Brutus 10-gas tight welds...

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micahwitham

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making a brutus 10 build and having some trouble with the welds for the gas lines. a friend of mine and I built it and he did the welds but upon testing them all of the welds for the back "gas" pipe and the couplers that got welded in all leak.
How hard is it to make air tight welds? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

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2012-10-24 20.07.04.jpg
 
Those welds don't look great. A good welder can make it air tight.

This is why this should not be tried. It is very dangerous when dealing with gas leaks and such. My suggestion is to just rig up some black pipe and be done with it.
 
I don't think it is that hard. The welds shown are kind of standing on top of the metal. Not enough heat and or wire speed for good penetration. the grey colored welds also look porous= tiny little holes=sometimes caused by the gun tip not held close enought to the weld=little shielding gas. Welding straight lines on a stand is a lot easier than going around a circle.
 
Take it to a shop and get the gas pipe welds fixed by a pro. A TIG torch could easily melt those low heat welds into gas tight beads. Running another wire feed bead over that one is likely to be a disaster.
 
Make sure to test and retest that your manifold is airtight before you use gas. Compressed air and windex work well for this.
 
Thx for the replies. I know this is possible as I've seen it done successfully but was just curious if anyone had similar issues.
Used my compressor and soapy water to test everything so safety was and is a priority obviously
 
That right there is an example of really bad welding.

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I'd definitely find someone who knows what they're actually doing if you're determined to have gas running through your frame...

Cheers!
 
My cousin is a professional welder and tig welded the hell out of mine and it wouldn't hold pressure. Go with the black iron pipe across the back and be done and get brewing be safe.
 
for those who didn't do the welds, how do you attach the gas pipeline or the T fittings to the frame?
thinking that I may go that route instead.
thx
 
I used pipe hangers, drilled and tapped the holes on the backside of my stand and just bolted them down. I made my stand out of 2x2 steel 3/16" thick so I could drill and tap into it and have enough material to give me enough threads.
 
I made my stand out of 2x2 steel 3/16" thick so I could drill and tap into it and have enough material to give me enough threads.

Wow! That's gotta be one seriously heavy duty stand! :)

I welded my stand using 1.5" square 14 ga mild steel, a little more than 1/16" thick. Threading pretty much anything into the stand itself wasn't part of the plan, so where I needed to attach "stuff" I welded in 1/8" thick hard points, which I could thread reliably.

For my simple 1/2" iron gas manifold, I welded in two hard point struts, to which I screwed down pipe hangers...

Cheers!
 
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Yes, it is good and heavy but not too bad. I don't have any issues moving it around by myself. It really did turn out great.
 
A good air tight weld needs a shielding gas like argon attached to the MIG. You cannot do it with shielded wire. Once you start weld you cannot stop until your all the way around. Even better is using a TIG welder. Ever since going TIG, I would not consider welding any other way. Nice spatter free welds.

Ofter a second look at the picture it does not look like you getting good penetration on both the coupling and the frame leaving a gap for gas to escape. Note that the coupling will not heat up as fast as the thin metal on the frame. With TIG you start heating the coupling first until a pool of molten metal forms, and then move the puddle to the thinner frame and then start jig jagging back and forth.

P.S. Welding Tips and Tricks is an excellent website.
 
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