Ugliest welds you've ever seen

Nathan the Machinist said:
Looks like it was done by vandals.
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I'm a marine fabricator ship fitter and welder by trade. My first thought was, why didn't he just stop? These are not welds. It does look like somebody vandalized your roll cage though.

I wish I could help you out, but I'm out on the west coast in some sleepy drinking village with a fishing problem.

TIG is a good (expensive) way to go, but there's no way you'd be able to clean those up enough to (TIG)weld them without cutting the entire thing apart.

Do you have access to a welding machine? I'd bet you can watch some youtube videos and lay down some better welds than that. Remember, welding in the vertical position is a LOT different than the flat position. For a beginner it's generally a lot easier to weld everything flat. Also, down hand isn't welding. Vertical welds start at the bottom.


Concrete welder. I've seen a guy do this before. I was pressure testing a fuel tank on a fishing boat. In about 30ft of weld seam we had nearly 20 leaks (one of our "certified" welders) with one pound of pressure (PSI) in the tank. I went ahead and repaired all the leaks and the last one was(under a piece of equipment in a corner) a filthy ugly 12 pass mess. I started chipping the slag, missed once and discovered that the jerk had tried to weld to a concrete floor! We all had a good laugh about it then fired him. :D
 
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And, after being told how to weld(not shown) by the guy's boss, here's my latest weld with my 90A 110v HF flux core welder. There are some holes, that's where I need to fill in. This was plasma cut plate and a few stray cuts around the edges.

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Zaph weld on the left side seems the best to me. I was told to make it look like a small stack of Dimes.
 
Wow... .that's just plain sad!!! :eek: :barf: :rolleyes:

When I was in school, I saw MUCH worse welds though!!! :eek: :D

The steel to concrete weld literally has to be one of the most stupid, ignorant things I have ever seen.
 
Yep, the one on the left was very clean, with no fill needed. Maybe a stack of nickels, but definitely my best. The others all had perpendicular plasma cuts that I had to fill. You can see one in the top right corner and inside the gap on the right. Still, these are all 10x better than anything I've ever welded before. Ed told me to weld in little circles. That made a huge difference. I did little circles and got the stacked look on all the welds. This should get my forge moving along, now. I tried welding some L6 band saw blade to the other end of this forge. Much more difficult trying to weld .040" than 1/8".
RyanW said:
Zaph weld on the left side seems the best to me. I was told to make it look like a small stack of Dimes.
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At one time as a metallurgist I certified nuclear welders for the Navy.That's about the highest qualifications, requiring perfect welds. I'm now involved with rallying and by habit I look at welds ,though I'm not the scrutineer .I haven't seen any as bad as yours !!
 
Could it be that he was visually impaired and was too embarrassed to admit it. Has all the earmarks of blind welding.

Truly sad to hear about this.

Fred
 
I worked at a tool and die shop for 14yrs. We had hired a new welder who had paperwork to back his training. I'm not up on all the lingo, but our welds on dieset boses require 3 passes... one at the joint and two more over top of that. Our current welder made it look like overlapping dimes (like Ryan points out) This "schooled" welder made it look like he shat toothpaste from his arse. He was let go the same day he was hired.

Here's a good one I found on Google.... lol....

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I'm not a fan of the "stack of dimes" advice for all forms of welding that a lot of guys seem to share.

A super clean weld done with a deep penetrating rod like 6010 that you need to "whip and fill" will look like a stack of dimes, or a TIG weld on aluminum could be described the same way. However, most times you see someone do it with other processes like a small wirefeed.... it's just a cosmetic-ish type of thing to do. A quality MIG weld will be smooth, have good penetration, nice tie-in at the toes, and be smooth/consistent both in width and height.

zaph, after looking at your pic---one thing you could do to immediately improve the welds with all other things being equal is grind the area to be welded clean before welding. Not all weld processes require the parts to be joined to be sterile like TIG.... but you will always improve your welds with any process if you start off with clean joints. Like in your pic, the weld puddle is fighting with the deep rust on the round piece and a lot of it gets deposited into the weld bead.
 
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Looks like my work with a stick - now give me a wire feed and things improve immediately! Thank you, sweet baby Jesus, for wire feed welders. It made a "fabricator" out of me! :)
 
My dad was a pipefitter/welder by trade. I remember the first time he let me weld something- I don't remember what it was. He looked it over, and then said, "We'll bury it, and in 100 years someone will dig it up and say it got hit by lightening!"


Milt
 
I've been practicing and am getting decent with the 110v MIG with flux core. A lot of splatter, but I can get a relatively clean, consistent bead even though it's a cheap welder. Do you think I could reweld and fix these or do I need to cut the cage out and start over?
 
Well, I took the car in to a welding shop and they said that it could probably pass inspection if the excess slag and flux was chipped off. So, I get to spend 4 hours on a different kind of grinder this week.
 
A nice flapwheel and a angle grinder will help a lot. Get different grits, remove bulk with 36 and clean with 320 on a rubber backing. And good luck!
 
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