Welding: Your coolest welds.

GoldenMotor.com

maniac57

Old, Fat, and still faster than you
Oct 8, 2011
4,484
22
0
memphis Tn
I'm thinking there are a lot of good stories out here from some of our more "experienced" (Old Farts) members who have been welding a long time.
I know I sure have a bunch of tales from my years on various welding oriented jobs.
Lets hear some of your weird, huge, cool, funny welding stories about things you have built, seen, welded on.
It's not a peeing match to see who did what, just share your stories from the welding shops and garages, the jobsites and shipyards.

I'll start things off.

I built a machine for a golf course once with a huge steel foot that stamped the earth flat.
It was made from 4" thick steel plate with the edges turned up by cutting and butt welding the plate to shape. The foot weighed over 4 tons and the machine was more than 6 tons total. It was powered by a huge Cat turbodiesel and a HUGE hydraulic motor which turned the engine power into stamping like a punch press.
It took almost 300 LARGE bottles of Oxygen to cut and bevel all the parts.
We ran 1/2 7018 rods wearing full silver heat resistant welding gear at well over 450 amps to fill the bevels. The man welding could only work about 5-6 minutes at a time before the heat forced a switch.
The welding machine was a huge military skid mounted unit the size of a container truck and the cables were 2" thick. It would literally jump under the load when you struck an arc and was something to behold! It took about 30 seconds to set a chunk of wood on fire from a foot away and we had to buy special extra dark glass to withstand the arc. Any skin exposed by the operator was 3rd degree burned before you could stop the arc and OSHA sent a man to watch us build it due to the machine we used.
Imagine a tamper like you see all the time with a 5hp honda only sclaed up to the size of a tractor trailer rig. It would pick the foot up about 6" and stamp it down at like 30 or 40 STM (Stamps Per Minute)
When that thing was running, you could feel it miles away and the operator literally had to strapped into the seat! It was BRUTAL!
Of course, this was long before the days of digital camera's so all I have are memories and a missing filling to remember it by....
 
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2door

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 15, 2008
16,302
175
63
Littleton, Colorado
I was given a 427 Chevy engine because the block was broken around the rear cam bearing where the freeze plug went. I successfully brazed the broken chunk back in and that engine went into my 34 Ford roadster. After about two thousand miles on the street I sold the engine to a guy who ran it in a dragster. My crude braze job held up.

Tom
 

scotto-

Custom 4-Stroke Bike Builder
Jun 3, 2010
6,505
24
38
Ridin' inSane Diego, CA.
I was given a 427 Chevy engine because the block was broken around the rear cam bearing where the freeze plug went. I successfully brazed the broken chunk back in and that engine went into my 34 Ford roadster. After about two thousand miles on the street I sold the engine to a guy who ran it in a dragster. My crude braze job held up.

Tom
Brazing ain't exactly welding and as such at a much cooler temp. That was some cool welding per se ;)

Kool

EDIT: my brazing is usually good.......my welds however look like turds in a punchbowl, just look at my posts! laff
 
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