"mongke" wrote in message ...
Hi all

Is there some secret to make fillet welds with gas? I can never melt the
root of the joint, and if I get enthusiastic with the torch I get holes
through the pieces. By now I can make passable butt, corner an lap joint
welds, but fillet defies me.

Any advice thanked in advance

Mongke

I've done this with some fairly heavy stuff(no stick welder), I was
joining some channel to some angle iron for an engine dolly, the root
was probably 1/2" thick. I found that you need a LOT of heat, 1 or 2
tip sizes more than the tip chart calls for. It's easy to crank the
gas down on a big tip, but with a too-small one, once you get it
turned up too far, it just blows the metal around and makes it tough
to do a good job. Goes through the tanks fast, too. I'd never done
it before so the beginning of the weld was pretty nasty, the end
looked pretty good. Got the angle grinder out, grooved out the bad
part and redid it and it looked pretty decent. You have to keep the
flame longer on the thicker parts and if you let the molten pool cool
too far, it's a bugger getting restarted. I don't have good
electrical service in this rental place, probably stick would have
been the way to go if I'd had the resources. Would certainly be
cheaper. There's a usenet welding group that would probably have some
better technique recommendations, I just play with things until they
work for me, changing one variable at a time. Keep your tips shined
up, the radiated heat from the corner makes it easy for the tip to pop
out if it's dark and dirty.

Stan