Often welding is split into 2 different categories of thought: structural welding and artistic welding. This differentiation has caused a lot of welders to assume some welding techniques can only be used while wearing a beret and holding a painter’s palette. The simple truth is, many techniques commonly labeled “artistic” are great ways to make your projects look much more appealing.
It’s not what’s on the inside, it’s the outside that matter
Some of the most beautiful welding pieces ever created would look absolutely horrible if you turned them inside-out. Artistic welding is all about placing your solid, heavy-duty welds where no one will see them. For example, Let’s take welding 2 pieces together at a corner joint. On the outside of the joint, you can do a nice, thin bead right along the seam. Once you’ve finished, you can clean your weld up so it almost looks like the two pieces were fabricated together. However, structurally this won’t be very sound. So on the inside of the joint where no one will see, you can do a big fat fill-in weld. By combining a strong, nasty-looking structural weld on the inside and a clean-looking artistic weld on the outside, your workpeice will be both aesthetically pleasing and structurally sound.
The Grinder Is Your Best Friend
After you finish a weld, don’t be afraid to take the grinder to any uneven surfaces or spatter. Often, normal grinding wheels can cause unsightly scratches. If you find this happening, try using a deburring wheel. This is a special spongy wheel that has less teeth than your normal grinding wheel. This allows you to give your welds a nice, smooth finish without scratching up your workpiece.
Artistic welding techniques don’t require you to pass a humanities exam before using them. If you’re doing any sort of work that’s going to be viewed by the public eye, you can really up the wow factor by putting these tips into practice.
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