I totally agree. We've had a couple of Hogan intakes at work. The longer you stare at them, the more detail that you see. Top notch for sure. For the record, I can MIG a nice weld but it's not show quality. I do know a guy, CMX something or other, that does really, really nice stuff.
Welding school in the Navy, in the 60s, never saw a Tig or Mig..Burn the rod, Mild Steel, HTS and Aluminum(with 2"blue flux)..Never learned to Tig or Mig.. This is beautiful welding.. Duane...
I too have done some welding but never learned TIG or MIG. I can't wait to try. I'll bet with your Navy schooling you could probably do some pretty nice beads with a stick welder or even gas. Since you brought it up I'm always amused at the die hard "traditional" rod builders here knocking anyone who isn't or when discussions aren't about traditional hot rods etc. and yet, perfect as they are, not one of the welds in this thread would have been found on a traditional hot rod or was even done with a "traditional" welder.
Those are all photo shopped! Ever since I got my first BMX bike and saw the welds. I have loved the way welds looked and appreciated the way they look and always wanted to weld. I want some big prints of nice welds to frame and hang on my walls. Here is some incredibly crappy welds on a rat rod. I guess a leaf spring mount isn't important to weld properly and then didn't even bother to grind it before paint.
In my little hack-it shop, 80% of the welding I do is repair of those that thought they could weld. Its really scary how many bad welds are out there. i've seen a lot of pretty looking welds without penitration. I mig most things here, I don't have enough tallent to walk and chew gum at the same time, so tig would pretty much be a waste of my time. I learned to weld with a stick buzz box, when you get the slag to curl off the weld bead behind you it was a good weld. I don't have any pictures of my welds, but they wouldn't look as pretty as some of the stuff thats here. Gene
That's pretty interesting. It's amazing I can weld at all, I've got no rhythm and shake like a recovering alcoholic I watched one of your vids last week, I was wondering what you were doing...makes sense now. I tried that technique tonight at work, maybe I'll take some pics tomorrow of my effort I usually dip and pause or walk the cup and lay the wire. I'm always up for trying something new! Here are a couple more stainless buckle I've done: The Browning Buckmark: An old english "D" -Josh
The best sound for me was when the slag would fall on my welding helmet, doing overhead welding down inside a engine or boiler room on a destroyer.. I will say that my welds look like they where painted on..Welding is art.. Duane.
I've got two pre-Litespeed Merlin Extralight frames hanging on my garage wall. Sweetest Ti bikes ever made.
Got to chat with Kent Eriksen a few years back leaving Interbike, dude knows his shit and is wacky at the same time!
aren't most dudes that are really good at certain things kinda wacky? Jesse...? this thread's made me want to lock myself in the shop for a while and practice welding. I've laid a fair amount of beads welding aircraft stuff that I've been quite proud of, this thread makes it seem as though I don't know the first damn thing about it. I'm reaching a bit with this question but I smacked my head pretty good in a car accident a few years ago, ever since then I've constantly got the 'jitters' or a slight shake in my right hand, having a drink or smoke will occasionally slow/calm it a little, still trying to adjust, though. anyone else or am I on my own with this one??
Knew an old dude who was champion bullseye pistol shoorter and he always had a drink or two before to calm his shakes.
only a three day workshop but it's worth a look http://www.sportair.com/workshops/TIG Welding.html#TopOfPage later jim
Regarding Jesse, it stands to reason that a 'glorified welder' should do glorious welds! I actually took an excellent welding night class last January at a Tech school in Manchester, CT. And only attended about a third of the classes due to wife health issues at the time. I'm always a little concerned about sharing the highways with cars built by self taught welders.....like myself! -90% Jimmy PS - Hi yah Rich. Glad you found this thread. Right up your talent-alley!
I've only been welding for a few(6) years, but one of the perks of my job is the amazing training and certifying classes it provides. The instructors all have at least 3 decades of welding experience. Shoot, one guy was 72 and had been welding since he was 17....when someone else mentioned he "wrote the book" on tool steel welding, I thought it was a figure of speach. It wasn't My point is, I had very competent guys training me on the floor , and I thought I was pretty good. But through literally about a thousand classroom hours I learned that what I didn't know was a hell of a lot(and still is)! I'm sure there are self taught guys that are awesome, but I can't imagine where I'd be without going through the cerifying processes, doing destructive testing, and getting down to the "boring" technical information with guys who know more than should be allowed about welding! -Josh