Rate my welding $killz.....
 

I welded up a few sections of my exhaust today and then cleaned the welds with a hand grinder....what do you guys think??

Flex Pipe:

Attachment 34889
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Magnaflow muffler:

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I'm going to paint all of this with a heat resistant paint so that it doesn't all rust up on me.....

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

don't take so much out when you grind it. You really do take alot of the integrity out of the weld. Just leave a small amount of the weld on there, you can still grind them down but not that far.

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

how the hell are we supposed to rate the welds if you grinded them off? :P

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

Looks good to me.

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

WHen you grind a weld down, think of it like taking a Bobcat and leveling your yard. Do you go immediately to the low areas and start digging? Hell no... you take the high spots down. You need to do the same when you're grinding. Stay on the weld itself for as long as you can, until it's gone, then lightly blend the area adjacent to it.

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

Thats good info to know cause i was doing the same as him... I think the welds look good...

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

It's very common for people to do that. I came up with this analogy when I was teaching a welding class for a company. It seemed to really get the point across to the guys that wanted to put deep gouges in their test plates.

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

you have to be careful because with most low power, low price migs, ---- some of the weld strength and integrity is what is above the weld and aparent on top of the base metal


you should really give us a shot of the penetration, if you have full pen, which is hard to do sometimes with lower priced, 110v migs then you need to ------ that weld out and grab as much metal and involve more surface area for strength





so far so good tho



i use to do this when making dumptubes for people and kept wonderin why they were having crakin issues, back in the day. nowi know, it was part my machine and part me for grinding sooo much to make it pretty. which kinda defeated the purpose

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

Yea, you definitely ground too much down. I made teh same mistake on my dumptube abd it has cracked like 4 times since I made it. Had to repair it and left the welds alone. Your welds will crack. maybe not imediately, but within a couple months if you dont go back over them.

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

there is full penetration on the whole thing and i did leave about 1/16" of the weld itself on the pipe and gradually ground down....i just tried to make the whole thing look like a gradual transition from the big pipe to the smaller one....i should take a pic of the inside because there is a line of penetration through the whole thing....

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

overfinished

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

next time i weld, i'll leave some of the actual weld on and take a pic.....i like to smooth them out like this so that they dont look so crappy, but i do make sure to leave part of the actual weld itself.....

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

if its a good weld, it wont look crappy. Just practice man :y

here's a pic of an exhaust flange I did with a flux core welder. This was also my second time ever welding.
http://www.we-todd-did-racing.com/we...ZkMzF5NTQx.jpg

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

that looks like a bunch of tack welds

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

it'll hold!! ;D

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

the welder i was using i was having a hard time getting the wire feed to the speed i wanted......i got good penetration, but i was having trouble putting too much wire on it......it looked good, but just too much garbage

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

yea, that happens to me a lot. It's hard for me to get a consistant bead like that anymore. I dont weld often at all. I just have a welder for when I need it. My friend works as a welder and he taught me how to weld.

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

thats pretty much the exact thing i was doing...i was taught by my autos teacher in highschool and he told me something similar to your quote. I took off the big section of weld and then i blended the two adjacent pipes until i thought it looked nice

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

You should'nt have to grind it that much. Plus, it's an exhaust pipe. It will be barely visible to anyone.

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

i didnt grind very much at all....it looks like i ground a lot because i smoothed about an inch past the weld on either side in order to make it look uniform

I dont' care if anyone sees it at all...i'm still going to do my very best work on it. I dont half ass anything because it does make a difference to me.....i take time in all that i do in order to make sure that i'm satisfied with it 100%

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

I never said that you are half-assing the job. Function before fashion.... as many people on this thread implied, integrity counts when it comes to welding. Otherwise we'll all be using JB-weld. Not trying to down your work man. I'm glad that you are dedicated to your work.

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

i know you're not knocking it, i was just justifying why i did what i did......

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

God I love my miller tig...and how I can use it :)

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

^^ Good for you

Re: Rate my welding $killz.....
 

FYI for those that might race - most sanctioning bodies will not allow any grinding on welds at all on racing vehicles. Some only apply the rule to structure and others to anything on the car. Check your rulebook before you grind. Of course for show anything goes. FWIW