dmottaway
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| posted on 5/12/05 at 06:13 AM |
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welding in the cold?
now that the season is upon us, my workspace is getting very cold - by my standards anyway.
should any special steps be taken when welding? that is, should the steel be warmed first?
I would imagine that warpage is a greater concern now?
dave
Somewhere, in Texas, a village is missing its idiot.
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suparuss
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| posted on 5/12/05 at 06:23 AM |
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to be safe- id move all the tools into the living room and continue the build there! 
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skint scotsman
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| posted on 5/12/05 at 07:35 AM |
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to be safe- id move all the tools into the living room and continue the build there!
doesn't sound safe to me!!!
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JAG
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| posted on 5/12/05 at 08:55 AM |
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If you consider the temperature difference between welding in the cold and welding in the warm and then compare that to the heat rise during the
actual welding - the difference is negligible.
On a warm day the workshop and workpiece might be 25 Celsius and on a cold day may be 5 Celsius. So a 20 degree difference.
That's NOTHING compared to the increase during welding. The temperature increases from room temperature to melting point of steel, around
1000-1300 Celsius.....
....so the difference in room temperature of 20 degrees is insignificant - IMHO.
Justin
Who is this super hero? Sarge? ...No.
Rosemary, the telephone operator? ...No.
Penry, the mild-mannered janitor? ...Could be!
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James
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| posted on 5/12/05 at 09:14 AM |
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Agree with JAG.
Unless you are using a really underpowered welder and it's only just reaching the melting point- then it might be an issue!
Cheers,
James
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses, behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights."
- Muhammad Ali
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joolsmi16
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| posted on 5/12/05 at 10:16 AM |
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welding in the cold
The only thing I would add is with cold you usually find damp so a light spray of primmer after welding by be an idea.
When I built my chassis all I did was remove surface rust because by workplace was damp.
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derf
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| posted on 5/12/05 at 05:59 PM |
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If you use farenheight its a bigger difference, on a warm day it's 80 on a cold day its 20 thats a 60 degree difference.
60 is alot bigger than 20.
also the melting point of a human body is 236F so be careful when you do weld
[Edited on 5/12/05 by derf]
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Fred W B
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| posted on 5/12/05 at 06:41 PM |
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HA HA HA HA HA HA
Fred WB
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britishtrident
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| posted on 5/12/05 at 06:42 PM |
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On thin section steel it makes no difference.
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Peteff
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| posted on 5/12/05 at 07:00 PM |
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They still build ships outside in cold weather, don't worry about it. Try to keep the important stuff warm i.e. the one doing the welding 
yours, Pete
I went into the RSPCA office the other day. It was so small you could hardly swing a cat in there.
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Arthur Dent
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| posted on 5/12/05 at 07:23 PM |
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that is good to know - I'm about to start welding and its -20C.
'The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go
wrong goes wrong, it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.' Douglas Adams
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kipper
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| posted on 5/12/05 at 07:47 PM |
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Cold
If your garage is cold I guess it will be damp, these conditions are ripe for rusting your MIG wire.
Try to make sure you mig is kept dry.
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britishtrident
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| posted on 5/12/05 at 08:10 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by kipper
If your garage is cold I guess it will be damp, these conditions are ripe for rusting your MIG wire.
Try to make sure you mig is kept dry.
Should be no dampness at -20 at that kind of temp any welder would have a waiting list of brass monkeys looking to get some brazing done.
[Edited on 5/12/05 by britishtrident]
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britishtrident
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| posted on 5/12/05 at 08:18 PM |
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Applies mainly when dealing with thicker steel but one thing to be aware of some steels can become very brittle at low temperatures with unexpected
results -- if your interested worth doing a Google on "Liberty ship T2 tanker brittle failure"
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Mark Allanson
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| posted on 5/12/05 at 08:51 PM |
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With cold weather you tend to get higher barometric pressure so you may need to increase the Argon pressure to match
If you can keep you head, whilst all others around you are losing theirs, you are not fully aware of the situation
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Johnathan
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| posted on 7/12/05 at 06:46 PM |
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i agree with the last comment made by Mark, but because its cold should not make too much difference.
I am about to start welding mine very shorty, and its freezing. Done a lot of welding in the cold, and everything has always seemed okay. Well apart
from the boat which sank ....
If in doubt, crack up an Arc welder, and have done with it ..
www.LogicalTuning.com
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Peteff
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| posted on 8/12/05 at 11:00 AM |
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Liberty ship T2 tanker brittle failure
These were atributed to the conditions the ships were operating in, not the ones they were built in.
yours, Pete
I went into the RSPCA office the other day. It was so small you could hardly swing a cat in there.
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JoelP
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| posted on 8/12/05 at 01:08 PM |
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heating it does help quick tacks, but wont really affect longer welds. Thats my opinion after a few days of cold welding.
Think in terms of the amount of energy transfered in a second (ie a small spot weld), turn this into a volume of melted metal from the specific heat
and latent heat capacity of steel, and the 20 degrees of room temperature difference (or maybe a few hunderd degrees if you blowtorch it for a while)
might have a significant affect on the volume of metal that ends up liquid, which is of course what determines if it sticks or not.
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