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Grinding down seam welds

A

abrahamfh

Active Member
What have you all found to be the most effective method for removing bad seam welds.

It has been said, the first step to becoming a good welder is mastering the grinder. LoL!

Yup, shock tower welds have got to go (havn't cried like this since Titanic).


a6cd8a2e-34cc-fd67.jpg
 
40 grit flap disks on a 4-1/2" grinder works great for taking a weld down quick... Heat shouldn't be a problem there so it should be fine. Keep moving around too minimize heat build up, and always work on the peaks versus the flats to work them down faster.

If the 4-1/2" disks are too large to fit in the area, then a right angle grinder with 2" 36 grit disks will work well. With the 2" disks, when the edges wear down, you can trim them with scissors down to a slightly smaller octagonal shape to get a lot more life out of them.

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Never seen the items that Steve posted. Those look kinda cool! +1 on stangg's suggestion also on 40 grit flap disks. I love'm! Between the smaller disks he posted a pic of (again I prefer 40 grit for those too), flap disks and cut off wheels I can never have enough on hand!

I know it wasn't mentioned, but the pic of the right angle grinder shows a carbide burr installed in it. They come in various styles and sizes. They can be very useful for getting into tight places and work quickly. A word of caution with them; use gloves, long sleeves, goggles AND face shield. Also blow away grinding debris from yourself frequently. The burr produces very small slivers as it cuts, which get EVERYWHERE! I had a weld in a very enclosed area that I couldn't get any of my grinding disks into. The first time I used the burr I didn't have long sleeves. I then took my gloves off and brushed of what I initially thought was metal dust. Stupid me! After digging VERY annoying metal slivers out of my hands for the next week I learned! Duhhhhhh! :roll
 
I usually use a hard wheel for big stuff like that to rough it in, then go with a flexible 36 grit to smooth it some before using any filler, I tried a flap wheel for the first time recently and wasn't all that impressed with the cutting speed. Those wheels Opentracker posted look pretty interesting though. I'll have to give one of those a try.

What are your plans for finishing that area?
 
I like carbide burrs, especially in a confined area like that:
http://www.burrs4less.com/
They cut fast, but cool. For a flat area, though, they're pretty hard to control and can leave the surface wavey with lows and highs. For what you showed I think they'd work well.
 
But for what he is wanting to grind out, most of the disks are too large. I would recommend using a standard 4-1/2" cut off disk. The same one you were using to your steel.

I use those a LOT for grinding down humps and recutting a line - such as you are wanting to do. Use the edge of the cut off disk to basically slice through your welded seam to re-expose that existing joint. Then use the same cutoff wheel in a sweeping type motion to take the remaining ridge down. You don't have to remove exvery bit of it, but try to remove most of it.

Just go easy with it on the sweeping motion, not a lot of presure - just let the disc do the cutting through and hold a very steady hand.
 
Thinking outside the box, instead of grinding those welds down, why don't you do the opposite and weld them down? If you have access to a TIG or know a good TIG welder, you could heat them without adding filler metal and put a nice stack of dime pattern in them as well.
 
Thanks guys for all your suggestions. Awesome to get all that good info out there for guys like me. LoL.

So, I jumped right into the shock towers today with a 4-1/2" Dewalt and a 3" Cut Off tool loaded with cut off wheels.

I tried the sanding discs but it didn't work due to the location of the welds. Those that you have pictured John look really cool, WoW! Ponyman66 I know exactly what you mean in regards to never having enough cut off wheels, or at least it seemed like that last week when they were disintegrating every thirty seconds. ZFORCE, I wish I had a TIG welder, that suggestions sounds really cool and would probably work extremely well and look amazing. I wouldn't mind picking one of those carbide bits up but will have to do it through that link you posted, don't think anyone local carries them(not that I have seen at least).
 
"70_Fastback" said:
But for what he is wanting to grind out, most of the disks are too large. I would recommend using a standard 4-1/2" cut off disk. The same one you were using to your steel.

I use those a LOT for grinding down humps and recutting a line - such as you are wanting to do. Use the edge of the cut off disk to basically slice through your welded seam to re-expose that existing joint. Then use the same cutoff wheel in a sweeping type motion to take the remaining ridge down. You don't have to remove exvery bit of it, but try to remove most of it.

Just go easy with it on the sweeping motion, not a lot of presure - just let the disc do the cutting through and hold a very steady hand.
Click to expand...

Thanks J, followed your instructions to the "T". So far so good, having to be really careful but it's working.
 
"Ponyman66" said:
A word of caution with them; use gloves, long sleeves, goggles AND face shield. Also blow away grinding debris from yourself frequently. The burr produces very small slivers as it cuts, which get EVERYWHERE! I had a weld in a very enclosed area that I couldn't get any of my grinding disks into. The first time I used the burr I didn't have long sleeves. I then took my gloves off and brushed of what I initially thought was metal dust. Stupid me! After digging VERY annoying metal slivers out of my hands for the next week I learned! Duhhhhhh! :roll
Click to expand...

LoL. Sorry to hear but that's an awesome restoration experience to share. Love it. I did notice that, regardless of how much protection I had I still ended up with tons of itchy metal dust on the back of my neck. Yeesh!
 
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