Sanitary Welds - worth $20 a pop?

[user 40839]

Okay, got sick of my weldless fittings leaking, and having to chip stalagmites of burned wort off my keggles and brewstand at the end of every session, so I searched for a place to get them welded. After visiting the local shops and getting prices like $75 per weld (hahahah!) I resorted to Craigslist and searched for a TIG welder. Found a guy willing to do them for $20 a pop, sanitary welds. (At least when I told him what I wanted, he automatically knew that they'd need to be back gassed to avoid sugaring.) Here's the result:

Am I being hyper critical here, or do these welds look a bit crap? The bottom one is EASILY the best of the five welds I had done, but the other ones just look... meh. He did say if I wasn't happy with them that he'd make it right, but...

 

[jordanpace]

look good to me

 

[Chello]

Thats about how mine look as well on the inside, a bit rough. The outside of mine a little smoother, but you can tell he spent some time polishing that area (before or after welding, i'm not sure).

Take some copper wool pads and scrub the interior and the "burnt" color should come off fairly easily if your concerned.

 

[bendavanza]

If I'm not mistaken, if they were back gassed they should look as shiny as the outside.

 

[tharlanjr]

Those look pretty good to me, like chello said scrub it a little and it might look better.


fwiw, when you go cheap on welds you can't really expect perfection.

 

[PDawg]

Those are very nice welds from where I am sitting.

 

[lehr]

Those were back gassed and no they are not shiny on the inside when back gassed. They look fine did he drill the holes also ?
Pat

 

[ScrapHeap2000]

They look good, no worries. Get a stainless steel "toothbrush" from a weld supply house, like $2, and scrub them good, they will look like a million bucks. If you can't find one, I can send you one, we have about 4000 of them in the stockroom.

If they are purged, you won't have sugar on the inside, which you don't, but the metal will discolor. Thus the wire brush. Just for the love of god do not use a steel brush!!!

 

[kladue]

It sure looks like it is sugared on the inside, if they were back gassed it was inadequate as sugaring will not happen in an argon purged weld area. I hope the weld has not shrunk the fittings too much, a 1/2" pipe tap is probably going to be needed to restore the threads to original depth.

 

[SankePankey]

If you're not fermenting in your kettles, then it doesn't matter. Those look like good enough welds that seal (not that I know). The vessel gets up to 212 for a while. Done.

I will say that the TIG welds that I've gotten done by Brewershardware and Synergymetalworking are not colored like that. Maybe it's cause they were polished after the fact. Not sure.

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

The welds on the inside look fine, the heat of the weld will turn the stainless steel that orange/blue. I would have the inside welds ground smooth with a stone wheel to make them 'sanitary' and get rid of all the ripples. Grinding the inside welds smooth will also uncover any pinholes that may be lying just beneath the surface of the weld too.

The welds on the outside should have been 'tapped' with foil backed welding tape, that would have prevented the blackened blobs pictured on the outside of the vessel. The foil backed tape would have kept oxygen off the outside surface and the weld would have looked as solid as the weld on the inside.

 

[PaulB]

The discoloring is from dialing the welder slightly hotter than necessary. You will almost always get some bluing. That amount can be polished out. Remember in you quest for sanitary that the wost spot is the threads of the coupling and the kettle will never be up to true sanitary specifications with those.

Bottom line those welds look great and you should have no problems brewing.

 

[Thirteen]

Kladue is correct. It appears that they were back gassed but either without enough flow of the argon was not properly directed at the weld site resulting in some sugaring. I don't know why everyone keeps saying you don't have any when it appears clearly visible in the third picture. Certainly not the worst I've seen though. You should be able to clean them up without too much effort.

From the outside shots they look like decent enough welds. Just need some polishing. I'd have liked the coupling to be sticking out more to avoid damage to the faces but even that is minimal and will likely not be too obvious once you mount your components.

 

[Bobby_M]

In the grand scheme of things, they're pretty good. There are a LOT of guys out there taking more money for worse welds.

 

[user 40839]

Cheers lads. I've just been seeing images of absolutely beautiful welds from folks, and while I know these need to be cleaned up, I was a wee bit concerned with some of the dimpling on the inside (I'll just hit it with a flapper wheel as soon as I have time).

Bonus was that I just got an email from him, offering to trade more welds for beer - brought him a growler of an American Wheat I brewed a couple months ago, and he seemingly loved it!