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Welding speed and costs.
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Author:  John Stewart [ Mon Oct 27, 2003 11:39 am ]
Post subject:  Welding speed and costs.
Hi all;

Another two questions to help planning restoration of our tender.

1) Are there established hourly rates for estimating welding sheet together? Including joint preparation?

Ie, if I have 60 feet of weld to place, can I make a rough guess as to how much time this will take?

2) How much more costly is MIG welding as compared to stick welding, if taking into account only the costs of materials?

Thanks for any help anyone can give.

John Stewart
Bytown Railway Society.


freewrl-1@rogers.com
Author:  dave [ Mon Oct 27, 2003 6:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Welding speed and costs.
> 1) Are there established hourly rates for
> estimating welding sheet together? Including
> joint preparation?

Varies by welder, technique and specifics of job.

> 2) How much more costly is MIG welding as
> compared to stick welding, if taking into
> account only the costs of materials?

For light metal, wire, whether it be MIG or flux core gasless, is a faster and more continuous operation. I think it can be cheaper than stick, and requires less skill and experience.

dave

irondave@bellsouth.net
Author:  ge13031 [ Mon Oct 27, 2003 6:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Welding speed and costs.
> Varies by welder, technique and specifics of
> job.

> dave

Biggest variations that come to mind are specifics like;
A. a structural weld like a boiler including multipass uphand and down hand welding where the weld is guaranteed to hold pressure and/or a structure together, very slow with long prep times and very expensive. My personal preference is stick welding for this with exquisite joint prep and probably grit blast between passes.
B. single pass structural welding ...good prep and an ace at uphand welding can go fairly fast ...you'd still be surprised at how slow it goes, all depending on how good your structural pieces fit and how they can be welded to keep structural integrity.
C. the equivalent of "body work", ideal for a MIG welder. good joint prep and structural planning speeds this right along.

We have never been able to take advantage of flux cored welding rod because we haven't had that long a run ...we are constantly changing position to keep the structure square or minimizing warpage.

I can't answer the question either ...I always hire our welder by the hour at an agreed to rate, grit my teeth and accept the costs of a good weld job.


lamontdc@adelphia.net
Author:  rob [ Tue Oct 28, 2003 9:02 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Welding speed and costs.
> Hi all;

> Another two questions to help planning
> restoration of our tender.

> 1) Are there established hourly rates for
> estimating welding sheet together? Including
> joint preparation?

> Ie, if I have 60 feet of weld to place, can
> I make a rough guess as to how much time
> this will take?

> 2) How much more costly is MIG welding as
> compared to stick welding, if taking into
> account only the costs of materials?

> Thanks for any help anyone can give.

> John Stewart
> Bytown Railway Society.
Hi it all depends on thickness of material and type of joint.Mig will be faster and cheaper but I think not as good. btw I do forms of welding. If plates are more than 1/8" I advise you to do pulsed arc not short arc. Stick would be the best. regards rob

tubeit@yahoo.com
Author:  John Stewart [ Wed Oct 29, 2003 9:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Welding speed and costs. *PIC*
Guys;

Thanks for the responses; I guess that I had hoped that there might be some metric out there that would help determine approximate costs of time and welding materials.

The job in hand is new baffles, coal box (whatever the correct name is) and floor of our 1887 tender. The plan is to make it hold water (!) but not change the outward appearance.

I had hoped to make a fairly good project proposal and plan, because so many projects of any magnitude seem to get started without any idea of the final destination.

I guess that I'll make a WAG, from my somewhat limited experience as a welder.

I've attached a screen shot of my tender "model" sans top and floor. Red material stays; yellow (rod staying), grey (baffles) and blue (coal box) are to be replaced.

Thanks;

JohnS.

Image
freewrl-1@rogers.com
Author:  Bruce Manwiller [ Fri Oct 31, 2003 1:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Welding speed and costs.
some metric out
> there that would help determine approximate
> costs of time and welding materials.

Try 5 pounds of weld metal deposited per manhour.
Figure the cross-section area of the weld times the length times .29 pounds per cubic inch.

For nicely-accessed welds of full strength cross section (two-thirds of the thickness of the thinner member being welded), and MIG equipment, the deposition rate can approach 10 pounds per hour.

Bruce Manwiller

bruceman@stargate.net
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