08-27-2012, 01:15 PM
I was just about to make the point about gas welding, but Rick beat me to it.
I used to work for a DOD contractor and we built a lot of tube structures to mount radar and infrared sensors in our aircraft. They were all made of 4130 tubing and we almost exclusively gas welded them together. Some of the clusters were so complex that they had to be preheated in order to weld them. We also did some TIG welding of 4130, but I preferred oxy-acetylene. It's a lot easier to use on out of position welds. I had so much torch time that stepping up to TIG was pretty seamless. Don't do much gas welding any more though, my oxy-acetylene welder gets used mostly for cutting off exhaust systems and loosening stubborn fasteners.
Tom
I used to work for a DOD contractor and we built a lot of tube structures to mount radar and infrared sensors in our aircraft. They were all made of 4130 tubing and we almost exclusively gas welded them together. Some of the clusters were so complex that they had to be preheated in order to weld them. We also did some TIG welding of 4130, but I preferred oxy-acetylene. It's a lot easier to use on out of position welds. I had so much torch time that stepping up to TIG was pretty seamless. Don't do much gas welding any more though, my oxy-acetylene welder gets used mostly for cutting off exhaust systems and loosening stubborn fasteners.
Tom