Welding transmission housings

You guys have given me a lot to think about.

Here are pics of the housings. First pic shows the hole for the cable drive. Until recently I didn't think the ford housings were worth keeping. Then a potential customer told me they are going for $500 on ebay if you can find them. The non cable drive ones are a dime a dozen. So the hope is I can modify the housing in the second pic. The sleeve will be half out of the housing unlike other ones I do.

The customer is sending me a couple of housings to work with. Hopefully the will be here soon.

Last pic is from tonights welding class. Tonight we had a third instructor. First injstructor David was there one night and it was just orientation. Second night was Natasha. She isn't very helpful. For 2 nights she didn't even see me. Tonight Nathan was there and he actually came over to see how I was doing (terrible) and he tried to use the welder. He did worse than I'm doing. He welds for a living but not doing tig. He said when he has used tig is was super easy. He thinks there is something wrong with the welder. I think there is a morning class, then an afternoon class, then a night class all using the same equipment and they all change the settings on the machine. Then I come along and have no clue other setting the electrode to negitve and changing the amp settings about the welder.

He said he is going to check with his boss and see what he says about it. Tonight was a waste and I'm upset about it because they need to have an instructor teaching the class that knows what he's doing. It's not Nathans fault, as far as I can tell he was a last minute fill in. I asked him about what happened to David and no one will say. I hope he comes back, but I'm not sure if I'll take the class again considering what happened tonight.


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Top plate is all me except for the one weld the bottom two rows. Second plate is all Nathan. I gave up and left before the class was over. I don't understand why everything turned brown.
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You probably know this, but the brown is iron oxide. The steel oxidizes quickly when hot. That can be wire wheeled off to be as shiny as you want.

Taking a class or not, you need to spend hundreds of hours practicing in order to be able to produce beautiful beads.

Your TIG beads look fine. I wish I could see a run using no filler material. Have you practiced a lot of stringers with no filler material? Somebody would be getting out ahead of their skiis if they jumped into using filler material before doing a lot of autogenous (“using no filler rod”) welds.

Welding coupons and hood time are your best friends here. Get into the habit of investing a *lot* of money into, say, 2” X 3”, .090” to .120” wall carbon steel coupons. .120” is a great choice! Pay the local steel yard to make them for you on their press brake.
 
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A months long welding program will have you sitting there welding coupons for over 80% of the time, which translates into about 800 hours of hood time.

If you have paid for the coupons yourself, you will have the incentive to take the time to prep the material well enough, establish & maintain a proper torch angle, arc length, travel speed, etc. YouTube can teach you everything you need to know. Welding podcasts are helpful, too. I listen to Arc Junkies & the Welding Tips & Tricks podcast.

Coupons + hood time! You will spend some money on Argon. Here is where you look at what you can stop buying in order to be able to afford Argon and coupons. That is how I stopped many vises, & I did use the money saved to invest in equipment & materials. These people who spend a lot of time partying are less likely to come out of that with constructive skills. I don’t party at all, & I can (barely) afford Argon and coupons.

Don’t get frustrated when you dip your tungsten; that shows you that you are committed to keeping a tight arc.

It will be a little less frustrating if you buy good (e.g. CK Worldwide) gas lenses rather than cheap import gas lenses, but you can still do great work with cheap gas lenses.

Buy 2% lanthanated tungsten in 1/16” and 3/32”. Use the 3/32” when you are using over 95A.

Use 1A per .001” of base material thickness.

Many people master carbon steel before they move on to SS, ally or Ti. This is because the carbon steel coupons are the least expensive.

Make sure you have plenty of light; this costs almost nothing. You know to be as comfortable as possible; that is free! Don’t be too proud to wear magnification. I am 55 years old, and I can’t weld unless I have 2.0X to 3.0X magnification.

Welding is difficult. Don’t get discouraged. Start with the easy position (flat), and an easy joint (stringer, lap or butt): small steps, spending a *lot* of time on each step.

Some of my fondest memories are spending long hours TIG welding on carbon steel coupons wearing ear buds. That is some quality alone time. Was I frustrated with how my beads looked? You bet. I can’t wait to do it again, but I gave up on the ear buds because I like to hear the welding sounds.

Last comment: strive for full penetration. If you don’t get full pen, you need to turn up the Amps or travel more slowly. Remember not to get frustrated if you blow a hole; how else will you ever learn to avoid doing so (answer: master keyholing) and learning how to fix holes? I think that people who have never blown a hole aren’t getting full pen. Ya gotta get full pen!
 
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alloy said:
I don't understand why everything turned brown.
Click to expand...

What is the material of the welding test metal ? looks like it has some sort of coating, I find coatings can cause a right pain when doing some tig.

If I had to guess I would say , not enough gas, contaminated metal, contaminated tungsten, leak in gas system drawing in ambient air.

Stu
 
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