John in CA
Hot Rolled
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2007
- Location
- Bakersfield, CA
I did a bunch of welding at work this week for the first time in awhile. I'm the welder in our shop, not because I'm really any good but simply by default. The project was to plan and build some simple rolling carts, just angle iron frames with flatbar stiffeners and some casters, to set some material racks into so they could be rolled around the shop. Job came off pretty good, but as I was welding on them it brought to mind a question.
One section included a long butt joint, which out of habit I welded with a series of stringer beads about 2" long spaced about 2" apart. I developed the habit of doing this because Dear Old Dad, lo those many years ago, taught me that a long butt weld, when subjected to yield loads, would be weaker than several welds spaced apart along a joint of the same length.
When I went to work as a welder's helper a few years later, I would occasionally hear welders talk about "stitch welding", usually in connection with structural work, and assumed this must have been what they were talking about. All we did in that shop was pressure vessel welding, so I never got to actually see stitch welding being applied in practice. Every butt joint we welded was on pipe or rolled plate, and was naturally a continuous 3-pass full penetration seam. Which leads me to wonder, when is stitch welding best applied, and why is it that a continuous weld is weaker? Or was I even taught right?
Thanks,
John
One section included a long butt joint, which out of habit I welded with a series of stringer beads about 2" long spaced about 2" apart. I developed the habit of doing this because Dear Old Dad, lo those many years ago, taught me that a long butt weld, when subjected to yield loads, would be weaker than several welds spaced apart along a joint of the same length.
When I went to work as a welder's helper a few years later, I would occasionally hear welders talk about "stitch welding", usually in connection with structural work, and assumed this must have been what they were talking about. All we did in that shop was pressure vessel welding, so I never got to actually see stitch welding being applied in practice. Every butt joint we welded was on pipe or rolled plate, and was naturally a continuous 3-pass full penetration seam. Which leads me to wonder, when is stitch welding best applied, and why is it that a continuous weld is weaker? Or was I even taught right?
Thanks,
John