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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday October 23 2019, @05:17PM   Printer-friendly
from the show-off-your-beads dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Grind Your Welds With Pride, If That's The Way You Do It

To grind or not to grind? What a question! It all depends on what you’re really trying to show, and in the case of welded joints, I often want to prove the integrity of the weld.

Recently, I wrote a piece in which I talked about my cheap inverter welder and others like it. As part of it I did a lower-current weld on a piece of thin tube and before snapping a picture of the weld I ground it back flat. It turns out that some people prefer to see a picture of the weld bead instead — the neatness of the external appearance of the weld — to allow judgment on its quality. Oddly I believe the exact opposite, that the quality of my weld can only be judged by a closer look inside it, and it’s this point I’d like to explore.

So dear soylentils, do you even weld and if you do, do you grind your welds?


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by richtopia on Wednesday October 23 2019, @08:41PM (3 children)

    by richtopia (3160) on Wednesday October 23 2019, @08:41PM (#910987) Homepage Journal

    Having grown up with a metal shop in the home, I would consider metal more forgiving than wood. Difference of opinion and experience, but when I work with wood something always seems to split at the worst time. With metals, I can hit much tighter tolerances and the grain structure of the material is typically small enough to ignore. Lastly, if you do make a mistake, you may be able to weld in a patch and keep going. With trees, you need to use wood glue and clamps for a similar effect.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Wednesday October 23 2019, @09:56PM (2 children)

    by Freeman (732) on Wednesday October 23 2019, @09:56PM (#911007) Journal

    Hardwoods are much less forgiving than softwoods and I tend to like to work with softwoods. A little sanding, a couple extra screws or what have you and you're all set. Have a rough patch, no problem, just get you some putty to cover that up. Generally, I've just done hobby kinds of things, definitely not professional. Still, it's easy enough to make a nightstand, bookshelf, basic doll house, etc. The finishing work is where most of the time sink is at anyway.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    • (Score: 2) by coolgopher on Thursday October 24 2019, @01:50AM (1 child)

      by coolgopher (1157) on Thursday October 24 2019, @01:50AM (#911077)

      Hardwoods are much less forgiving than softwood

      Whaat? No way imo. With these pesky softwoods if you as much as bump it with a corner of the plane as you're turning around to do something else, it dings and undoes your work. Gimme a dense hardwood that can take some punishment before it shows! :)

      (I might be biased by the fact that much of my wood working is making martial arts practice weapons *cough*)

      • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday October 24 2019, @02:37PM

        by Freeman (732) on Thursday October 24 2019, @02:37PM (#911209) Journal

        It really depends on your situation, I guess. Softwoods are much easier to work with, though. A hardwood has to line up exactly, while a softwood, you can use an extra screw and it'll usually pull together.

        --
        Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"