gillbot Posted October 8, 2004 Report Share Posted October 8, 2004 Spent 4 hours under my beater car welding my homeade exhaust to the cat converter to get ready for echeck. Got a 100 amp AC arc welder on loan from a firend and on the recommendation of a coworker I got some 1/16" 6013 rod. Set the welder to about 65 amps and proceded to weld. The first part seemed to go rather well and I'm thinking "WOW is this EASY!" but as I tried to weld uphill, I blew my first hole. Filled the hole in (or so I thought) and proceded to finish up my weld job after getting the electrode stuck about eleventy gillion times and blowing yet another hole. Looked rather nice when finished so I decided to test it. I shook and rattled that thing as hard as I could and I thought it was SOLID. Not bad for my 1st weld job eh? WRONG! Took the car for a spin and decided to beat on it and really test it out. It got louder all of a sudden. Right away I knew it came loose. Got it home and got back under, not a SINGLE bit of penetration on the converter AT ALL! Back to the drawing board I guess...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nurkvinny Posted October 8, 2004 Report Share Posted October 8, 2004 NOBODY succeeds their first time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinman Posted October 8, 2004 Report Share Posted October 8, 2004 It really helps to practice on a bench, where you can see everything going on and concentrate on the weld in a comfortable position. Then proceed to the under the car/ overhead welding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckeye1647545503 Posted October 9, 2004 Report Share Posted October 9, 2004 use clamps, it is a beater Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gillbot Posted October 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2004 Originally posted by buckeye: use clamps, it is a beaterNot enough pipe to clamp to. I tried it on a test piece of pipe before I started to weld. I got a good bead on the pipe but the flange I wanted to weld to got NOTHING. Took it for a spin and it popped right off. I was on the verge of blowing through the pipe at the setting I used so I don't think I could go hotter to get it to penetrate the flange withough burning through the pipe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinman Posted October 9, 2004 Report Share Posted October 9, 2004 It's hard to explain, but you need to concentrate your heat on the flange and the "whip" the puddle onto the pipe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gillbot Posted October 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2004 I'm gonna give it another shot. I might end up buying a generic cat and just clamping everything together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gillbot Posted October 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2004 I went at it again. Gooped it up REAL good and it looks like hell but it's holding for now. I even hit it with a hammer this time!!! I can say for sure if it leaks or not but as long as I get my fail slip from Echeck and my new 30 day tag, I'll worry about quality later! The funny thing is, I ran a few test beads on some spare pipe and they look NICE. It's just welding 2 different thicknesses that is hard because you concentrate the heat on the thicker material to try avoiding burning through the thinner stuff. When you do this too much you don't get a good bead on the thin material, which is what I did. O-well, practice practice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokinHawk1647545499 Posted October 12, 2004 Report Share Posted October 12, 2004 heat that puppy up then add enough wire to replace on what you would have burned away. hopefully youll pass echeck. good luck. if you dont, move to a place that doesnt have echeck cant wait my lincoln electric 180amp AC/DC welder should be in at the end of the month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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