Tip o' the Day! - Welding

jhiggins

jhiggins

Joined
Jul 11, 2003
Messages
3,258
I know some of you have arc (GMAW) welders, and some of you have MIG welders, and some of you are lucky bastids enough to even have a TiG! Well this tip applies more to the stick and MIG guys that the other types of welding, and here is goes:

To speed cleanup after welding, wrap areas you want to shield from splatter with aluminum foil. VIOLA!

Okay, that's my tip and I'm sticking to it. ;)
 
I've welded/fitted for years and never heard that one, should work and sounds like a great idea for small projects. Thanks
 
so I should ditch my welding gloves and wrap my hands with aluminum foil? :confused: :D
 
Burchtree said:
so I should ditch my welding gloves and wrap my hands with aluminum foil? :confused: :D
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Good gosh no, Mike! You have to wrap the foil around your head and ankles or they will see you!

Nope. Wrap it around the parts of whatever you are welding to eliminate spatter, and speed cleanup! :)
 
Thanks I'll have to try that. Could have saved me a lot of work on my spurs I just did.
I'll have to extend my tin foil hat into a cloak too, I fried the **** out of my arms cause I was too dumb to put long sleeves on :rolleyes:
 
LOL Matt if you are anything like me, all your long sleeve cotton shirts have burn holes in them! I really need to get a pair of those leather sleeves.
 
I've got a thermal sweatshirt I started wearing last winter when I was learning to weld and its well burned now. Its too damn hot to wear that in the summer though so I just showed off my manliness and went with short sleeves. The splatter, I can handle but that was the worst damn sunburn I've ever had! Maybe I'll just start putting sunscreen on every 10 minutes :D
 
Matt Shade said:
The splatter, I can handle but that was the worst damn sunburn I've ever had! Maybe I'll just start putting sunscreen on every 10 minutes :D
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I remember when I went through TIG welding classes. I wore a cotton button-down work shirt and left the top two buttons undone. The instructor told me I should button it up or I'd be sorry. I ignored him. He was right... I had this nasty sunburn in the shape of a vee. Took forever to go away! Oh yeah, so that reminds me of this OTHER tip of the day: Use Preparation-H on welding burns and bad sunburns. WORKS AWESOME! Heals it up quick too, and if you get it on soon enough there will be very little or no blistering.
 
Mr Higgins,
I have always wondered how welding would affect the grain structure of the blade/guard region. Would you mind commenting on this?
Thanks
Luke
 
Hillbilly welder's trick you should know: ALWAYS starch the living shi*t out'a your cotton long sleeve shirts, especially your "hold'n" arm!! The sparks just bounce off!! It's Supermanstuff......... Uhmm... I use Niagara....

mitch
 
And just a little safety tip.Anyone getting any flashburn on the old eyeballs ,use potato juice. Works like a charm. When I was welding for a living, my wife used to grind up some baking potatos,throw in a dab of water and squeeze it into an icecube tray.Then when flashed,thaw out and flush the eyes.You will know you have flashburn when you have to wear sunglasses to read the forums and are not trying to be cool.Dave :)
 
Lukers said:
Mr Higgins,
I have always wondered how welding would affect the grain structure of the blade/guard region. Would you mind commenting on this?
Thanks
Luke
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Sure thing, Luke. Don't do it unless you make a stub tang that is well away from the ricasso area. The differential grain structure will be seriously hard to hide. The only way I have ever gotten it to blend properly is to sandblast, and I'm only fond of that procedure for tactical knives.

But many times when using a piece of steel that is already hardened, I allow for the blade to have what I call a "stub-tang" or an inch or so of tang to weld a piece of mild steel onto in which I can thread for the pommel or whatever I intend to use there. The mild steel welded to the hardened at that point does not affect the blade at all, and it hidden by the guard and the handle. Obviously, this only works for hidden-tang styles, however I'll bet that a clever knifemaker could use some fancy filework to disguise the weld on a knife using a scaled handle.
 
DC KNIVES said:
And just a little safety tip.Anyone getting any flashburn on the old eyeballs ,use potato juice. Works like a charm. When I was welding for a living, my wife used to grind up some baking potatos,throw in a dab of water and squeeze it into an icecube tray.Then when flashed,thaw out and flush the eyes.You will know you have flashburn when you have to wear sunglasses to read the forums and are not trying to be cool.Dave :)
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Good tip! I have an auto-darkening helmet, but when the lens gets all cruddy I get a flash once in a while.
 
jhiggins said:
I remember when I went through TIG welding classes. I wore a cotton button-down work shirt and left the top two buttons undone. The instructor told me I should button it up or I'd be sorry. I ignored him. He was right... I had this nasty sunburn in the shape of a vee. Took forever to go away! Oh yeah, so that reminds me of this OTHER tip of the day: Use Preparation-H on welding burns and bad sunburns. WORKS AWESOME! Heals it up quick too, and if you get it on soon enough there will be very little or no blistering.
Click to expand...

Yeah TIG seems like its friggin bright. I only got to play with it for about a half hour but I remember that the shield was almost set too dark for stick and it was clear as day with the TIG.
The medecine idea sounds much better than swearing about it constantly like I tried. My left arm was crispy from leaning on the table, and my right arm had a perfect line following the crease of my elbow and was burned more underneath than on top. So I had to explain to a lot of people what the hell I was doing too which meant I got to swear at them.


I've got an auto darkening helmet too thanks to a friend who gave me his old one. I'd have never learned if I had to master flipping it up and down :D
 
jhiggins said:
But many times when using a piece of steel that is already hardened, I allow for the blade to have what I call a "stub-tang" or an inch or so of tang to weld a piece of mild steel onto in which I can thread for the pommel or whatever I intend to use there. The mild steel welded to the hardened at that point does not affect the blade at all, and it hidden by the guard and the handle. Obviously, this only works for hidden-tang styles, however I'll bet that a clever knifemaker could use some fancy filework to disguise the weld on a knife using a scaled handle.
Click to expand...


Well, I know this probably goes without saying, but I assume you only use this method on small knives meant for light cutting & slicing, right? I would hope you would not use this construction method on great big choppers. And, I assume further that you let your customers know up front this is how their knife was made.

I've got a welding story for ya. This happened to my older cousin about 2 or 3 weeks ago. He is a welder for the railroad, and was working on a car, when a great big glob of molten steel flew onto his hand, burned through his work glove, and instantly fused itself onto his gold wedding ring. If you've ever done some work with gold or silver, you soon learned just how good they are at conducting heat. (I burned my fingers plenty with the fine metals. I was accustomed to steel, where you can grind or whatever for several seconds before you have to dip it in water.) His entire ring got red hot instantly. Burned the holy hell out of his finger, all the way around, because of course he couldn't take it off quickly or anything.
 
Originally Posted by jhiggins

But many times when using a piece of steel that is already hardened, I allow for the blade to have what I call a "stub-tang" or an inch or so of tang to weld a piece of mild steel onto in which I can thread for the pommel or whatever I intend to use there. The mild steel welded to the hardened at that point does not affect the blade at all, and it hidden by the guard and the handle. Obviously, this only works for hidden-tang styles, however I'll bet that a clever knifemaker could use some fancy filework to disguise the weld on a knife using a scaled handle.

Possum said;
"Well, I know this probably goes without saying, but I assume you only use this method on small knives meant for light cutting & slicing, right? I would hope you would not use this construction method on great big choppers. And, I assume further that you let your customers know up front this is how their knife was made."

What would be wrong with that? :confused:
 
When I weld an extension on a tang it usually is Damascus.I leave about an 1"-1 1/2" behind the guard to weld to.Bevel the mating edges fully and proceed,but it is done in the annealled state, then ground and hardened.I have used this method on heavy choppers with great success.Dave :)
 
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