Welding Distortion Fundamentals. This is the first video in what will become a series of videos on welding distortion. The basics of what expansion and contraction are explained, as well as how direction of weld bead affects distortion.
thats a great videoi have made a few service bodies for trucks,all the frame work is made out of inch square tube its like a maze of frame work i spend all this time getting the frame square and then weld it out and spend double the time getting it back square,i didnt realise the direction of weld had that much of an effect thanks again mate
I learned first hand welding distortion, making rear leaf spring shackle brackets on my truck, made a basic flat plate bracket, tack welded the 3 pieces of 1/4" plate in a J shape, had everything fitting right and tight, let the welds cool and the gap i needed closed up 1/8" or so. had to cut it and reweld back together. Second side went much better after factoring in for shrinkage and came out perfect.
I can see an event at the welding games coming from this. Everyone gets a tacked setup with the laser pointing away from the bullseye, and you get to weld for a certain limited time. Closest to the bullseye once everything's cooled off is the winner.
Jody, you're an amazing dude and this is an amazing video! I am school trained in welding technologies, I have 10 certifications total all tested by x-ray, I've done all processes even torch welding and brazing and even though my instructors were badasses, I learn the most from you. thank you for this knowledge...thank you!
I’ve watched many welding videos and you are the only person that even mentions distortion except for some auto body videos I’ve watched. Thanks for all you put into your videos. Truly educational
Just had my worst snafu ever with distortion on a decorative thin tube handrail and started trawling the Tube for solutions. This is by far the best demonstration I've seen of how easy it is to screw things up.
great Video Jody, I am currently still smarting from my latest project in my home shop/garage. I built a 9' tube bench using 1/8" and 0.100 thou tubing and ended up with some warpage between the the final table top and the floor. I was not happy but your demo with the laser pointer is a fantastic refresher on why I really need to keep paying attention to the direction or weld on EACH and EVERY side of the tubing faces...especially the legs. As always, you are a wealth of real world knowledge. Keep up the great work! Mark.
looking forward to the rest of this series! its one thing to kinda get your head round the theories but to re affirm it with such visual clarity it excellent. much appreciated
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Thanks, I really appreciate you generously share your knowledge and experience with us, the people who is learning. Very illustrative your demonstration on all but especially in this video.
Excellent video! I've never seen a test setup like this. It really visualizes the stress acting on the materials when applying heat to it. I used the welding method you described for a long time and it spared me a lot of grief and straightening things out afterward. Thanks for another great video. :)
Hi Jody, I really appreciate you doing this series on distortion. I was one person, at least, who offered this as a topic suggestion a few weeks ago. This has always been a source of problem for me, and although I have conquered it to some degree, I still have difficulty at times. Even this first video has offered some help that I will experiment with. So thanks again; you really do have an incredible talent for teaching. I never miss watching your weekly video.
Jody, thanks for the video. This demo should be in every welding/community/trades college across this country. I've been welding for 20 years and never once did I think about putting a laser pointer on and watching the results. Kudos to you. I learned something today. Thanks for that.
Brilliant way to demonstrate clearly the movement in a joint while welding! The split screen was a great help. I hope you do more of this. I'm going to try this in my shop as a way of "controlling" welding shrinkage and expansion. Thanks a lot for this one. Excellent as usual.
I had long been intimidated by heat distortion in welding, but thanks to your genius idea, finally I understand a lot more than I used to! Thanks a million from Hungary!
In depth heated metal will like to expand more than the surrounding area but it cant because colder metal is stronger so atoms of metal structure will decide to flow sideways to a path of a lower resistance thus increasing in thickness .When it cools down area of increased thickness will pull back with more force thus bending it backwards or in ways dependent to how heat is applied .
Jody, This is fantastic! Great idea and demonstration. So much better than reading about something when you can see the results so clearly demonstrated. Don't know why I have never seen this type of demonstration before.
Great vid Jodi! That's probably one of the most informational ones I've seen. Distortion is overlooked a lot of times; definitely learned something new today.
Hi Jody, This is one GOOD demonstration about warping...! Very explicit, if you have more like this you can add as many as you have. Those are things we don't always think of doing ourselves. Thanks for the intense teaching and sharing with all of us, Pierre
already knew most of what you said but geez its fantastic seeing it in action with a laser. what an excellent teaching tool Jody! long time watcher from Sydney Australia.
This is great! The more of this, the better. Welding is a constant learning process. Like flying a plane or playing a musical instrument, no matter how good your are, there's always more, you can always improve. I found that after you get past learning how to produce good welds, and you start building things, distortion becomes the problem that constantly dogs you forever. There's no bulletproof solution to it. All you can do is minimize distortion, and there's a lot to know, and lots of "intuitions" to develop, in order to minimize it. So, everything you can present on this topic, I'm all ears. This is the real and constant problem when it comes to fabrication -- distortion.
Welding Stainless pipe was the worst for weld distortion. We did a lot of "washing" over our welds to achieve straight butt joints or pipe to fittings for squareness. Great information on this video!
Man I see this a ton doing body work. I've learned you have to keep that heat spread out. Weld a little and move to another spot and weld some more. Great series!
Every video that gets any views will get some downvotes. But this one has just four down and over 1,000 up. That's the best ratio I think I've seen anywhere on youtube and perfectly illustrates how great it is. Thanks!
this laser pointer idea is pure genius! i couldn`t believe my eyes and i am a little embarrased bc i have the notions wrong, gladly 360 wrong so i get mostly square but i tought the movement was THE OTHER WAY AROUND. humbling, always learning. thanks man. cheers. pete
Mark Fryer hahahaha you`re right! i meant the effect of my wrongness is 360 but reading what i wrote it came that way.( note to self edit before hitting the send button...) i`ll get a laser pointer and start experimenting this will come handy anytime i want to "move" the welded pieces and i can`t count the times when this knowledge would have saved me hours of fiddling. sometimes the simplest ideas escape, Jody is a practical man with a practical approach. good he`s sharing his knowledge
Awesome and excellent once again. The first video of yours that I watched a year ago told me that your channel is the real source of consistent quality and practical experience , Totally worth each minute of our time. As a welding student for life, I learn new/ proven stuff each day. Jim
I just wanted to say thank you for your informative vids iv alway been a good welder but the info you share help me to take my skills to the next level and now I'm welding better than ever once again thank you and keep those vids coming
Really helped me to grasp the concept much better of how heat,direction of weld,can affect final outcome of your weld.Thanks so much.You will help us to be better at our trade
Very informative video. I learned something. This would be a great lesson for welding school. I'm looking forward to the rest of the video series. Thanks for your hard work, we appreciate it.
I made a wood splitter to mount on my backhoe. I needed to build it with tight tolerances with what the backhoe needed for mounting. I placed small tacks to hold square. Then larger tacks. Everything held nice and square. Then I welded it up permanent. It pulled out of square. Not enough to effect the project. Steel was 1/2" 325A. Pulled a 1/16" in 16". Minimal I know but I would have thought that with heavy tacks it would have locked it in. I'm learning...everyday. Thanks for the schooling.
Thanks for such a wonderful demonstration. I have downloaded this video and shall be using as a remembrance note while doing welding. Thanks once again
Very interesting video Jody! Distortion is absolutely a big deal to think about when you are welding. I did not expect the direction of travel had more to do with the distortion rather than which side you place the bead on. Thank you! /sjowe
Laser pointer=Brilliant!! Great demo. I fabricate stainless molds and hopefully won't have to use as many stiffeners and heat spots now to counteract shrinkage. Had no idea pre-heating minimized warpage. Might tinker around with that on some scrap 12 ga.
I like the split screen shots to show real time movement. Cool stuff! I'd really like to see this with stainless steel. I've had small flat stainless parts end up looking like a taco shell if there's too much heat...
Jody, I think the deflection is caused by the shape of the material. It will expand more vertically because there is more material in that plane and less horizontally as its thinner. Love the videos and you are the best teacher on RU-vid!
I originally thought the laser was pointing along the bar-not away...I haven't had my coffee. Great videos-they (and a magnifying lens for my helmet) have really helped. Thanks!
Hey Jody, as usual,great video,good stuff for the new guys.That book you got 'Metals and how to weld them' was given to me by my dad who was a boilermaker like me about 30 years ago when I started my apprenticeship,small world.
What a great idea using a laser to demonstrate the effects of heating and cooling. For aluminium I have used the locking technique with no bracing. welding all inside corners first. Then top and bottom. the sequence is important and you allow the distortion to work for you and not against you.
very interesting, good idea and I am looking forward to seeing where you go with this in the forthcoming videos. Used the tig finger day before yesterday, love that thing thanks again.
I wish the welders where I work with cared enough about their trade to actually learn things like this. The fitter knows exactly what he's doing and how to weld but the welders routinely weld things the worse possible way for distortion and refuse to change or learn. It's very frustrating to see. I'm not even a welder but learn a lot from you.
Hi Jody. I hope there are more videos on the distortion topic. This seems like something that is always discussed but rarely demonstrated. I need more tips so I can improve the quality of my work. Thanks
