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Post by flyingdutchman on Apr 15, 2007 5:32:41 GMT 10
Hi fella's, just wondering if any one knows if there is still demand for oxy acetylene fusion welders in australia, i am an aussie but i have been over seas for nearly ten years, the last five years I've been living in Holland, I have done an apprenticeship as a heating mechanic/pipefitter, we still use the oxy for most of our pipe welding, I have had x rays taken a few times and they have passed, next year we are gunna move back to australia to live, so was keen to hear if anyone had some news on this, i have no idea myself about the pipe welding scene in australia at the moment, I can also tig weld and hopefully will be ticketed for that before i get back to oz. So any news about work would be great. thanks heaps.
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Post by grumpy on Apr 18, 2007 21:38:17 GMT 10
Welcome Flying Dutchman
Where I live ,on the edge of the Bowen Coal Basin in Nth Qld. there is heaps of work for all types of mechanical tradies at the moment,either in the town shops or onsite in the mines. I am a ex p.vessel welder myself.If you want oxy acetylene work possibly the Sugar mills still do the boiler tubes in oxy acetylene. I'll ask some of the mill guys locally and find out what the go is.
Tig welding might get you into one of the aluminium weld shops here in Mackay.They are hard pushed for staff.
At the moment there still new mines opening and they are paying top dollars for boilermakers and welders and pipe guys for the dragline booms are in short supply.mid you most of the dragline stuff is with fluxcore.
Anyway I'll sniff about and see whats available and report back in a week or two.
Grumpy
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Post by flyingdutchman on Apr 23, 2007 5:07:50 GMT 10
hi grumpy thanks for the reply and i look forward to what other info you can gather up. it sounds like there is enough work around the place. i see that you are a man with alot of welding history so you might be able also to answer me another question. i have got here a couple of oxy/acet sets from Gloor and also a fronius transtig 1600 welder. i would really love to bring them home with me when i come back, it would be worth the trouble to bring them cause they are reall good stuff. but i am just not sure about parts and service in oz. do they have fronius and gloor outlets???
anyway grumpy i hope like you have said in other posts that others will sign up and share there views or just ask a few questions, would be good to keep this forum going, cheers.
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Post by grumpy on Apr 25, 2007 5:37:58 GMT 10
Hi Flying Dutchman
I can't answer your question on Gloor as I am not familiar with them.
Fronuis certainly, I have a Magicwave 1700 myself.
If you Google up Semco Australia you will find them to be the National Fronius distributors and there are repair agents all over the place in Australia.
There is even an agent here in Mackay as they sell to the mines, he is a Dutchman The little over the shoulder inverter units are well known, he has sold 30 in one hit.
I talked to a guy from one the ali shops.They are paying $28 per hr for 38 hours.
If you are looking at working on site you can probably turn over a $100,000 p.a.or better.
There are heaps of labour hire mobs advertising .Do you want some addresses for direct contact.?
regards
Grumpy
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Post by grumpy on Apr 27, 2007 18:56:29 GMT 10
Hi Flying Dutchman
Checked out the Gloor availability with a friend who is a registered gas regulator and oxy acetylene / LPG equipment repairer.
He has repaired or at least heard about anything in the oxy acetylene/ lpg line sold here in Australia. His opinion is that the Gloor equipment may not meet Australian Standards.
Not that it is not quality gear, but more likely cannot fit standard cylinder threads or standard hose fittings. He says don't despair as it is possible to adapt fittings, but of course he said he would need to see it first. I have seen Paul adapt yank Victor torches and the like to our gas fittings and threads and they work well.
I Googled Gloor up on the net and it does look like very good quality kit.
catcha
Grumpy
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Post by flyingdutchman on Apr 30, 2007 6:14:03 GMT 10
Hi grumpy, your a great help, good to hear about the gloor stuff, i will chuck them in the container too. that sounds like heaps of money especially for site work, it is surely much more than i am earning here, mind you i am not welding always x-ray standard, we only have to weld x ray quality for our gas pipes. (we use the oxy) are these prices they pay only for xray work? we are not in the petro/chem industry so the xray is not necessary. I fit en weld all our pipes so i am not just constantly welding. I want in the near future to go more in the area of xray tig pipe or maybe pressure vessel, but my pipe experience is limited to small bore thin wall steel pipe, diameters ranging from 2 inch with 4mm wall thickness and 219mm whats that bout an 8 inch pipe with a 6mm wall thickness
I have said earlier that i am busy with a tig course, i am starting level three. I read that you are a teacher!! here they have 4 levels and level 4 is certified xray welder, the level 3 end exam is also tested but you are not certified by the n.i.l. (The Dutch Welding Institute) that is. these courses are very expensive here but i am hoping to come home as a certified tig pipe welder. Level 4 in other words. Will this be also considered valid in australia, i would imagine that you would have to pass an exam there too.
Working on site: i am not really sure how that works around the mackay area, do you have to live on site or can you travel to and from the mine??? Oh well grumpy the questions just keep rolling out, there is just too much i wanna know.
Magicwave fronius, sounds good! i have never used one but they look good, a bit more safisticated than the old transtig. and of course acdc. thanks again grumpy.
regards the flying dutchman.
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Post by grumpy on May 1, 2007 17:17:11 GMT 10
gidday again Flying Dutchman
I spoke to Paul again today about the Gloor regs.
He said to check your cylinder pressures.We are on 15,000 Kpa for Oxy so check the Dutch standard for oxy .It will need be be equal to or in excess of 15,000 Kpa.
It should not be hard to get a test through the Welding Technology Institute of Australia -WTIA- testing to AS 1796 standards.
The likely application for your skills are the sugar mills. The mines as I said will take tradies if they can raise fog on a mirror. The roster is mostly 4 on for off. Wages run around $100K plus for no special skills other than a trade.
I believe they are even taking on guys like cabinet makers.
Cheers
Grahame
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Post by flyingdutchman on May 11, 2007 6:45:02 GMT 10
hi grumpy,
i checked my regulators, the oxy regulator bottle pressure max- is 315 bar which is 31,500 kpa. en the regulator after the reducing diaphram is max at 15 bar (1500 kpa). the oxy bottles are filled to about 200 bar 20,000kpa. en we usually regulate the pressure down to between 2.5 and 3.5 bar for oxy, can vary, and for the acetylene i usually weld on around about 0.5bar bout 50kpa is that. they are the same regs that you would have seen on the gloor site, i dont know if they will comply with oz standards.
hey is it possible to put some picy's on this forum be cool to see what other blokes are up to and maybe bring some more attention to the site. I got hold of some bohler electrodes the other day, root bead electrodes. i tried em out on some of my pipe, it was 4" pipe with a 5mm wall thickness. i welded down hill but didn't go to well en tried uphill went ok for a little bit but it kept burning threw. i didnt have a very good prept pipe only worked the opening with a grinder en had to much difference in the opening en as soon as it got a bit wide it just burnt threw, they are 2,5mm electrodes, for a few good centimeteres (downhill) i had a real good bead goin but that was it.(a nice layer on the inside of the pipe bout 2mm) en up hill was about the same, but really nothing to be proud of. Have you got any good tips on welding a root bead grumpy would appreciate it. Mainly for thin wall pipe (6mm), its a bit too much hassle to get hold of thicker pipe.
I was talking to a bloke the other day and a group of his mates that live here near by to me, were all off to australia to weld a pipe line some where or other (possibly deep in the bush) they couldn't wait to get there, they should be there by now, i bet they are sweating there arses off. haha.
anyway catch ya later grumpy.
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Post by grumpy on May 14, 2007 22:00:07 GMT 10
Hi FD Your regs sound ok by pressure. My opinion is that they will comply with SAA .
It is just a matter of changing the threaded nipples to suit Australian cylinders. I made that suggestion about pics to the forum owner.Nothing has come of it as yet .I guess these things take time and money.
About Bohler they,are nice electrodes I have used the ms variety and they just about run themselves.For root run work they approach Kobe LB52 U 's.Which are specifically designed for root runs.
If you are performing an axis horizontal weld the root gap and landing edge dimension need to be consistent and spot on.Say a tad thicker than core wire diameter.Run the electrode as touch contact(touching and pushing on them) so that you take advantage of the short arc. Rather than the time consuming pipe preps to begin with just use 6mm plate with the prep edge. At least until you get proficient with root runs.No exaggeration,it may take 10 or twenty plates to get it sorted,by patient!
Generally for vertically down I would be using AC for best peno and varying the angle for more or less peno.
For max peno run like the hand of a clock off an imagined central pivot point .For less peno ,decrease angle by dropping your hand position way below the arc level.
Stop and restart points need to be tapered to an internal knife edge with a 2mm cut disc. Don't overgrind the rest by cutting out the reinforce of the root.Only the tossers need to grind out most of what they have just welded. If you must pull out any slag inclusion usually found on the bead edge to plate interface, use a hook ground up from a bit of power hacksaw blade. With those rods you could possible aim for 1.5 to 2mm inside peno bead about 3mm wide.
If you use a low hydrogen cap this will burn out any small slag inclusions.Keep arc strikes within the weld area.
That should be enough to keep you busy for a while.
Cheers
Grumpy
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