Well, I've been pretty busy here lately, I havent gotten to spend as much time out in the shop as I'd like to...
Anyway, over the past couple years I've picked up a few ideas about dealing with welding related warpage here on this forum, from both schools I've attended, and from my own personal, but limited, fabrication experience....
One night, I decided to make a video about the subject, and this is what I put together...
I told myself, "I want to make the video I would have liked to seen when I started building things" and this is what I came up with. Special thanks to anyone who has ever taught me anything about warpage, BTW :)
I'm sure its nothing special, but I just wanted to share, hopefully it helps someone out. Have a nice week, everyone!! Audio/Video clip:video1
Re: A Few Tips on Warpage... in reply to Lanse, 12-20-2012 06:51:34
I do occasional small fabrication production runs on a 4' piece of 18" I beam with an 1 1/2" web that just fits most of the pieces I weld up on it. I clean off the web, jig and clamp the pieces about every 5-6 inches, tack all 4 corners inside and out, butt weld 1/2" x 2" pieces with an 1/8" air gap with 1/8" 6010 rod, needle scale each weld, grind each weld flat, unclamp, flip, reclamp, weld and needle scale each joint on the backside, grind flat and unclamp an almost perfect piece that is usually flat within 1/16" over a 20" finished piece. I give the 1 1/2" welding table that the 18" I beam gives me, with heavy clamping, credit for absorbing heat so well that I usually have very little warp to correct.
Re: A Few Tips on Warpage... in reply to Lanse, 12-20-2012 06:51:34
Lanse, you should get a leather rod pouch to carry your rods so they have less chance of getting damaged and keeps them all together. I used to clip mine on the side of my coveralls and could just grab a rod when I needed it. Picking up a pile of loose rods every time you have to move to a different location is a pain. It also keeps them out of the way and if they came out of an oven, keeps them warm longer. You don't want to look like an amateur with rods scattered all over the place. LoL
Re: A Few Tips on Warpage... in reply to Lanse, 12-20-2012 06:51:34
Lanse, you should get a leather rod pouch to carry your rods so they have less chance of getting damaged and keeps them all together. I used to clip mine on the side of my coveralls and could just grab a rod when I needed it. Picking up a pile of loose rods every time you have to move to a different location is a pain. It also keeps them out of the way and if they came out of an oven, keeps them warm longer.
Re: A Few Tips on Warpage... in reply to Lanse, 12-20-2012 06:51:34
Used to be a mobile home Mfg in town and when they started building the bigger ones they ran into troubles with the lightweight stair channel main frames sagging and causing all kinds of troubles up top. They never could keep help in the place because the pay was low but they needed a few decent welds on the hitch and axles. "Welder training" thus became welding a near continuous bead on top of the frames with some kind of mild steel rods they bosses called drag rod. They ran it at fairly high amperage always starting about 5' from the tail end moving forward. The result was it warped the frames up and when finished building on top of them they were close to flat under the weight of the home. Also when a hitch welder found himself a decent paying job he would be replaced by an experienced "frame welder"
Re: A Few Tips on Warpage... in reply to Butch(OH), 12-20-2012 10:49:32
Butch, I've never been really big on doing that with welds. Reason why, generally the weld ends up in the way, and you have to grind it down later. Now if the weld is needed anyway, that's a different story. I'd much ratter use the heat from a torch.
Re: A Few Tips on Warpage... in reply to Puddles, 12-20-2012 11:58:29
I have never been as good with forming steel as I wished I was but an old body man showed me how to shrink a dent in sheet steel with a torch, that is about the extent of it. I never worked at the trailer place but the first thing down on the channels was a fabricated steel crosssill? They ground the beads down a bit where they had to go and welded them down. As a metal fabrication plant it was all pretty crude,, as a matter of fact the entire operation was, LOL
Re: A Few Tips on Warpage... in reply to Lanse, 12-20-2012 06:51:34
One "good" use for welding warpage/shrinkage is removing dry cylinder liners from a motor. Weld a couple beads down the inside and they will usually shrink just enough to get them pulled.
Re: A Few Tips on Warpage... in reply to Lanse, 12-20-2012 06:51:34
I can't watch video with my internet. What does it say? I've tried clamping the projects I've built to a I beam and waited until it was cool to take the clamps off and it still warpped.
Re: A Few Tips on Warpage... in reply to Stephen Newell, 12-20-2012 08:07:00
Sometimes you have to pull it back further the other way to allow for warpage. I was reading an article in Welding Journal quite a few years ago about welded diesel ship engines and that controlling warpage took on a whole new meaning. They were Sulzer engines and the connecting rods weighed 5 1/2 tons each!
Re: A Few Tips on Warpage... in reply to Stephen Newell, 12-20-2012 08:07:00
Stephen it's about weld sequence, back stepping your welds, and moving around a lot. Never start at one end of a project and continually weld to the other. All very helpful tips when fabricating.
Re: A Few Tips on Warpage... in reply to Puddles, 12-20-2012 08:14:48
If your welding something like a trailer or skid in place, it helps to do the vertical welds first, then top and bottom. Of course jumping around so all the heat isn't in the same place. I built a lot of big skids and they were turned so all the welding was done flat or horizontal. They all warped downward. To straighten them, we flipped them upside down and applied heat to the main beams at the I beam cross members in the middle. They were sitting on short pieces of I beam blocks at the corners, the same as when they were first started. After heating the finished skid, they straightened right out. Some of the skids weighed 10 tons.
Re: A Few Tips on Warpage... in reply to Lanse, 12-20-2012 06:51:34
Lanse you wouldn't believe the amount of guys I've worked with over the years who will just start welding at one end of a project, and weld away. Then stand back and say WTF! That's when heat shrinking knowledge comes in handy! :wink:
Re: A Few Tips on Warpage... in reply to Puddles, 12-20-2012 07:35:16
Yep, once I was making a trailer frame by welding together 2 already framed together pieces of 3 foot wide commercially made shelving? frames, laid them up side by side, welded them down the center. They bowed up nicely. I drove a tractor on it to flatten things down and welded the other side.
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