Engloid

Yes, this is by far, not a new method of doing things. In fact, is has been around since before you could buy a forged or bent elbow. Pick up an old pipefitting handbook and they will show how to do things like this. It's OLD technology, not new. I don't think you can get an elbow that will turn that sharp on that size of pipe, but you may find a donut that will.

I know some of you may not agree, but when I see these pics, I see some good fabrication that is NOT suported with good welding. Those welds are way too narrow to have achieved full penetration. It is just a matter of time till it cracks open.

Spenser

yeah, I was wondering how he got them that skinny. but then again, those welds are alot better then the original whitey welds, lol

Dr.Boost

Bah, everybody is a critic. I've done some shady *** welding with a 110 gasless mig that is still holding up to this day.
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Reddy

Say what you want about the original whitey welds, yeah they may not be pretty but they held up on a 16 gauge manifold on a Taurus that went through hellish car beatings for 2 and a half years and never had a weld broke. Again, its not a fashion show but I know your not serious cause man, don't make me pull out pics of your car.

ComputerJLT

i'm betting the primary reason that those welds were done like that with little or no filler was for the eye candy effect.

con

its not a home made job, you can buy them and they are done buy machines, you can see his welds on either end on the bend.

Engloid

The fact that you welded something and it hasn't broken has no bearing on this part here. To say that you welded something that was ugly and held up doesn't mean that every ugly weld will never fail.

Sure, many people are critics, but I speak from experience: 19 years as a journeyman pipe welder, and I'm an AWS certified welding inspector. You would probably be amazed at what I can tell about how something was welded just by looking at the finished product.

Those welds are way to narrow to have gotten good penetration. Not only that, but this area will see high heat and a lot of heat cycling.
Maybe...but there's better ways to get a pretty weld without sacrificing quality.
Guess again bro...it's most likely that all the welds in the middle were done in a vise where he could roll the part, and the end welds were done in the car or something more uncomfortable. I doubt this guy has a machine that can make a weld in middle of a turn like that. In fact, the tubing manufacturers specifically make elbows with long tangents, just for the reason hav having enough straight area on the sides of the weld joint for the machine to clamp on to. It's similar to how benders work, in that they have to have so much straight area between bends...the machine welders have to have so much straight area to hold on to for making the welds. This weld below was done by a machine.



The welds below were done by hand:

KFB

looks good to meeee

Dr.Boost

Obviously you know more about it than I do, but I'm just stating my experience. I've welded plenty of downpipes with my pile of ---- 100 flux mig with no problems. Yeah, it looks like hell and probably didn't penetrate very well with those butt *** cold welds, but they are still holding ::knocks on wood::


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Engloid

I read over my post again, and I think I did come across a bit harsh. Hope you didn't take offense.

As I said though, the fab work is great. In the worlds of fab work and welding, there's some people that are good at one and some good at the other. It may just be that this guy hasn't gotten a lot of experience and is picking up on the fab a bit quicker than the welding.