Thread: applying water to a weld?

Tweet

I am reinforcing my trailing arms on the 65 truck,and want to keep warpege to a minimum.Will applying water after each weld work,or will the rapid cooling down warp the part even more? Thanks

Not good.

Rapid cooling sets the weld up for cracking.
If not now, a little way down the line.

Just weld an inch of two at a time and let it air cool before applying the next weld.

C9x has it right. The slower the weld cools the better.

Rapid cooling will also increase warping. If you have a torch available, preheat the entire part prior to welding and cool it slowly with the torch after the weld for minimum warping. No matter what you do, secure the part in a jig that will hold it straight. The more secure it is, the less it will warp.

yes you do not want to make the weld cool fast the arms will not move or warp. you can clamp them down or tack them to some thick steel I beam or tubing and work a round. do not weld all one side . go side to side and cross weld them this will pull them back if they move a bit .but if you tack them they will not move much if all

You should attach the arms to a steel table so they can not move when welding them.
Don

yes if you have a heavy steel welding table. but if not the I beam or the thick wall steel tubing will work just as good

Ok here it is.
Do not use water. Water will freze the weld in the trasformation state. You can use air instead of water as it will cool the weld down fast but not too fast. try the back hand methiod it will lock in the weld.
Now if you have a porta power you can set it up and have some strain on it and after the welding pump it up a bit then release.

robert

Yes I am also braceing the parts.

air or water i do not see no need to use it anyway .it will normalize better just letting it cool down by it self. cooling will build in stress in the part and make it pull the best way is to tack them to steel I beam or tub or table so they will not move weld them and reheat them and let them cool down by them self. this is why i like a tig .but the mig will do the job and is faster but sometimes parts will pull more mig welded. that is why i woud go over the part with heat and let it cool down slow and it will be normalizes

...dumping it in water when it's hot will make it brittle. If your taking a welding test & you dump the test plate in water the test coupons will break in half when you bend them in the bender.....
If your having bad warpage you must be using an Arc welder? But then someone mentioned that you have a Mig? If you have a Mig, you tack it really well & then don't weld up one side all at once you shouldn't have any warpage as Mig's don't pull that much.... Bill

this is a very good discussion does any one have pics of this work.
I am still learningf how to place pics on the computer. This way we can all see clearly what is going on.

Robert

I have finished the trailing arms and these things are sweet.Thanks for the input guys.

I ended up building a jig,and clamping it down level to some metal sawhorses. I weighed down the horses with a couple cylinder heads and every other heavy object I could find to keep the sawhorses from twisting. When I put the pieces in I noticed they were a little twisted,1/8 inch at most.After welding them up they came out PERFECT.No twist at all.