Burnt 50 lbs. of welding rods today!!! I am TIRED!!! LOL

Grand Daughter found cracks in the frame of the Grain leg support tower Thursday afternoon while greasing the drive gear case on the top of the leg. We found that the original welds are porous. Bad rods or too much gas when it was built. The tower is 120 feet tall. It is in twenty foot sections. The legs are 5 inch square, 3/8 thick tubing. The connection feet are 9 inches square and made out of 3/4 plate. We decided on grinding out the old welds and re-welding them with 10018 rods. Then installing gussets on all four sides of the plates. The gussets are 1/2 thick and 2x6 inches. There are 208 of these gussets. We had Steelmart shear the gussets.

Well today was the day we did the repair. I got up earlier and had chores done by 7 am. I opened a new 50 lbs. box of 10018 rods then. My middle son started grinding the old welds out and I started welding. We did opposite corners so the tower still had strength. I also borrowed some 3/8 cable and had three guide wires anchored to three big tractors too.

We where using the gas welder I bought a few years ago. That Old Hobart just set there and run all day long. It did not even use a full tank of gas. I bought 400 feet of lead cable so each one is 200 foot long.

We where not sure on how we where going to reach all the joints. There are steps on the inside of the tower. Some of the joints can be easily gotten to off the steps. It turned out that trying to reach them off the steps only worked on about a third of the joints. So I broke out the old hanging/climbing harness. It was just as easy to climb the outside of the tower and set in the harness while tied off to the supports above. It took me awhile to get used to hanging there. LOL I know I have muscles sore tonight that have not been that way in years. LOL

The Grand Daughters worked their butts off being gophers and wire brushing the "new" welds and painting them behind us. We started at the top and worked down as we could just put slack in the ropes and go down to the next section. We do have some paint on us. LOL

At 4:30 PM the Grand Daughters had to go get some rods out of the shop as the 50 lbs. box was empty. The last weld was done at 5 PM. We had everything picked up and put away by 6 PM.

So we did it in a single day. I ran every weld but two. My older son stopped by and was going to help weld. He could not get the hang of running the 10018 rods overhead. So I just kept on going. I was using 3/16th rods with the welder set at around 135 AMPs. A rod did not last long. LOL

It took me back about 30 years. I used to do bridge welding in the winters. So hanging off something while running rods is not entirely new. It is different with age. LOL

The Grand Daughters wanted to put the harnesses on and repel down the outside of the tower. LOL. Their Mom Vetoed that idea. LOL I said heck I would do it but MY WIFE vetoed it for me!!! LOL LOL.

Ok, what size welding cable do you need for 200 feet worth? I'm not much of a welder, I presume you can get by with less on a gas welder than a big arc welder, but still 200 feet X 2, that is a little weight there on just the cables.......

Paul

It's a wonder the electrical parts took it. When I rebuilt the frame on my gooseneck trailer I destroyed a breaker after a few hours of near constant welding.

randy this is a GR303 300 amp gas powered Hobart welder. It is rated at 300 amps at 100% duty cycle. It only runs at 1800 RPM when welding. Here is a picture. I have 2 00 cable on it.

Alls I can say is I would rather be doing the welding than the grinding! I've seen a number of grain setups that the original welds left a lot to be desired.

You have amazing granddaughters to want to help with a project like that. Lucky you! Someone did a great job raising them!

Wow 50 lbs. That is quite a day. do you recover the butts? I am sure you do. My brother and I cleaned the scrap out of a local welders shop back when I was in high school. Lous shop was far from tidy but he unfailingly put every butt in metal 5 gallon pails that were placed throughout the shop. When we loaded the truck that day we had more than two rows of pails down the length of a 16 foot rack. Those suckers sure weigh up.
Local welder more recently was known for doing repairs to those tower cranes used on construction sites. The rotating assembly uses a ring gear/pinion arrangement to swing the working part of the crane. On occasion they will break a tooth and the crane becomes quite useless. Paul would somehow climb those things and pull cable to build a tooth. Run a bead, chip, run a bead, chip. Repeat until you had enough metal and then grind to shape. I think he said about 4 hours to a tooth.
Sorry to ramble on but your story made me think of these stories.

Dang! I bet you have a headache.

Too much gas makes porous welds? I never heard of that before, is it just with certain alloys?

Too much can make porous welds, but I suspect any porosity was from dirty steel, too low gas volume, or air movement while fabricating. It takes a LOT of gas to get porosity from too much.

Sounds as if the whole team KICKED butt! Good for all of you.

acken from wisc: The girls are GREAT kids. They are horse nuts too but we make them support their own habit. So they have to work to provide for the horses. Selling sweet corn and shelled corn are some of their off farm money makes. They also have chores that are unpaid too but they have "jobs" that they each do around the farm that earns them money. One of these jobs is greasing the grain leg when we are harvesting. This grand daughter is SHARP I do mean sharp. She watched us checking the bearings on the round balers with a digital thermometer so she came up with the idea to check the grain leg bearings with it too. She caught one bearing last year before it failed. So we where able to repair it at a convenient time rather than right in the middle of harvesting.

She also had us set down and make check lists for all of the common machinery. There are daily ones and seasonal ones. They help all of us make sure we check everything we should. That is how she caught the crack in the tower frame. I was not worried about that main frame as it seemed to be built real heavy. I worried about the stairs. We made them out of some used stairs out of a fire tower. They are real light but are built out of high tensile steel. I worry about them cracking. She was checking on the stairs and saw the crack in the main tower frame.

Right now we have young ladies/girls doing many things that are traditionally male type things. Part of that is just the way times are but it also we have a big gap between male grand kids. The oldest is 29 the next boy is only 10. I have four grand Daughters in there: 27, 16,13,12. The oldest Grand daughter has run tractors since she was 13-14 years old. She takes time off from her day job to run "her" tractor (JD 4960) on the chisel plow in the fall and the finisher in the spring. The 16 year old started running the round baler in corn stalks last fall. The 13 year old will be raking some this fall.

I like them all to do different things around the farm. If they never step one foot back on the farm after their adults it still will pay them dividends. These girls have the inner confidence in themselves to do anything they set their mind too. That is my main goal.

Moresmoke: I agree with you and that is why I welded. I can not handle grinding very much anymore. My wrist/hands/arms go numb from carpel tunnel issues. The vibration from a grinder really get it going. Plus the grinding is DIRTIER!!!!

"I was using 3/16th rods with the welder set at around 135 AMPs. A rod did not last long. LOL"

3/16, you know, less than 4/16 a quarter of an inch. 50# of those babies IS some welding in one day, much less being a senior citizen and hanging with overhead work, and scale and paint coming down on top of you, and having life's little necessities interrupting you and on and on. JD, I know you are glad to have that "surprise" safely behind you.

I had to read parts of this several times to figure it all out.

you were talking about your gas welder, then about welds being porous from too much gas, and others were talking about gas welds.

You are using a gasoline powered welder, that is a stick welder.

The tower manufacturer use a MIG welder or some sort.

Now I follow.

Glad you are done, I could not have duplicated that feat!!

Gene

I have a feeling your granddaughters have that inner confidence and willingness to work because of their grandpa. I applaud you.

Good job JD.
I skimmed your post the first time and missed the 3/16". Was a bit incredulous till I read it again and saw the size.
It's a full day's work for sure - especially for an old man.
LoHi, whatever the tensile strength - is fun to burn.
I'm curious about the 10018.
Was this a box you had or was it recommended for this job?
I burned a few pallets of 11018 for a while. Making torpedo loading trays for the then latest batch of fast attack subs. We would burn a box of 3/16 a day on most days but we were working flat on tables and 30 years your junior.
I never ran a Hobart much. Lot more time on Lincolns. Ran those old and new, gas and diesel. I know a gas welding machine is a more enjoyable ride than a diesel.
That's a nice old machine too.
If you keep after this kind of stuff you'll stay young.

PS,
Next time buy half the welding cable you bought. Then buy some sucker rod or rebar or better yet, hook your machine close up to the work to make your ground. You usually only need it long on one side.

JD are you sure you were only running 135 amps on a 3/16 rod. I usually run a minimum of 150 amps on a 1/8 rod. 175 on a 5/32 and 200 plus on a 3/16. That old hobart must really be HOT. I have burnt 50# of 1/8 or 5/32 11018 many days welding on the blades and push arms of old D8 and D9 Cats. Have welded lots of wear liners made of T-1 and AR plate with 11018 also.50# is a lot of welding in one day but I can't begin to count the days I have done it it in the last 40+ years.

Welding man: I am not totally sure on the amperage on this welder. The outer wheel has the range settings. I was in the 75-180 amp range. The inter dial has 10 settings. I was at 6 on the inter dial. So that is about 130-135 amps. I set this welder by having the Grand daughter turn it up or down until the rods where running like I wanted. Remote amperage adjust feature. LOL

jd ,, iam alwaysimpressed by your GREAT AMERICAN FAMILY And all your efforts ,. May God Continue to Bless You as you inspire and lead others

Have done quite a bit of hobby welding in the past and a couple years worth with wire welding in a machine shop but not lately. Last week I had a project and discovered my right hand isn't nearly as steady as it used to be

Not sure how you can run that much heat. 130 is max on a 1/8 inch rod on my AC welder.

Nice unit. The old Lincoln 180 sure draws the power. I know a guy who was an engineer for Oldsmobile. He has been building hot rods all his life. He told me one time that if you do a lot of welding,it'll sure drive up your electric bill.

And sunburned forearms.

I don't think you will run much 11018 on an AC machine. I have never found an AC machine that does a very good job with Low Hydrogen electrodes.Lincoln states that their Excalibur 11018 amperage ranges should be: 1/8 in. 90-160 amps.
5/32 in. 130-210
3/16 in. 180-300
The thickness of the metal you are welding and the weld position has a great deal to do with the amperage you run also. I have a tendency to run a lot hotter machine than most people,especially with low hydrogen electrodes. Penetration is the key to good welds. You can't get good penetration with a cold machine.

I really like hearing about your granddughters,,its great! Tell all your grandchildren we are proud of them here on Y/T!

Interesting, in all my years of welding I only ever heard of it happening from too little gas, from wrong settings or wind. Learn something new everyday!

Good point, most of my welders have much longer stinger than ground, ground is easy to extend and don't have to move far with it either like you do with the stinger that your climbing around with

When I still had my shop I sub-contracted to the company that made the racks for Arctic Cat, Polaris, and Honda atv's. To weld those small welds in those tight areas you needed a real small nozzle and you could get too much gas fairly easy on those. Normally I use a nozzle large enpugh that it would be rwal hard to do that.