Ugliest welds you've ever seen

Atlas Knife Company

Atlas Knife Company

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Feb 16, 2010
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We thought we hit gold when a guy at the steel shop volunteered to weld in exchange for a seat during the 24 hour race. Unfortunately, our gold turned out to be pyrite. These are some photos of the rollcage. The reason why I haven't stepped foot in my shop in the last month, haven't gone fishing, or anything. Now, 3 days before the race, our cage has been ruled unsafe and we won't get a refund on our $500 entry fee. Of course, the race officials think that 3 days is plenty of time to either learn to weld or hire someone to weld it. They don't seem to realize that it's expensive trying to pay a welder to drop everything and rush me to the front of the line. At least I've got to use my anvil fabricating parts for the car.
 

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yeah those welds could use a little work. Maybe if you ground the excess down and cleaned the welds up a bit you could get away with it?
 
wow. sux in a big way.

I do a little bit o' welding and do not know how to make such poor welds. I wonder if he has a little 110V mig and used some flux core wire. The combinatrion not hot enough to penetrate the steel tubes. How thick the steel tubes?

Regarding the race officials Of course, the race officials think that 3 days is plenty of time to either learn to weld or hire someone to weld it. They don't seem to realize that it's expensive trying to pay a welder to drop everything and rush me to the front of the line.

They are looking out for your safety. The $500 your out of pocket is way cheaper than the medical bills (or death) from injuries incurred when the cage fails. It will fail with welds like that. Get yourself a 220V mig welder and learn how to use it. You will be so glad you did, and you'll be totally ready for the next race!
 
Yeah, it's a bit rough. It's about 3 hours to drive from me and I an not sure I can fix this... I wish I can help.
By the way, for the racing cars and chrommoly structural tubing the TIG is the way to go.
 
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Im a metalsmith by trade (though im in another unrelated branch now), and seeing those welds makes me cringe.

Too bad im not near you...id be happy to fix that for you and re-weld it.
 
Oh my god, did he even wear a helmet, or just turn his head and let the wand wander wherever. I can just here that welder popping and crackling, instead of the steady bzzzzz. Those welds are atrocious . Sorry to hear of your situation, hope it all works out in time.
 
I've been involved in the professional side of welding over 30 years and it never surprises me to see or hear this type of job being done. Another welding professional told me his estimate was only about 5% that practice the trade are really qualified to do so. It's one of those trades that isn't licensed or policed in this type of application like plumbing or electrical so you get hacks doing something they have no business doing. Good thing the race inspector thru it out. A couple years ago a local drag guy crashed his car during a test and tune and never made it back home again. Roll cage was a POS that should have been cut up and turned in for scrap but he save himself money having a hack do the job......
 
Wow, those are painful to look at. I felt my chest get tight just looking at them. I'm afraid I can't offer any constructive advice other than the opinion that those are fixable, of course. I would mig it because you're gonna want to grind out the roughness and then build up a ton of material. A buzzbox would be your second best bet. Tig would be cleaner, but you no longer have the luxury of virgin material. As a reference, my local mobile welder would do that fix for a couple hundred.
 
My father used to be an welder in the military, I learned from him (doesnt make me a professional but I have done alot of welding). I dont think those would have passed when I was a teenager welding tractor parts on the farm....I feel for you and I hope you contacted him and made him aware of your feelings. I hope you get these fixed soon enough for the race and I wish you good luck.
 
Those are considered bad?????



:) Seriously, those are pretty rough.
 
Brent, the welder, said something about the T62 welding rods being strong but ugly, as opposed to the T61 that would have been pretty but not as strong. He was using a Miller 220V MMA welder and a variety of sticks. I don't blame him for the ugly welds to the sheet metal, welding 1/8" plate to 30 guage sheet metal has to be difficult. Still, I could weld the tubing together with my 110v MIG and get better beads than that, and my welds are uglier than my knives.
 
Your right! those are the ugliest welds I have eeeeever seen! And I work at a steel fab shop, who only hires temps!
 
I'm a welder up here in the oil and gas fields of northern B.C.. I found these "welds" underneath a pumpjack that we went to hook up. I put a little more on some of the other ones after I found this:
192cb4ec.jpg

That's concrete he tried to WELD TO!
482.jpg

I still don't have words to describe the kind of back woods gapped tooth cousin f****r it takes to do something like this
 
Tyrade83 said:
I'm a welder up here in the oil and gas fields of northern B.C.. I found these "welds" underneath a pumpjack that we went to hook up. I put a little more on some of the other ones after I found this:
192cb4ec.jpg

That's concrete he tried to WELD TO!
I still don't have words to describe the kind of back woods gapped tooth cousin f****r it takes to do something like this
Click to expand...
I was going to respond about the concrete, but I noticed your comment about it between the pictures. Mind if I show that picture to a friend?
 
Wow. That concrete welding pic takes the cake. I've never seen anything so stupid in my entire life, and I see at least one act of mindboggling stupidity every single day. Thanks for sharing!
I want to show that to a friend, and ask "what's wrong with this picture?" Should be good for a laugh!
 
I bought a wire feed lincoln at HD a few days ago and have been playing with it since. I thought my first welds were bad until looking at your pics. Thank you for posting.
 
g33kfu said:
yeah those welds could use a little work. Maybe if you ground the excess down and cleaned the welds up a bit you could get away with it?
Click to expand...

Probably not the best route to go, Roll cages are there for a reason...

Those are worse than my welds!
 
In all seriousness. Those are the ugliest welds I have ever seen in my life. Looks like it was done by vandals.
 
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