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Welding disasters?
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Rick
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Joined: 27 Apr 2005
Posts: 22429
Location: UK

PostPosted: Thu Dec 20, 2018 1:30 pm    Post subject: Welding disasters? Reply with quote

Hi all,

Seeing MikeEdwards' photo of his very tidy welding on his Audi project, led me to thinking about when welding jobs go wrong. Are there any incidents that you're willing to reveal, that occurred while wielding a welding torch in the general direction of your - or someone else's - vehicle?

RJ
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MikeEdwards



Joined: 25 May 2011
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Location: South Cheshire

PostPosted: Thu Dec 20, 2018 7:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm paranoid about welding, I won't use the welder within thirty minutes of leaving the shed, so I can check everything has cooled down properly.

Cheers for the compliment, it's neater than the earlier welding on the hatch but it's nothing compared to what some others can do. I hate the noise and mess involved in grinding down welds, so I'm really trying to minimise the size of the beads, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.
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Paul fairall



Joined: 17 Nov 2016
Posts: 429
Location: North west Kent

PostPosted: Thu Dec 20, 2018 11:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't have any problems with gas welding as I spent the last thirty odd years brazing copper refrigeration pipes.
But yesterday I wrecked my mig torch, couldn't see what I was doing and melted a hole in the gas shroud and welded the wire to the copper nozzle. Got the wire free but the thread the copper nozzle screws in is knackered. I've now found out I've had my auto darkening mask set too dark, so no wonder I can't see what I'm doing.
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Ray White



Joined: 02 Dec 2014
Posts: 6283
Location: Derby

PostPosted: Thu Dec 20, 2018 11:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A welder friend of mine had a blow back which could have been fatal. He was working with oxyacetyline in a metal fabricators on the Slough Trading Estate. There was a blow back and a large cylinder exploded. It shot up through the factory roof and landed on the adjacent railway track. The accident was reported in the local paper. How no one was killed was a miracle. Shocked
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peter scott



Joined: 18 Dec 2007
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Location: Edinburgh

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2018 10:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I can manage welding with oxy-acetylene but I've never managed MIG welding. Possibly because the wire feed never worked properly for me but principally because I couldn't see what I was doing with a fixed filter so I thought I'd try brighter lighting. I rigged up a 250 watt Photoflood lamp but these things are rather fragile so needless to say that didn't last long.

Peter Embarassed
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BigJohn



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Location: Wem, Shropshire

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2018 2:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Many years ago I was given a new carbon arc brazing kit, bored one evening, I thought I would give it a go as I had never done it before. I found I could get very good results, BUT, many years ago I was young and daft (now I'm just old and daft). I wore old school welding goggles, some of you will be ahead of me here. Shortly after I had extreme "sunburn" with white panda eyes, my face swelled a bit and I looked like a giant strawberry and cream lollipop! Oh how my friends laughed.
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ukdave2002



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2018 6:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My Dad bought an arc welder when I needed to weld repair patches to the sub frame panel on my first Mini in around 1981.....no welding experience, arc welding thin rusty metal Rolling Eyes , all I managed to achieve was blowing massive holes everywhere!

Dave
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Ray White



Joined: 02 Dec 2014
Posts: 6283
Location: Derby

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2018 6:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ukdave2002 wrote:
My Dad bought an arc welder when I needed to weld repair patches to the sub frame panel on my first Mini in around 1981.....no welding experience, arc welding thin rusty metal Rolling Eyes , all I managed to achieve was blowing massive holes everywhere!

Dave


My Dad was a highly skilled gas welder. When he bought an arc welder he forgot to disconnect the battery. The resulting car fire was pretty scary. Surprised

Toasted Metro anyone??
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kevin2306



Joined: 01 Jul 2013
Posts: 1359
Location: nr Llangollen, north wales

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2018 7:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sometime in the 80s, I was a young joiner and working at plas coch college in Wrexham (glyndwr uni now).
The back block was partly occupied with the mechanics workshop with fitted 4 post ramp. It was common for staff members to get repairs done to their vehicles.
I happened to be walking through the workshop when I observed one of the lecturers welding a rusty floor pan of a colleagues car. There were huge flakes of soot falling in the air.
I went to the staff canteen and on my way back observed complete carnage, the car had gone up in flames and set fire to the whole teaching block 😀.
Nobody hurt but the repair bill must have been immense.

Kev
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Miken



Joined: 24 Dec 2012
Posts: 544

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2018 8:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've always thought that the man who invented electric arc welding was probably the same person who discovered "arc eye"!
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Rootes75



Joined: 30 Apr 2013
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Location: The Somerset Levels

PostPosted: Sat Dec 22, 2018 12:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I consider myself quite handy welding bodywork now but it wasn't always that way!
When I was about 16 I thought I would give it a go, mistake being that I bought an arc welder which promptly burnt through everything it touched!
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Paul fairall



Joined: 17 Nov 2016
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Location: North west Kent

PostPosted: Sat Dec 22, 2018 9:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't use acetylene anymore as it's difficult to keep safe at home and expensive. I also let my boc account lapse and haven't bothered to open a new one. I now use mapp gas and oxygen. The oxygen is from hobbyweld and mapp gas from a refrigeration account I still have. I bought a regulator to fit a mapp bottle and use shorter hoses with flash back arresters with my sapphire gun, I have various size nozzles and a pepper pot for heating. I haven't had much practise arc welding for a long time and haven't mastered mig but plan to take a short course on mig and arc in the new year.
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Paul fairall



Joined: 17 Nov 2016
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Location: North west Kent

PostPosted: Sat Dec 22, 2018 9:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

BigJohn wrote:
Many years ago I was given a new carbon arc brazing kit, bored one evening, I thought I would give it a go as I had never done it before. I found I could get very good results, BUT, many years ago I was young and daft (now I'm just old and daft). I wore old school welding goggles, some of you will be ahead of me here. Shortly after I had extreme "sunburn" with white panda eyes, my face swelled a bit and I looked like a giant strawberry and cream lollipop! Oh how my friends laughed.

I had a carbon arc attachment that fitted to my arc welder. I brazed in a complete repair panel in my sisters Austin princess where the subframe bolts to the body. It had passed its mot 3 days before she complained of a knocking sound that turned out to be the subframe hanging down with part of the floor with it.
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ukdave2002



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 4100
Location: South Cheshire

PostPosted: Sat Dec 22, 2018 10:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ray White wrote:
ukdave2002 wrote:
My Dad bought an arc welder when I needed to weld repair patches to the sub frame panel on my first Mini in around 1981.....no welding experience, arc welding thin rusty metal Rolling Eyes , all I managed to achieve was blowing massive holes everywhere!

Dave


My Dad was a highly skilled gas welder. When he bought an arc welder he forgot to disconnect the battery. The resulting car fire was pretty scary. Surprised

Toasted Metro anyone??

Some 12 months after my first disastrous attempt at welding, I had to do an industrial placement as part of my degree, this included some gas welding.....I couldn't believe how much more control one had with gas welding sheet steel compared to my arc welder Smile

Dave
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OuBallie



Joined: 02 Mar 2013
Posts: 225
Location: South Norfolk next to Suffolk

PostPosted: Sun Dec 23, 2018 4:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Paul,
Did you have to do any mods to the sapphire unit?

Geoff - Just about back to normal at last.
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