When fabrication becomes art.

[bogged]

I've cracked one

well, plenty of Cookie on here that can weld...

[Dirty]

WOW!

[-Scott-]

i still don't call myself a welder though.

I could call myself a welder, but I'd probably struggle to keep a straight face.

A bloke I used to know was a boiler-maker. One day, in general conversation, another bloke, after finding out he's a boiler maker, commented "Oh yeah, I'm a welder too."

Well, did I hear all about it later. As far as I could tell, there is (was?)something like a caste system within the industry, and a "boiler maker" does not get called a "welder" - I think it was a mortal insult. As far as I could tell, the boiler maker does all the fabricating (for want of a better word - cut, shape, jig, tack etc) and the welder only welds.

I imagine that what we've seen here goes way beyond "boiler-maker" too.

[marin]

i still don't call myself a welder though.

I could call myself a welder, but I'd probably struggle to keep a straight face.

A bloke I used to know was a boiler-maker. One day, in general conversation, another bloke, after finding out he's a boiler maker, commented "Oh yeah, I'm a welder too."

Well, did I hear all about it later. As far as I could tell, there is (was?)something like a caste system within the industry, and a "boiler maker" does not get called a "welder" - I think it was a mortal insult. As far as I could tell, the boiler maker does all the fabricating (for want of a better word - cut, shape, jig, tack etc) and the welder only welds.

I imagine that what we've seen here goes way beyond "boiler-maker" too.

You are spot on. Welder welds. Boily fabricates, but generally also gets lumped with the whole welding job as well. Boily is a step up from a welder.

marin

[TUFF60]

I will stand clear while someone throws the knives but, i think it looks like those welds were done by a Pulse Mig. Would explain the machine like consistency. Sexy either way.

[80lsy gq]

absolutely

that ranks right up there with boobies to admire

thanks for posting those pics awill

[fester2au]

No that's TIG'd. No one bar none in our workshop can get the pulse MIG to weld anywhere near that neatly and cleanly and nowhere near as tidy as a pulse TIG.

[awill4x4]

I will stand clear while someone throws the knives but, i think it looks like those welds were done by a Pulse Mig. Would explain the machine like consistency. Sexy either way.

Duck for cover! Here comes the knives.
I've read a few posts of his on a few forums and he says he rarely uses pulse and all his welding is Tig.
His background is from head and manifold porting and he then branched out into manifold design and manufacture.
His "machine like consistency" is exactly why I posted the pics, his welding control is simply amazing and believe me I'm not a guy who's easily impressed.
He also does a lot of modifying to cast aluminium manifolds as well and this stuff really freaks me out.
I'd like to see just how that last manifold turned out but I can't find it yet.

Enjoy:

[UrbanRedneck]

Gday Andy i tell ya what that is pretty impressive as you i am not easily impressed by others welding and fab ability but that is something else.
I could probably get close but wow.
As for the Argon helium mix this is what i use on ally at work and it is much smoother even control heat that is quite hotter than with just argon it also leaves the weld much cleaner being a more pure gas. Those pics would be pretty much straight off the torch.
Oh by the way its Damo from over at fineweld mate not sure if ya would have realised

[1MadEngineer]

all that stuff LOOKS great!

but to me really means nothing without a Procedure / Macro or Coupon to back it up?

[mickbeny]

i still don't call myself a welder though.

I could call myself a welder, but I'd probably struggle to keep a straight face.

A bloke I used to know was a boiler-maker. One day, in general conversation, another bloke, after finding out he's a boiler maker, commented "Oh yeah, I'm a welder too."

Well, did I hear all about it later. As far as I could tell, there is (was?)something like a caste system within the industry, and a "boiler maker" does not get called a "welder" - I think it was a mortal insult. As far as I could tell, the boiler maker does all the fabricating (for want of a better word - cut, shape, jig, tack etc) and the welder only welds.

I imagine that what we've seen here goes way beyond "boiler-maker" too.

Hi all...There are boilermaker marker offs and there are boilermaker welders,and then you have the guys who have pressure tickets that weld things like pressure vessels,pipes ect for things like petroleum,gas ect that get xrayed as much as 100% of buttwelds.In the boilermaking scene generally boilermaker welders are looked at as failed boilermakers that can only do general welding and basic boilermaking,but often wont boilermake by choice.The guys that actually do the highest end of welding are the guys welding exotic metals that are getting xrayed,They are always respected and are the highest money earners.These guys are the pinnacle of welders.

[macca81]

These guys are the pinnacle of welders.

whats the trade name and how do ya get into it? this sorta thing is what i want to do, but apprenticeships only rarely come up for boilermaker/welders(global financial crisis aint a great time to look for an apprenticeship apparently...).

[awill4x4]

Gday Andy i tell ya what that is pretty impressive as you i am not easily impressed by others welding and fab ability but that is something else.
I could probably get close but wow.
As for the Argon helium mix this is what i use on ally at work and it is much smoother even control heat that is quite hotter than with just argon it also leaves the weld much cleaner being a more pure gas. Those pics would be pretty much straight off the torch.
Oh by the way its Damo from over at fineweld mate not sure if ya would have realised

Yeah Damo, I thought your username matched your number plate.
See if you can "acquire" a G size bottle of Helium so I can have a play will you?

[mickbeny]

These guys are the pinnacle of welders.

whats the trade name and how do ya get into it? this sorta thing is what i want to do, but apprenticeships only rarely come up for boilermaker/welders(global financial crisis aint a great time to look for an apprenticeship apparently...).

Hi all...Macca81,You have to be a boilermaker first before you can get tickets,But just because you have tickets doesnt mean your good enough to weld cetain jobs.You best getting an apprenticeship with a company that does pipe and pressure vessel work,this way you will be working beside the elite welders and fabricators.Specialty welding isnt learnt over nite,It takes literally decades to be a very good welder.

[UrbanRedneck]

Guys i am a sheety by trade and have no tickets as such but i do 100% xray petro chem pressure vessel work (stainless steel).
The way around this is there is a procedure supplied by the company then you get tested and checked by independent testers with which they do macro xray particle and destructive testing of your sample welds. After which if passed you can do the work but if you dont use it for certain amount of time you get retested.
Here is link to some of my work
http://s339.photobucket.com/albums/n473/R3DN3K_PATROL/

Sorry Andy only got the big bottle. We also use argon Co2 helium mix for our pulse mig runs on all the petro chem stuff.

[Struth]

Gday Andy i tell ya what that is pretty impressive as you i am not easily impressed by others welding and fab ability but that is something else.
I could probably get close but wow.
As for the Argon helium mix this is what i use on ally at work and it is much smoother even control heat that is quite hotter than with just argon it also leaves the weld much cleaner being a more pure gas. Those pics would be pretty much straight off the torch.
Oh by the way its Damo from over at fineweld mate not sure if ya would have realised

The helium in the mix assists greatly with edge wetting of the welds hence the seemlees transition of weld material to parent metal.

We use it for welding stainless with an AC MIG welder and it dramatically increases the machines capability to weld correctly, in fact it wont weld correctly without the Helium.


Oh, and boilermakers tolerance is 1/4" if they really try and give themselves a headache, welders work to parts of millimetres with ease

Cheers.

[awill4x4]

Oh, and boilermakers tolerance is 1/4" if they really try and give themselves a headache, welders work to parts of millimetres with ease
Cheers.

Dems fighting words Struth

[Struth]

Oh, and boilermakers tolerance is 1/4" if they really try and give themselves a headache, welders work to parts of millimetres with ease
Cheers.

Dems fighting words Struth

Thought they might be

Can't resist a dig at dem big dumb boilies out there, god love their little minds

[AFeral]

Not sure how you welders work to mm. Most of you are not good enough to fab and weld. That why they give that job to us boilermaker. Leaving you welders with the bit we find boring.

[UrbanRedneck]

Oh, and boilermakers tolerance is 1/4" if they really try and give themselves a headache, welders work to parts of millimetres with ease
Cheers.

Dems fighting words Struth

Thought they might be

Can't resist a dig at dem big dumb boilies out there, god love their little minds

Perfect example today, we have a boily works in our shop doin a job i normaly do ask me for a measurement was told twice it is on there i was told twice it wasnt walked over and pointed straight at it was told that it wasnt clear enough what it was. ONLY DRAWING ONLY MEASUREMENT ON PAGE AND HEADING SAID WHAT IT WAS.

[Struth]

Not sure how you welders work to mm. Most of you are not good enough to fab and weld. That why they give that job to us boilermaker. Leaving you welders with the bit we find boring.

Some welders only weld, some of us are "Fabricators" best of both worlds.

[fester2au]

It's o b v i o u s y o u w e r e s p e a k i n g t o o f a s t f o r h i m

I like the fact the smallest hammer our boily has is somethign like a 12lb dead blow and he uses it for everything. including squaring up 25 x 25 ali box framing. and no he's not actually that precise with it. Sorry P R E C I S E. He was building an ali window screen/shade the other day with angles louvers and got to the last one to find it was 10mm out. He said to the boss it was out, boss said what do you want me to do, he asked what do we do to fix, boss said well why is it out, he thought for a minute and said must have stuffed up the spacings, boss said what do you expect me to do about it, he said don't know.

[fester2au]

Not sure how you welders work to mm. Most of you are not good enough to fab and weld. That why they give that job to us boilermaker. Leaving you welders with the bit we find boring.

Being a sheetie in a small shop where you have no choice but to do everything from go to whoa (and preferring it that way) I'm not sure how you could find welding your design/fabrication out to completion boring.

[UrbanRedneck]

Not sure how you welders work to mm. Most of you are not good enough to fab and weld. That why they give that job to us boilermaker. Leaving you welders with the bit we find boring.

Being a sheetie in a small shop where you have no choice but to do everything from go to whoa (and preferring it that way) I'm not sure how you could find welding your design/fabrication out to completion boring.

Couldn't agree more nothing like starting with nothing and finnishing the last weld and looking at what you created by yourself.

Very satisfying.

[AFeral]

He He ! Thought I would get a few bites from that comment. I've worked with welders that are not good enough to weld and fab, they just give them welder and are left alone. Others than can produce welds that look like the art else where on this thread. Same goes for boilermakers theres those that work to mm and those that work to inchs.

[zagan]

It's o b v i o u s y o u w e r e s p e a k i n g t o o f a s t f o r h i m

I like the fact the smallest hammer our boily has is somethign like a 12lb dead blow and he uses it for everything. including squaring up 25 x 25 ali box framing. and no he's not actually that precise with it. Sorry P R E C I S E. He was building an ali window screen/shade the other day with angles louvers and got to the last one to find it was 10mm out. He said to the boss it was out, boss said what do you want me to do, he asked what do we do to fix, boss said well why is it out, he thought for a minute and said must have stuffed up the spacings, boss said what do you expect me to do about it, he said don't know.

Ask him if he has papers a lot of people run around saying they are boiler makers after 10-20+ years of welding but don't have any papers to back up any of what they say, it's generally the people who you ask them to do a virtical upetc and they look dumb founded or just simply don't know what to do.

[simcoz]

Just because you have papers does'nt meen your any good at what you do.Some people just push themselves to do better each time while some guys just get the job done.

[Rhett]

maybe if you asked them to do a vertical up they would understand. Instead of a virtical up

[mickbeny]

Not sure how you welders work to mm. Most of you are not good enough to fab and weld. That why they give that job to us boilermaker. Leaving you welders with the bit we find boring.

Being a sheetie in a small shop where you have no choice but to do everything from go to whoa (and preferring it that way) I'm not sure how you could find welding your design/fabrication out to completion boring.

Couldn't agree more nothing like starting with nothing and finnishing the last weld and looking at what you created by yourself.

Very satisfying.

Hi all...It is very satisfying to build and weld a job on your own,But in boilermaking most jobs are so big they take months/years of work with a team of boilermakers and welders on the one job.

[Struth]

Not sure how you welders work to mm. Most of you are not good enough to fab and weld. That why they give that job to us boilermaker. Leaving you welders with the bit we find boring.

Being a sheetie in a small shop where you have no choice but to do everything from go to whoa (and preferring it that way) I'm not sure how you could find welding your design/fabrication out to completion boring.

Couldn't agree more nothing like starting with nothing and finnishing the last weld and looking at what you created by yourself.

Very satisfying.

Hi all...It is very satisfying to build and weld a job on your own,But in boilermaking most jobs are so big they take months/years of work with a team of boilermakers and welders on the one job.

Yep, and god look out if it isn't on the drawing.