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One of the topics that causes a lot of difficulties for beginners to practice welding is loop welding. In today's article, we will give you a lot of good hinge tips. Read to the end, and you will have no more difficulty welding loops.
We always start by marking the parts of the hinges. The loop consists of 2 parts, colloquially called mom and dad. The part with the pin is the male, the part with the hole is the female.
We make risks or stripes with a marker on any one part, on dads or only on mums. This is for the convenience of subsequent installation. so that each time they do not separate and do not look where which part.
It will not be superfluous to lubricate the insides of the hinges with grease or graphite grease. After welding the loops, grease again, the first grease burns out, flows out. Primary lubrication is done so that when tacking the loops, the discharge inside does not slip between dad and mom. Then they are welded and do not rotate.
The hinges must be welded strictly along one axis. Therefore, before tacking, you need to make some kind of guide for this. A simple option is to take the professional pipe evenly and place and grab the loops along it.
On doors, gates, gates, hinges must be welded so that part of the hinge with a pin (dad) looks up. If you do the opposite, then moisture will still penetrate into the part of the loop in a barrel (mother) and over time, rust and wedging of the loops will begin.
When tacking hinges to a door or gate frame, a gap must be made between the plane of the box and the hinge itself. This is necessary so that the movable part of the loop (mother) rotates freely and does not cling to the box. It is better to make potholders at the ends of the loop. Then the potholder is cut off from the mother.
The gap can be done with whatever is convenient for you and what is at hand. You can take a metal plate, a cutting disc from a grinder, wind copper or aluminum wire on a loop. Some people put on quick-clamping plastic clips, put matches. There are a lot of options.
But also pads, platycs, flags, many different names can be welded to the hinges from the beginning. Then, naturally, there is no need to set the gap. Platic is a gap and an amplifier rolled into one.
Even after tacking the loops, you need to check the alignment in the horizontal plane. They check with the same professional pipe that we had with the guide.
First, hinges, plaques, gates or doors are well gripped with each other. Then cut off the potholders of the door itself to the box and check how it turns on its hinges. If all is well, without wedging, put the potholders back and weld the loops completely.
They do not boil all the seams at once on each loop, but alternate the seam on one, the next seam on the other. And they just do not rush, they let the seams cool down before the next welding. This is all to prevent strong deformations from thermal expansion. It is also impossible to open it immediately after welding, we will wait until it cools down, otherwise we can get a seizure inside, with subsequent snacks.
Another important tip. Above, I wrote that you need to abundantly lubricate the hinges before tacking and welding with solid oil or graphite grease, so that the loop is not welded inside. But you can do without it, and lubricate after.
It's just that when tacking and welding, every time you need to cling to the mass exactly for that part of the loop (dad or mom) that is tacked or scalded. It is to throw over the mass every time.
If you follow these recommendations, then welding the hinges will not be a problem. I dug up my old photo, it is many years old, it was welding work on alteration of a semi-trailer. I welded the rear gate and welded 3 hinges to each leaf. Everything works to this day, although when driving these hinges are under heavy load, this is not a garage door.
Working with welding loops has many tricks, many craftsmen have developed their own techniques for long practice. The article shows the basic, basic techniques. It will be good if welders share tips with their developments in the comments, beginners and even experienced ones will be happy to learn something new!