Fillet Welds

I've been working on cleaning and organizing my big barn. I rent part of it out to the young man who farms my property. The balance is mostly a disorganized mess. I've been behind the eight ball to a certain extent ever since I left the high school. I had planned on retiring one year later but the heart attack changed that. It also had me dragging some stuff home in a hurry and being on light duty for a while. The Missus had her medical issues that slowed me down and I ended up working more than I planned at the college. Not complaining here, just trying to justify why the barn is such a mess. Now that I'm not working at all, no reason what-so-ever for it to stay that way. In fact, I'm going to look pretty silly having all this time on my hands and not get a few things done around here.

In the photo are some brackets I knocked out the other day. The two large ones are for hanging up my large extension ladder. The other two are for my bike ramp and the track for my track torch. It's just a small step but one in the right direction. I've got a steel rack I'm going to put together and organize my material storage a bit. I'll eventually get it all cleaned up to my satisfaction. I've been retired eight years - no point in hurrying now, I guess.

Detail of one of the welds on the ladder brackets. Fillet weld with the TIG process using 3/32" ER70S-3 filler - that's welder talk right there. If I was to critique this weld, it would certainly be acceptable for the job at hand. However, it's a bit sloppy as a result of being in a bit of a hurry. The right end has a kind of a blob but that's intentional. When you weld a fillet weld like this (a fillet weld being one that is triangular in cross section) best practice is to either come in from both ends and finish some place in the middle of the weld or give the weld some extra material when finishing up the bead to fill the crater to prevent a crack from starting and running back into the weld bead.

Tee or corner joints that will be subjected to movement are susceptible to this type of cracking. On structural steel, especially bridge work, inspectors normally are pretty fussy about filling your craters and wrapping your bead around the end of a component if possible. Likewise the size of the weld must be adhered to closely. Most of this type of construction is governed by the AWS Structural Steel Code and all the welding procedures need to be qualified, or use a AWS prequalified procedure, and the welding personnel must be qualified to the procedure also.

Obviously a couple of brackets to hold up a ladder weighing less that 50 lbs. don't require a WPS (welding procedure specification) but anyone who welds anything needs to remember what's at stake if the weld fails. The cosmetics often are important also - these are getting a coat of paint - but most importantly on this job, things are getting organized.