grinding welds down

[brady1929]

i am currently working on a frame of 2x2x1/8 square tubing for an english wheel or a planishing hammer. anyway i was grinding the welds to make them "pretty" when i realized i may be making the joints too weak.
is it ok to grind the welds down without losing too much strength?
thanks
brady

[CCWKen]

If you've filled the V's with a good weld, you should be able to grind the welds flush. Hummmmmmmm. 1/8" ? Good penetration on a butt weld should work too.

[edwardd_]

Brady,

I saw this and the excellent weld discussion at..

http://www.mechwerks.com/Coping.htm

Below is the picture of the cut weld.

I suggest you take a couple of cut off pieces and make a weld just like you are on your frame. Then cut the weld in half and see if you are getting good, complete penetration.

HTH

[norm]

depends on who did the welding
and the application

ive ground down many welds in non critical applications
with zero problems

of course the guy who did all the welding is certified
for all position and high pressure

wouldnt think of doing it on a rollcage or similar

[HotRodKid]

take 2 pieces of scrap, weld them together like you did the other pipes and cut across the weld to see how much penetration you have

like they say, a chain is only as stong as its weakest link, so make sure your welds after they are ground down are at least as thick as the thinnest material you would have dared build the e-wheel frame out of

planishing hammers should be stonger tho ... wouldnt want the vibrations beating the weld apart

[brady1929]

hey thanks guys. i am going to do just that. i will weld some pieces together and cut them to check my welds.thanks

[raferguson]

The discusson of welds on an ewheel is almost a moot point. If the frame is stiff enough to be any good, then the stress level in the frame is going to be so low that an imperfect weld will not matter. For ewheel frames, if you have the stiffness you need, you have much more strength than you will ever need.

If the weld is halfway decent, and the frame is halfway stiff, feel free to grind the welds flat, it won't matter, at least according to my calculations.

However, 2 inch by 2 inch by 1/8 inch tubing is very light, unless the throat is very small, or the frame is heavily trussed. One downside of trussed frames is that they tend to have low lateral stiffness, even if they have good primary stiffness. I would need to see a sketch of the design to be sure. But that has little to do with whether or not the welds are ground flat.

Richard