Up the Crack or Down?

[CaddmannQ]

Here’s some photographs of the crack that I welded up and also after grinding it.

Then there is a photograph of the other rail, which is cracked through the Square hole. I am going to weld this one today.

[Matt Shade]

Originally Posted by CaddmannQ

Except that I welded from both sides this is what I ended up doing. I wasn’t trying to tack it quite as cold as I did, but it worked out great in the end.

Glad you got it done. There are textbooks on welding but for the most part you just have to learn what works for you.

[CaddmannQ]

Back when I started in 72, we had just stick welders and torches. This TIG welding is a whole new world. Until I bought this new machine, I had only done it one time in my life.

I have read a lot of stuff over the years, and watched a lot of welding videos, but the thing is that every welding job can be a little different (unless you’re just doing production work.)

My opinion of most textbooks is summed up by a problem from an ancient introduction to thermodynamics and heat transfer. The problem involved an oven at certain temperatures, but here is where it (& all the textbooks) depart from reality:

Since cooking a chicken is an indeterminate problem, the instructions said to “assume a spherical chicken.”

No torch cares about your assumptions.