Welded at a Caterpillar Dealership for about 20 years. Used 3\8 and 1\2 carbon arc more often than I cared to, ............And got the scars to prove it. Talk about hellfire and fury. You better have at least a half a cow on to survive the onslaught of sparks while gouging inside a curved loader bucket where there is no right place to stand. I dislike violence.
I work in a structural welding shop welding all kinds of I beams and plates do alot of full penetration welds gouging in an I beam sucks it ricochets right back on to you my hard hat has took a beating my arms back neck n anything the sparks can hit are a killer no matter what you wear it will find a way to bite you
I carbon arc goug all the time. Guys in the shop hate it worse than I do! For some reason they think it’s loud! Many leathers and weld jackets destroyed, not to mention fires started! I have to remove wear strips out of garbage trucks all the time. After watching the first video I did learn to regulate air. 165 PSI make a lot of noise. Put a regulator on and did some work yesterday and it did make a big difference! Thanks Bob! Keep the great videos coming!
Every process has its place! For those of you who don't have to buy your own acetylene at today's prices... Don't worry about it!! I have even gone to propane for some uses! I don't weld near as much as I used to. So I really enjoy Bob's sense of humor and his projects. I taught a bunch of !st Nation students to weld in my day. They are as close to natural born welders as I have ever seen. Like ducks to water.
Guys, just start at the end of the weld and do just enough to find the hair line crack at start up then hold end of gouging rod just slightly over the top of the crack and float it across. Should be able to be completed in one fluent pass. Never ever go backwards from the way you started as you could actually re-weld the pieces back together or more less butter them back together and then lose the crack. When we run 1/8" gouging rods on 1" steel we crank up to 500 amps and complete the separation of pieces in one swipe. Also if you do it right you will never need a hammer that's is called hammer gouging lol and remember this as its very important if you are gouging a weld on a piece that is over head and there is a weld on top and bottom of piece always gouge the bottom weld first because trust me there is nothing worse than doing the top weld first and the piece fall on you after cutting the bottom weld last. I've had lots of angle iron hit me on the way down because of having to stand under project piece to reach bottom weld and it hurts haha
Another great video! I acquired a carbon arc torch several years ago And have never tried it. I think it is time to get it out learn to use it, then carry it in my service truck. Thank you for helping me be more successful.
I have burned a billion of these sitting on a bucket. I wish my instructor taught a little more on gouging it's a major part of fabricating stacks and ductwork, great video Bob.
My instructor makes us flip a coin for every weld test that calls for gouging, Carbon arc or oxy acetylene. Makes us practice with both all the time. Personally I prefer the carbon arc over oxy so I spend more time doing oxy.
Bob, if I may please. I understand that you are just trying to get the basics here for starters. But in mfg usage, there are very few times that we have this clear of a shot to cut out welds. Usually another plate on the exit side of arc discharge. If you stay with standard placement of air underneath, all the discharge will fall down from the sky and premature balding is the outcome. What I have found is to swivel air jets to the other side so that they end up on top. This makes the discharged blow back and go pass your hand instead of up in the air. ☺
A few other things I learned. My intro to arc gouging was when no one knew anything about it. I had however done a little gouging with 5-P welding rod. We were working out doors in an equipment salvage yard. You need to somehow clean the paint and grease off first. I started several fires, so if you don't have a fire watch person, lift your hood and look around. Along the way I was able to obtain a barrel fan, router speed control and an 12v to 110v converter to deal with the fumes.
james davies you can usually take a chipping hammer and bust enough paint or rust off to start an arc. As far as the grease etc you can long arc and burn it away before starting your gouge
I used to use the 10mm (3/8") rods inside the dragline bottom tub compartments in 38 degree heat, back gouging weld preps. Tight spaces, dressed in full leathers, air fed masks and forced fume extraction and your eyes still stung from the leftover fumes. That and trying to dodge the hot molten metal spraying everywhere. Then I find out the carbon dust is carcinogenic. Least of my worries then.... The noise is phenomenal. I had to wear both earplugs and earmuffs simultaneously. Neither one offered enough protection on their own. Not nice. In enclosed spaces, even worse. Glad I don't do it anymore. I build boats now. Fibreglass is a tame beast to me compared to all that. One important thing with carbon arc gouging. You have to make your arc and passes smooth. Stutter starts like that introduces carbon contamination into the joint which will need a lot more grinding to get it out. Your last passes were much smoother though, which is ideal.
My first job was working at a Drive-in movie theater. The old projectors were carbon arc source and I can remember watching the amp meter while striking the arc. No, they didn't have projector lamps that were bright enough to project the image far enough. The gap was set manually and you have to run the electrode quickly to get the arc started and then back it off to whatever amperage was needed. The more gap the higher the current. You had to account for how bright the moon was on that particular night. There was two, sometimes three projectors ready to go and you waited for the white ball in the upper right of the screen to start the next projector in sink with the movie.
From what I remember, the carbon was held in place in a socket looking thing, and you moved a grounding copper that was attached to a threaded ceramic rod that you could screw in and back out to maintain the proper arc. You screwed it in until it just barely touched and then back out and watched the current meter zip up to about 50 amps. I believe the meter went to 200. I only ran the projectors a few times, but being 15 years old, it was cool as hell! You would have to watch the amp meter very closely and keep adjusting the grounding plate like every five minutes. No automatic anything!
230 amp on a 1/4 inch carbon ...? Seems a little light to me ... 250 even 300 is much better ... 230 is the reason why you had arc start issues initially till the material and the rod was warm ... But good job overall ... !
I use 5/16 Rods over 400 amps with 80 + psi also his arc angle not quite rigth, you always want the handle as horizontal as posible and thats where all sparks going to
Used to build structal steel, we air arced porosity and mouse holes daily. It's a fun process, shoots a ton of metal and makes an unbearable amount of decibels.
I use 3/16" at 225 amps. Granted it takes a while to gouge out bigger welds on equipment, but I feel that I have better control. I can take a little bit at a time, or give a slight weave to take a wider gouge. What ever works best for you. Just the rod I prefer.
I use to work at jeffboat an inland shipyard which is shit down now but use to be the country's biggest inland shipyard for making river barges and some ocean barges. It's a pretty dangerous Violet machine if you don't know how to use it
How are you today. I have to remove some I beams in an underground parking lot. I am wondering what would be the best cutting device. They are going to the scrap yard so I could use a torch but though a gouger would be quicker and more cost effective
I saw long time ago old welder gouging with same welder rods just crank up amps and it worked fine most likely there was no special gouging rods back in 1990's...
Back when I was in high school (around 50 years ago), our welding class shop was often out of oxygen for our oxy-acetylene cutting rig, so for many of the cuts we needed, we just cranked up the amps on the ol' Lincolan AC-225 to max and put a large diameter rod in it and used it to cut with, possibly smoothing up the cut edge with the bench grinder if needed...
Seems like a PIA, never did it before but I feel like a torch and grinder with a flap disc would get the job done quicker and have just as nice of a finish.
You always say the Amps but never the voltage. Is the voltage always a constant? Can you change the voltage? Are you adjusting the amperage to cut shallow or deep depending on the job needes?
Bob how important is the program skillsusa im currently in high school and won the state competition for welding fabrication in march. We head to the national competition next week. I guess what im asking is do companies look at this group when you apply for a job.
Bob give me your thoughts on carbon arc gouging on cast iron..yes or no I'm coming up on a job where I have to take a cam gear of of a valve that has cast iron shaft nothing is to be saved on the valve side so destruction it is ok the cam is the only thing to be saved I think carbon arc would be useful here being that there's really no place for any type of saw or grider or gear pullers to remove the cam from the shaft
what about using a cutting electrode with a stick welder? i know firepower makes a cutting electrode #1440-0426. im going to try with my Everlast tig/stick welder to cut rusty exhaust bolts. hope it works
67 Scout 800 scott rabbe one of my instructors told me its a great line of welders. Ive researched and found it to be an amazing deal. Just get that warranty just in case something happens. Im going to purchase one myself. Omnipro that is. Great tech for a rising but decent price
@@bobmoffatt4133 Not sure if anyone still responds but I don't understand. If you took all the time to grind the weld off the metal and then cut the two pieces apart where the "crack" is how is it different? Seems the end result is the same but this alot faster. I am a beginner and have made some "emergency" repairs on my farm implements and now want to repair them properly so the field repair welds have to be removed and redone. Since I don't have an arc gouger can't I spend all day with a grinder and zip wheel cutting stuff apart and prep/reweld? The other question is is arc gouging done with one special machine or could am air compressor be paired with a DC stick welder w/special electrode holder? Just wondering if it was practical to use this process as a farmer DIYer?
@@jimw6991 It may not be practical for arc gouging in your operation. Gouging with the right equipment and a skilled operator can be very fast, efficient and cost effective however
I am buying shit from all the other stores... Are you (or someone) gonna ever get the damn Weld.Com Store operational? How much $$ are you missing? I spent over $300 last night elsewhere. Just saying!
Sorry mister but you re not good ,ugly opened and slow ,must be once taken and no grinding after you open ,we do every day in finland this and looks nice
