Shipboard welding

[Greeny]

Ran across this recent and interesting picture of a sailor doing some shipboard repairs. Looks like a stick welder many of us may have under our garage bench.

http://www.defense.gov/Media/Photo-Gallery?igphoto=2001334792

 

[Bondo]

Looks like a stick welder many of us may have under our garage bench.

Ayuh,.... It ain't like ya can use a mig or tig with the wind blowin' across the deck,....

Stick makes the most sense,...

 

[Professur]

For all the fame of the hot metal glue gun, stick is still the most useful out of factory welding method out there.

 

[Sticky Grips]

You can also use flux cored wire on a MIG machine to prevent shielding gas from being blown away.

I think for what they're doing, a stick welder is just fine.

 

[APEowner]

I'm not sure about the whole securing a bolt with a welder thing but stick is still an extremely useful method for heavy duty welding.

 

[Buckgnarly]

I like the "lay the ground clamp on the workpiece" method! I would guess the other option is to go out to the edge of the deck to clamp!
I have a friend who worked on ships that went out to fix other ships, think he may have been involved with the Cole even. He has some freaking cool welding/machine/make whatever stories about what they can do on those ships!

 

[jkwilson]

I like the "lay the ground clamp on the workpiece" method! I would guess the other option is to go out to the edge of the deck to clamp!

He's clamped on a bolt head.

 

[zkling]

That's a miller maxstar DC inverter. Not many on this forum have them in their garage. A breakthrough in field pipe and all around portable welding though.

 

[Greeny]

That's a miller maxstar DC inverter. Not many on this forum have them in their garage. A breakthrough in field pipe and all around portable welding though.

Thanks for identifying it. That's quite a bit more than your basic garage welder. My wife looked over my shoulder and said the welder looked cute, kind of like mine. I wish....

 

[marineengineer]

Im a marine engineer in the united states merchant marine. Stick welding is definatley the most used process. Usually a dc welder located in the engine room with coils of lead to get to the worksite. We also have torches which are remote bottles outside and most ships also have plasma cutters. If your lucky you have tig capabilitys ac and dc for stainless and aluminium. Or else were stuck stick welding both of those materials.

 

[ttpete]

Looks like he's safetying bolt heads. That looks like an access plate for a tank, maybe for fueling helos.

The older way the Navy did welders was to have permanently mounted machines that were grounded to the ship's hull, and the weldor would plug his cable into the machine and head out to the job. IIRC, I think we had two machines aboard.

In the shipyard, the yard would drop a large panel on deck connected to shore power and ground it to the hull. Yard workers would plug their cable into one of many jacks and string it to their work area.

 

[Buckgnarly]

Im a marine engineer in the united states merchant marine. Stick welding is definatley the most used process. Usually a dc welder located in the engine room with coils of lead to get to the worksite. We also have torches which are remote bottles outside and most ships also have plasma cutters. If your lucky you have tig capabilitys ac and dc for stainless and aluminium. Or else were stuck stick welding both of those materials.

You Captain Phillips?!?!

 

[rockinacummins]

I usually just use a nut when I need to secure a bolt...

I guess welding it would make it harder for some idiot to steal...

 

[DieselDent]

Nice welder, we never had anything that nice and portable when I was on a ship. I was on the access and overhaul team though and we got to use what we called a PECU or Portable Exothermic Cutting Unit.

http://www.dcfpnavymil.org/Equipmen...ermic Cutting Unit Complete/PECU Kit/pecu.htm

 

[wrenchguy]

Looks like he's safetying bolt heads. That looks like an access plate for a tank, maybe for fueling helos.

preventing F.O.D.

 

[knobby]

Did some ship welding years ago was a real treat the paint was so thick that the diamond plate looked smooth had to use a oxy acetylene kit to burn the paint off before striking an arc lovely memories...

 

[ttpete]

Did some ship welding years ago was a real treat the paint was so thick that the diamond plate looked smooth had to use a oxy acetylene kit to burn the paint off before striking an arc lovely memories...

Must've been civilian. The Navy has strict regs about paint thickness for fire reasons. Chipping and painting is a pastime indulged in when there's nothing else to do.

 

[justanengineer]

That's a miller maxstar DC inverter. Not many on this forum have them in their garage. A breakthrough in field pipe and all around portable welding though.

I had one of those POS for awhile and wouldnt be surprised if quite a few here had them in their garages at one time or another. They were a cheap alternative to the Diversion and really popular with the hobbyist crowd bc of the price, <$1k on sale for the STL model which did both tig and stick and ~$700 for the S model which was stick only. I cant say I ever heard of one used professionally, it was really a light-duty machine and pretty fragile. Also, like most hobbyist grade inverters when it breaks you toss it bc replacing the circuit board (only one inside) is 90% the cost of a new machine.

 

[mkfan]

Wish we had something that light. Back in the mid 90s we were using a POW-CON stick welder on my ship, I ended up with a hernia from lugging that thing up and down the ladders.

Also we would have never got away with not wearing our PPE (leathers, flashhood) and had to always have a fire extingisher and firewatch present

 

[ttpete]

Wish we had something that light. Back in the mid 90s we were using a POW-CON stick welder on my ship, I ended up with a hernia from lugging that thing up and down the ladders.

Also we would have never got away with not wearing our PPE (leathers, flashhood) and had to always have a fire extingisher and firewatch present

I know what you mean. Everything that gets moved on a warship moves on the backs of the crew.

We had a guy killed welding on deck underway. Wave washed over, zap, and that was it. That was in 1963.

 

[trackwelder]

I had one of those POS for awhile and wouldnt be surprised if quite a few here had them in their garages at one time or another. They were a cheap alternative to the Diversion and really popular with the hobbyist crowd bc of the price, <$1k on sale for the STL model which did both tig and stick and ~$700 for the S model which was stick only. I cant say I ever heard of one used professionally, it was really a light-duty machine and pretty fragile. Also, like most hobbyist grade inverters when it breaks you toss it bc replacing the circuit board (only one inside) is 90% the cost of a new machine.

I bought a 150s when they first came out and have had zero problems with it. It has been very valuable for small jobs and working of a ladder. If mine where to break I would buy another.

 

[Advan]

I had one of those POS for awhile and wouldnt be surprised if quite a few here had them in their garages at one time or another. They were a cheap alternative to the Diversion and really popular with the hobbyist crowd bc of the price, <$1k on sale for the STL model which did both tig and stick and ~$700 for the S model which was stick only. I cant say I ever heard of one used professionally, it was really a light-duty machine and pretty fragile. Also, like most hobbyist grade inverters when it breaks you toss it bc replacing the circuit board (only one inside) is 90% the cost of a new machine.

I'm going to have to disagree. The Maxstar 150 is a tough, professional, portable machine, that is also popular with some hobbyists because of its size and relatively low price to brand-name AC/DC tig machines. The Diversion, on the other hand, was anything but a professional machine. It was Millers attempt to dumb-down tig for garage welders, and offer a stationary AC/DC machine for a great price. You really can't compare the two machines, they're in completely different segments! In my trade, I've dragged Maxstars into many a shithole and up ladders where stringing out 400' of heavy welding lead just isn't practical, and they always get the job done!

 

[MJD1]

I had one of those POS for awhile and wouldnt be surprised if quite a few here had them in their garages at one time or another. They were a cheap alternative to the Diversion and really popular with the hobbyist crowd bc of the price, <$1k on sale for the STL model which did both tig and stick and ~$700 for the S model which was stick only. I cant say I ever heard of one used professionally, it was really a light-duty machine and pretty fragile. Also, like most hobbyist grade inverters when it breaks you toss it bc replacing the circuit board (only one inside) is 90% the cost of a new machine.

The maxstar is probably the most popular machine used in process piping and many other DC tig applications. The diversion was the toy of the lineup that isn't even capable of stick welding.

 

[zkling]

I had one of those POS for awhile and wouldnt be surprised if quite a few here had them in their garages at one time or another. They were a cheap alternative to the Diversion and really popular with the hobbyist crowd bc of the price, <$1k on sale for the STL model which did both tig and stick and ~$700 for the S model which was stick only. I cant say I ever heard of one used professionally, it was really a light-duty machine and pretty fragile. Also, like most hobbyist grade inverters when it breaks you toss it bc replacing the circuit board (only one inside) is 90% the cost of a new machine.

You sure about that bro? Now granted I would be very reluctant to buy a used one after seeing some of the hell local concrete and the like guys put them through. You'll see one at auction quite often, caked on mud and all.

The Diversion came out after the maxstar. The maxstar was a cheaper alternative to the Dynasty by not having a AC side or advanced tig features. Both are built on the same chassis size and rough platform, but drastically different output capabilities and price. The diversion came out to replace the old econotig and lower syncrowave machines for the hobbyist on an extreme budget that wants to get into full ac/dc tig welding.

 

[sberry]

I have a Max. Wish they had them when I was a sprout.

 

[Monkey Milk]

I got a deck plate from the gov. It's 1.5in thick. It's 3x4 and the doc says it weighs 1200#