I was surfing the internet and I found this great free opportunity to learn more about weld inspection. Olympus NDT has scheduled a free webinar titled “The Benefits of Phased Array in Weld Inspection.” This 45-minute event is scheduled on Tuesday, May 19, at 11:00 a.m. (EST). How can you say no to free?

The following topics will be discussed:

• How phased arrays significantly increase the speed of your weld  inspection
• Much improved imaging of the weld defects
• Highly reproducible inspections
• The keys to make your inspection more cost-effective
• Availability of wide range of instruments at various price levels
• Training takes the mystery out of phased array

This 45-minute live webinar includes a Q & A session. Attendees can register on-line here.

It was strange to me to learn that in the welding industry many replacement parts are referred to as “consumables” even though in fact they wear out, they are not consumed like shield gas, filler metal or a tungsten electrode….

Lincoln Electric Offers New Pipeliner® Consumables Product Catalog

This comprehensive catalog highlights everything customers need to know about Pipeliner products, including key advantages, typical applications and recommended welding procedures and positions. It also includes test results for each product’s deposit chemistry and mechanical properties.

Cleveland — Lincoln Electric has introduced a new Pipeliner^® consumables product catalog. This free catalog features the manufacturer’s complete portfolio of Pipeliner stick, solid MIG and flux-cored consumables, which are specifically designed for a wide range of pipeline applications, including root, fill and cap passes on API grade X60 through X100 pipe.

The catalog showcases Lincoln Electric’s variety of Pipeliner consumables that deliver unmatched performance characteristics, quality, consistency and reliability. It includes more than 15 cellulosic and low hydrogen vertical up and vertical down stick electrodes, solid MIG wire, and self-shielded and gas-shielded flux-cored wires.

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

Confused?  Bothered?  Bewildered?

These words may not just be strangely reminiscent of a certain song from the 1940 Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey.  Instead, they may also be descriptive of your mental state concerning a few welding procedures.

If you are in fact, “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” by either of the following:

Welding Fume Control

Automation System Selection

You’re in luck, for Lincoln Electric, as usual, has just the answer for you.  They have released two different handy-dandy reference guides for your perusal about each of these topics and both can be purchased online at www.lincolnelectric.com or by calling (888) 355-3213.

Happy learning!

Welding Fume Control FAQ booklet

Automation System Selection Guide

No one’s really sure how you pronounce it.  Is it “one aught” or “one naught”?  And furthermore, is it “one aught” or “one aut”?  Google’s not even sure (gasp!), though “naught” comes in first by popularity.  But the question at hand is not how to pronounce the cable sizes!  It’s to determine which cable size you need for the job, a query even more confusing.

Cables, Tables, Gages and sizes Or, Watts it all about?

By AUGUST F. MANZ, AWS Fellow | Jan 1, 2009 12:00 PM

The question that welders face on many jobs is : What size welding cable do I need for XX amperes when I am YY feet away from the power source?  This article — and the corrected sizes shown in Table 7 — will help you to select the right size cables for your welding or cutting job.

…

Cable Numbers

Small diameter cables have high gage numbers, and the numbers get smaller as the cables get larger.  After AWG #1 is reached, the next larger size is 0, then 00, then 000, up to 0000.  The 0 to 0000 cables are sometimes referred to as 1/0, 2/0, 3/0 and 4/0, spoken as “one naught” or “one aut”, “two naught” or “two aut” and so on.  After that, larger sizes are described in “circular-mil” areas.  Welding cable sizes usually run from AWG #2 through 4/0. It is interesting to note, that in the AWG system, a change of three sizes will double or halve the resistance. For example, a #6 cable has a cross section of about 0.0206 in2 and a #3 cable has about 0.0413 in2, while a 1/0 cable has 0.0829 in2.

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

One should never get tired of watching welding videos.  Or, at least, I don’t.  So, if you’re like me and you need more welding footage in your life, check out this Welding Theatre website I found.

It’s amazing and it has videos from nearly every company that you can think of; you can even submit your own.

Actually, it has videos for everyone except Arc-Zone.com, but we all know you can just go to our website to see those.

I can’t believe the number of calls we get from fabricators complaining about how their torch is bad, or the tungsten is junk, or….

Last week a Master Custom Motorcycle builder called me and said “man my welder is acting up can you set me up with a new Miller machine?” I jumped on the chance to tell him about the performance advantages of the New Miller Dynasty 350 DX — we sold four of them last month to a large customer and we don’t even sell welding machines! (but that’s for another post)

When I gave him the price he realized hoped there might be more to the issue than the fact that he had an older model TIG machine.

What he described was an uncontrollable weld puddle with porosity, sparks and smoke. That’s fine for MIG welding but not TIG!

I asked him the usual questions:

Is the material a cheap import?
Do you know what the mill specs are?
Is it coated with mill scale, did you clean it well?
Did you use your tungsten grinder to prepare your electrode?

After he’d checked it out, he called me back.

“Dude, I am so frustrated. It still is not working.”

When I asked him to check his gas bottle to verify that it is pure argon he told me, “I just had my supplier deliver some new bottles.”

“Check the Teflon insulating gaskets and back cap o-ring to insure they’re sealing properly,” I said.

He told me, “I gotta confess I need a new torch. You know the complete set-up like you sold me last time.”

I asked why and he told me “I got so mad I threw in on the shop floor and bent the body”

He said it wasn’t leaking water out the gas cup so I told him he didn’t need a new torch.

Turns out — and this is hard for me to believe — his gas supplier sold him and delivered Argon/Co2 mixed bottles. That is something I rarely ask because it’s so basic. But apparently it’s more common than I realized (Carmen Electrode tells me she hears this all the time on the welding forums).

My advice– save yourself time and money and ALWAYS verify the contents. “Gas type” should be clearly marked on the label of the cylinder. For TIG welding use Argon or in some cases Argon and Helium.

I know I’m adding this question to my checklist and you should too!

The difficulties and complexities surrounding the art of gas tungsten arc welding can frustrate even the most expert welders and fabricators. While scouring the web for the latest industry news, I came across a how-to article on TIG torch assembly…hope you enjoy!

Tips for TIG torches: Simplifying torch assembly Jack Fulcer, Practical Welding Today, 11/11/2008

Proper installation of GTAW torches–whether air- or water cooled–is just one bullet on a long list of reasons that GTAW is so complex. The best way to simplify torch installation is to become familiar with the components and how to assemble them properly.

As if gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) weren’t already difficult to master, GTAW torches have numerous interchangeable parts and designs to further complicate matters. CONTINUE READING ABOUT TIG TORCH ASSEMBLY ONLINE –>

Or check out Jim Watson’s video tutorial on How to Build a Water Cooled TIG Torch:

Want to pursue welding as a hobby? Want to make some money on the side or start your own fabrication business, but are turned off by the high price tag and complexity of welding machines?

Well the crew over at Miller has just released a great machine that is both inexpensive and easy to use. Our own JoeWelder^TM, a.k.a. Jim Watson, says “The Diversion 165 is a great tool for the novice welder.” Jim goes on to say, “I recommend that machine as a starting point; to complete your TIG welding station I would add our New TIG welding safety bundle, a TIG Weld Prep Kit, Sharpie^TM Series Tungsten Grinder and a AK-2-Pro^TM Accessory Kit, — with that combination you can achieve high-quality welds on a variety of materials from steel to aluminum, stainless steel and titanium– right out of the box! I would also suggest a copy of Ron Covell’s TIG Welding Basics DVD.” All of these products are available in our industry leading welding accessory webstore. (more…)

Nothin’ like a nice steady rhythm to help you lay a bead, so we’ve created a couple soundtracks for you to weld by… ALL ROCK & METAL of course. Enjoy!

There’s a lot of interest in titanium welding. It’s a very corrosion resistant metal and it looks nice but it has a reputation for being difficult to weld. Titanium is very sensitive to oxygen contamination, so one important factor is maintaining the proper shield gas coverage, and allowing the weld to cool without letting oxygen in. Otherwise the titanium can become brittle.

At Arc-Zone we recommend using a gas lens and a super large gas nozzle. The gas lens diffuses the flow of gas so that turbulence doesn’t pull oxygen into the weld zone. As for shield cups for TIG Welding, choose from the Gas Saver clear glass nozzles, high-tech flooding cups and the popular (low-cost) Monster™ TIG Nozzle.

And once you’ve got your torch set up, check out this great article over at The Tube & Pipe Journal online:

TIG for titanium tubing: Success hinges on filler metal selection, cleanness, gas coverage
By Jack Fulcer

Jack covers the the basics, including cleaning the base metal, joint fit-up, shield gas coverage, filler metal selection, choosing the right TIG Torch, and even color acceptance criteria for the welded titanium.