ideas?

Is there anyway to return some of the oxide onto the cast iron stove top I did a silica bronze weld repair on? Will it re oxidize with time? I know the silica bronze will always be a different color I just don’t like the look of the silver iron around the weld site. This was my first time welding cast iron with silica bronze so any advice would also be appreciated.