Production welding

I would say that seeing such cold welds is more unusual than usual, even on imported stuff.

However, we had a garden swing for adults from Home Depot that was poorly welded that I had to re-weld with TIG.

I was really amazed when I looked at trailers. Some really crappy welding.

Steve

I once worked part time for a small trailer manufacturer in central California. At the time I was in the USAF and was certified stick and tig.

Being a new job and all I was really trying to do a good job and making sure that all the welds were 100%. After a while the foreman came along and told me that I wasn't welding as many feet as the other guys and I said that I was trying to make the best welds I could. He told me that it was how many feet of weld I was laying down that counted. I said "you mean just turn the amperage up and go like hell" and he said "that's the idea".

It was kind of shocking to an innocent young lad to discover that a trailer manufacturer didn't seem to have any desire for 100% welds.

Cheers,

Bruce (bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

I bought a $1,000 8 x 10 flat trailer a few years ago. I rejected three before I found one that was "acceptable", and I would only rate that at 80%. I was driving down the Interstate in Las Vegas. One of the bars that held up one of the metal ramps broke in the back. I was showering sparks like a Hollywood special effects team. People were waving and screaming.. I was waving back. Then I looked back and saw what was wrong. Couldn't stop for about a mile. They had heated the bar that holds it up to bend it instead of bending it cold. It failed. Musta been a fix because the other had been bent cold. Haven't really crawled under there and inspected the rest of it, and should. Need to fix a light. Damn flimsy lights don't hold up even to a stump when logging! Have to go pick up some metal soon, so will check it first.

Steve

I am a little shocked, but I believe you guys.

When you think about it makes sense. The welders are "rated" by how many feet of weld they can do; the foreman by how many frames that they build each shift; the plant manager on how many trailers produced each month and the sales department by how many they sell each quarter...

Cheers,

Bruce (bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

And the trailers, are possibly designed to survive such welds. Still, this is not my preferred approach to making a trailer and I would not buy one if I knew that that's how it was made.

For my own homemade trailer, since I was a beginner weldor, I designed it so that it would have some redundancy in it, and I used 7018.

"Ignoramus12193" wrote

Check it yearly. My neighbor brought me one of those fence pole pipe drivers the other day. One of the ends of the handles had cracked at the weld and broken off. I looked at it closely, and all three of the others were starting to crack. No need to wait for total failure to beef up a weld. Nothing lasts forever, and it's always good to catch something before it passes you on the freeway like Gunner's spare did.

Steve

In the case I mentioned there was no redundancy "built in". It was embarrassing to produce such shitty work, and it appeared to be the norm there. I only worked there for a few days as the whole operation seemed to emphasize mediocrity. However, they stayed in business for some years, predating Harbor Freight's philosophy of cheap junk for a cheap price by some years.

Cheers,

Bruce (bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

INDEED!!!!!!

Gunner, lowering his hand......

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

I will indeed crawl around it and check it out carefully.

I forgot to mention that I did bend the tailgate somewhat when I was winching something that was, in retrospect, frozen solid to the bed (winter). That was rather dumb.

Even trailers have birthdays, and get a year older.

Steve