just welded the rear mounts for air bags to my buick 1960 axle, helmet fell off, glasses fell off, there was a yellow flame under the car and that was the end of my sleve burning,used a stick welder managed not to weld on the gas tank, i do everything on jack stands and it is just hard to weld upside down, used blind hole spotters hope they leave a mark to drill the top hole still need to put in a top spacer managed not to burn the diabetic hands, much got a few beauty spot marks somewhere OH when you get old all your equipment turns to junk had to overhaul the welding helmet to see out and fix the melted spot just fixed my flourescent trouble light and burned the outer covering in 2 places already, that lasted a week so far TELL MY YOU YOUNG people does it work better for you?? I have to get mighty pissed off to start and try to keep on task the only thing that makes me do this stuff is being too poor to hire it done wife packed lunch so that was good well i am cleaned up and happy and at least the bottom mounts are in try some more on monday
Well let's see I've been welding since I was 16 so that makes about 40 years give or take. Nope never did like welding overhead. Guess that settles it, it doesn't get any worse with age.
Welding overhead is not that bad, but welding on your back, overhead, in a confined spot , with obstruction and obstacles will never be fun or easy no matter what age. Lol don't get much harder than that! ! A 3" pipe that's about an inch away from the wall is No fun either!
Never could figure out how guys can get a decent weld on a roll cage inside an enclosed car up in the headliner area.
yup normal day for me...take a navy welding test sometime where you have to set up a pipe ing a corner under a workbench and have to set up mirrors to weld the backside
The dog has a water bucket that is the lower third of a 55 gal plastic barrel. I have stuck a fla*ing foot or sleeve in it *ore than once and been glad that it was close to where I was cutting or welding.
eugene!!!!! , get a mig and an auto darking helmet!!!! with a mig you can tack-tack-tack -overhead!!! and the auto shade helmet let's you see what your doing before you strike an arc!!!!!! but at least the lower mount's are in ! so pop a top and celebrate!!!! just keep on truckin!!!! larry
Invest in some good equipment. Get a good auto darkening helmet along with a leather jacket or at least a cape with sleeves.
Gene , pal thats what made us who we are you keep it up damm it, I wish you were close I,d sure as hell give ya a hand, some one up there should .... you hang in there dude
Not being good at welding and having a small jack sure adds up to being angry in my garage. I can barely get the car high enough that my mask just fits under the car. I can't roll on my side, can't move my mask. My arms can never seem to get in the right spot because the ground is in the way or the car is on top of me. Man I'm pissed just thinking about attempting it.
yea welding overhead takes some getting used to. You have to push the rod up into the puddle and travel a bit quicker so the puddle wont sag. I do this crap everyday, welding pipe overhead and in every other position imaginable. I liked some of the other comments from some seasoned welders on here like the 3" pipe 1" from a wall. OH YEA!! I had to do a 2" 6G position schedule 80 pipe test with a restrictor plate. Had to use mirrors on backside......6010 root, 7018 fill to get on a jobsite im working on right now. IT was a pain in the arse! haha! The best thing you can do, practice practice practice. Set up similar joints out of scrap metal, and get all your parameters set on your welder to where you have the best results. ANd if you are trying to stick weld under your car with a 7018 rod, dont run it downhill. I have seen people try this and its not the right way to do it. has to be run vertical uphill. any questions about anything i would be happy to help anyone out!
Me too - This time of year , I'm welding on rusty british stuff every day . After all these years , I've been burned by sparks & stuff more times than I care to recall . I can't wait till spring , so the in/out work starts up again (hopefully) .
im am not too sold on mig welding when i want it to hold the roll cage thing i really was into about 30 years ago, welded them all in place under the factory tin did quite a few, had a mandrell bender, was so long ago black iron pile was roll bar of the day did all the fishmouths with torch and grinder, wonder why i aged?? i did the air controller yesterday and had to take off my shoe and put the foot into the window frame to hold myself under the dash, guess a guy should take out the seat I got a real set of tall stands and was trying to sit up under the car and then helmets and stuff gets all tangled up in stuff, too cheep to buy a auto darkening helmet, could not even rember where my helmet was, weld so little now days just got to get this car done and out and get the stands out and use them to service out the truck and go to a car show and reach the nirvana plateau of happiness i guess tipping the car would make it easier to work on but would not like to mess up the chop job paid top dollar for this car but am running into a few questionable parts so may have to spend more time on it, got a few fluid and coolant leaks to track down kinda like the girl says "I just want to have fun" and go to car shows just cant comprehend all this work to having funnnnnnnn
i always wanted a low car but it seems to get hung up and drag on a lot of stuff gguess everything is not as it appears but a nice low car seems so nice should improvewhen the bags work
If your welding overhead it is even more important to clean the surface. Existing rust will tend to pop off and yes land on the operator. As for setting yourself on fire you should wear only 100% cotton or better yet a nomex jacket. Even the cotton will burn up if it is shredded or covered in grease. Safety First!!!! Scott Fab Manager Welders360.com
I was welding some 6" inch gas lines over head with a stick and one of the hot shots went in my tight collared shirt, had me dancing like Elaine till the thing moved down and got to my belt, oh yeah, went in the drawers, and got all snuggled up right there with Mr. Jingles. Damn thing stopped right at the end of the earth and left a scar that no lady ever would believe was not a case of the nasties. I took a shower and got all down to the birthday suit and you could see the little blistering trail of fun that I had, little holes in me at my navel, at the belt line, and all over the boys. Owww! If you weld enough it will happen, and it will end up right there with the lads.
back in the brazing world days I had a BIG ball of red hot brass fall in my shoe , and it burned and burned and I still have a nasty looking mark where that finally parked wire feed is sure nicer than useing that nasty old torch and warping everything welding really seems like fun when doing it on a bench in a decent pisisition, I got a real tall bench and used to fab up a lot of exhaust andalso used to repair a lot of tractor diesel mufflers, but sont miss it much after retiring from the work world, the bench is covered with car parts and body supplies i kinda like retirement and working on my cars full time but it seems like a kinda costly hobby for parts
Welding overhead? let me count the scars....the worst was when a huge chunk of slag burned thru my pants, went into my boot and just sort of sizzled on top of my foot as I finished the weld. Not my finest moment. I've never had any red hot metal land on my crotch, but there's always this summer....
Actually on the cars that I can ,I cut a square out of the roof with a cut off wheel ,weld and then Glue or weld the roof piece back in. As far as being old and welding ,it just seems like if you don't do it everyday you lose a bunch of skill.
When I was Welding in the Army I always got stuck doing the overhead stuff because the "Older guys" knew better! I learned to un-tuck my shirt after I obtained a 3rd degree belt-line and lost the shirt tails!
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