Little side job i just finished

[hmburner]

I started out on this job as a crane operator and ended up as fitter,welder and project engineer. We built a runway for a 75 ton travel lift to lift boats out of the water. The travel lift was bought in Florida used and shipped to St Catharines Ontario in pieces that we had to reassemble with just a few digi pics of what it looked like. After that i had to drive piles and weld cross pieces on to support the runway itself. All of this is built from scrap I beam and 8 inch pipe. One set of wheels from the travel lift runs along a concrete wall and the other set runs out on this 65 ft runway. A lot of out of position welding and this is after i work all day at my full time day job

enjoy the pics
Bill

[hmburner]

more pics

All welds were done in DC stick using 6011 5/32 root and 7018 1/8 cap

[Don52]

Nice job. The size is impressive.

[DonG]

All welds were done in DC stick using 6011 5/32 root and 7018 1/8 cap

Not to hijack here, but you bring up a point I have been curious about. Why do use one rod for the root weld and another, 7018, as a cap? Doesn't this introduce a greater possibility of cracking or some other horrible consequence? You have the base metal that has all its characteristics and its own tensile strength, then you are introducing two different metals with different characteristics. At some point, you have all three metal melted together in a nice cozy mix.

I'm relatively new to welding and this concept strikes me as curious. Just trying to learn.

Thanks,
Don

[hmburner]

root pass

Since this is all scrap steel it is covered with rust,paint and mud. The 6011 will burn through it all to get to the base metal,giving me something that the cap will weld nicely too. I could grind it off and use 7018 all the way,but on most of the jobs i have been on,if the boss catches you grinding: you are fired forthwith. Grinding takes too much time and produces no better results than 6011. When you put the first root pass into rusty/dirty steel you actually push on the rod to make it penetrate right to the bottom of the gap to give you 100% penetration. I have done most of my welding career repairing rusty old lakers and worn out construction equipment so adhering to code makes me no money. Most of the fitters on the ship leave me a 3/8 gap to fill on 1/4 inch plate and 6011 fills them in nicely. I have never had a weld break done in this manner and my Canuck CWB ticket called for a 6011 root (that dates me). Speaking of welding tickets,on the jobs i work on when i show my welding ticket to the boss,I'm usually told that it makes good toilet paper

Bill

[DonG]

Bill,

Thanks for the education.

Don