Good morning

[CaddmannQ]

.…I usually keep a long end cap on my torches but I also have a shorty end cap if I need to get in tight. This will require a shorter W. When mine get on the small side I'll swap out to a new 7"-er and keep the stubby for when needed.

I have used that Shorty cap several times now, and it really came in handy when I was making tack welds under the car.

I bought another pack of electrodes and sharpened them all up on the grinder last night so I won’t have to get up from the table to grind tungsten.

I was going to buy myself a sleeve to go over my gas hose but that superflex hose is so wonderful that I hate to put a big clunky sleeve on it with zippers and Velcro, double seams and all that stuff.

But the nylon covering on my hose has taken some heat damage and I am afraid I’m going to destroy it by dragging it across the hot work or dropping hot metal on it. Maybe I’ll just throw some cheap wire loom on there for now & order some braided Kevlar sleeving.

 

[CaddmannQ]

This was a little cold, but I was working right from the edge. First tack:



Too cold!

I ended up back-gouging it and welding it from the back too. That was at about 97A. Rail is 0.107”


But it’s a lot thinner where the rust craters are.

 

[Bobster]

I ended up back-gouging it and welding it from the back too. That was at about 97A. Rail is 0.107”...But it’s a lot thinner where the rust craters are.

Looks good (enough)! Sometimes you can "cool" the weld and keep it from burning through by adding a little extra filler to the puddle as you ease off on the gas...

 

[CaddmannQ]

Thank you.

I think I should’ve put an aluminum backer underneath before I welded it, and cranked it up another 10a.

The other rail is cracked in the same place so I’ll get to try it again. I’m not going to weld up every bolt hole in these rails but I am going to weld a lot of them up solid. In those cases I will use a backer bar on everything.

That weld looks pretty good after I shaved it off with a grinder and a file. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures yet.

More fun tomorrow lol

 

[CaddmannQ]

Oh yes, all the flags are out for memorial day.




I wear my patriotic welding hat.

 

[Ernst]

Memorial Day Morning in America

 

[meanstreak]

Good Memorial Day morning to all. I hope everyone is enjoying this special day with family and friends.

Have a great day, and never forget those we honor today.

 

[meanstreak]

Good morning to all of you. I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend and didn't eat too much, lol. I think this week I might need to lose a couple of pounds.

Have a great day.

 

[CaddmannQ]

Good morning Mossberg Owners.

Nothing too exciting happened here. We had my sister over for dinner and I barbecued a chicken.

It was a little bit breezy on and off so I didn’t get too much welding done, but what I did get done was really successful.

I blasted some metal over those craters and filled them in.


See the two black dots? I cleaned this within an inch of its life, and the Argon still managed to purge up some ancient oil and create those two tiny spots of slag. While welding, I had good fusion throughout.

Then I shaved it all down flat-ish. I still have to fill in the craters on the flange and shave them.


Some of the metal was very thin and I had some droop. Here I have shaved it off & I’m preparing to sand off the remaining scale.


Here it is after sanding. There’s a little undercutting plus a couple pits I need to drill & fill, but it looks pretty good.



This rail will get a continuous steel shape along the bottom edge, and it will tie into this existing flange. That will act as a bridge over all of this repair work.

 

[CaddmannQ]

@ Bobster

I almost bought stubby collets etc to get in closer. But I realize that it’s not something you would want to use all the time, because it puts your torch hand closer to the puddle.

I think this CK 17 is going to work out OK for everything I have to do, except one possible spot here and there, on metal thick enough to stick weld. Alternately, I could still do puddle welds with the TIG from the accessible side, if I make holes.

I think the limiting factor is always going to be me. The torch may be getting hot when I run 100 A, but it’s not burning up because I’m not doing long welds. I’m gonna be doing lots of rosettes. Square ones and round ones.

Here I’m using some aluminum chillers and a backer bar.

It came out very cold. I flipped it over and did the back and it came out perfect. That Aluminum backer protected the hot steel from corrosion because it never touched the cold air. Just argon and aluminum. I got a perfect weld and I did not have to back-gouge or do any cleaning of the backside.


I did not grind this flat yet. But you can see where I touched it with the disc.


I have to do a few dozen of these square holes but fortunately they’re all concealed and I won’t have to grind them out.

Here’s the dirty rail I haven’t touched yet. They both have a lot of holes to fill.

I feel like I’m going to be really confident by the time I get to the real structural welding, after doing all these minor fills.

 

[CaddmannQ]

I spent a lot of time irrigating and messing with my aquarium pumps today So I did not get around to working on the car until very late.

I welded up the crack in the other rail, And filled in 35 holes before I got tired.

Except for the one by the crack, I still have to weld these up from the other side as well.

I’m planning to run out of Argon tomorrow around lunchtime. That way I can take a break, get cleaned up, and go to the welding store.

 

[CaddmannQ]

Good morning Mossberg Owners.

The crack in the second rail was much worse than the first one.


I did the same thing as before. The top weld is kind of cold but then I back-welded and got good penetration throughout. This is actually the back weld of the crack, but the other 34 holes are only welded on the top so far.


So lots more fun welding rosettes today. I intend to get them all welded up except for the large holes, and in total it appears there will be about 98 rosettes welded from both sides. That’s a lot of practice, and it is paying off.

It appears that it will be hot and calm today, so perfect welding weather. All the metal will be preheated to about 90° before I even get to it and I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets to 100 today.

Hopefully there’s no radical weather where you live. We’ve been very lucky.

 

[CaddmannQ]

I filled the backs of those 34 welds, and started on the other rail, welding over an aluminum backer. I got 11 more complete before my argon was shot. Here you can see that I zapped my welding clamp a few times.


The welding shop is right next to the bait shop, so I picked up 126 ft.³ of argon for me, and Felix the Oscar got four tubs of fresh worms.

 

[CaddmannQ]

All the small holes in the webs are welded. Now I am working on the flanges.

There’s another day’s welding on these things.

 

[CaddmannQ]

Good morning guys.

This is the damage from last nights welding. I am not quite done yet and you can see there is a bit of warpage that will have to be straightened.



But I can’t do that yet because I’m not done warping them yet!

 

[Rodburner]

When you quit saying warpage and start calling it retro wishbone design, you will have made it to the top…lol

 

[CaddmannQ]

No, these have to come out straight no matter how much abuse I need to deliver them.

I put in another couple hours welding but it got to be 100°F in the shade and I pooped out.

 

[CaddmannQ]

Good morning Mossberg Owners.

After it got dark last night I went back out and welded until 9 o’clock, and I got all of the little holes welded up from both sides.

It hasn’t changed (warped) much more, but now I have to patch in the large holes, and I don’t know how much warpage that will develop.

I am just going to scribe some bits of 1/8” mild steel, cut the patches out, and do some more full penetration welding.

So far I don’t have anything going on that I can’t correct easily.

Today looks to be a bit cooler but I need to fix the tail light on my trailer, so that means I need to go out and buy one.

You all have a fine day.

 

[Bobster]

So far I don’t have anything going on that I can’t correct easily.

It's looking good, Cadd! The best way to get better at welding is more arc time and you're doing it!

 

[Ernst]

Tomorrow, Tuesday, June 6th will mark the 79th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy by Allied forces during World War II, often referred to as D-Day.

Employing more than 156,000 American, British and Canadian troops, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history, was the beginning of the liberation of France and laid the foundation for the Allied victory on the Western Front.

Very few D-Day survivors are still alive today and those that are will be in their late 90's. If you know one, please check on them and thank them for their service.

Regards