"Lay Wire Method"

I was checking out the "Lay Wire" video on the tips and tricks site. Nice looking welds. Wondering if anyone has tried this and can add to the explaination of how it works. The video is very short and doesn't really explain too much. Not sure how to read into the artical on the tips and tricks site......

I have a couple of questions if anyone is familiar with this type of application.

1-will this work for aluminum?
2-looks like an initial pass is done first before the lay wire is used...is this the case?
3-would you tack the start of the weld and then pull on the wire to keep it tight to the work as you go?

The picture attached is my latest efforts trying to master aluminum. I have a long way to go but making some progress. This is a holder for my fishing net that will be bolted to my boat. This project and the difficulty I am having in laying nice fillet welds is what has got me thinking about the "Lay Wire" method. It may be more difficult than a regular fillet weld but if I am not having to worry about adding the rod I may be able to make a nicer looking weld with this method. Am I barking up the wrong tree on this one or what?

thanks in advance ........wayne

Welding around pipe can be a PITA, unless you have a turntable to rotate the object. The turntable let's you keep a comfortable position while welding, the lay method should work for most any metal if you control the puddle.

Hi WWW, doin fine there buddy, just keep at it. Filet tube to flat takes a lot of practice to get machine like welds without a turn table. You have to learn to manipulate the torch around the radius while maintaining torch angle, arc to the proper spot, and your stand off height as you follow the radius, all at once.

It helps in the begining to do a lot of "rehearsal" moves to see how your range of motion is etc. It doesn't really help much if ya have to stop every inch or so to reposition your torch hand, so rehearse the movements to make sure ya can make a certain distance without straining. Sometimes i like to if possible, once tacked, lay the piece over, so your torch palm is resting on the tube portion. Posisition your tungsten at about halfway down the "away" side of the filet so your working up and around to the left ( or reversed if your left handed welder). That way your palm naturaly pivots and is supported. Be prepared as you come around the top to lean your head in and way to the side to see your puddle as you come down until your tungsten angle becomes to extreme. This is how we weld any frame type tubing, at many joints.

As for Lay wire on aluminum, good luck with that! If your getting enough heat for proper penetration etc. and leave the rod lay at the very foot of the arc cone the rod wil want to just ball up faster than your base metal melts.
I suppose if you use big honkin rod and lite guage material ya could do it but it ends up looking like toothpaste weld. Notice how slowly and controled the arc is moved along the seam on the video. Just nibbling off the rod little by little. Low control heat there, lingering long enough to get melt in. Makes a neat lap seam weld on steel tho! especially with higher freq pulse to help you keep from washing over or cutting into the top edge. Just my humble O.

Thanks Trackmaster.....I will try your approach with the tack and lean. I was only getting about a half an inch or so of welding before I had to reposition myself so I think I will have better luck applying your methods. I will try a test piece this weekend...........wayne

Sounds good Wayne hope that helps. It is probably one of, if not the most torch manipulating welds you can do so just go at it. Someone could explain it six ways from sunday, but it's just about hood time! - peace, Lou

Track,

The lay wire method also includes some "pushing of the rod" as go along. You don't just put the rod down and add the arc. Rather, you keep sliding the rod as needed into the puddle. I've used it fairly well. It takes a little practice, because it isn't a steady feed.

I usually can't get the lay wire to work with aluminum, for reasons stated by trackmaster. But there was one case where I did get it to work on aluminum. I kind of surprised myself when I stumbled across it! I had completed the first pass of welding together two pop cans, and was wanting to try a second pass which would just "build-up" on top of the first. I used (rather successfully!) the "lay wire" technique with indeed a relatively large diameter filler rod (it was 3/32" IIRC, which is way big for the super thin aluminum pop can!), and the operation was strictly a "build-up" metal pass. I had the cleaning turned way up so the arc heat was being spread way out and penetration was relatively shallow. The filler rod melted in nicely at about the same rate as the surface of the metal melted.

I was later thinking if I had time to experiment with this "aluminum lay wire" some more, I would try some low frequency pulse settings with this and see if I might be able to come up with an "automated" stack of dimes look.

Hi Mark, thanx for the tips! Was that in regard to using the lay wire technique on aluminum? Just wasn't sure from your post. I would imagine it would take some pushing to prevent the rod ball up. I'll have to try that some more i spose, ..... I like it on steel, and ends up with a nice and tight, solid weld.

I dont think that lay wire would be very functional on aluminum because it just dosnt flow like steel or SS. The only time I use the lay wire method is when walking the cup. I dont manipulate the rod, If it is melting to fast I go up in the size of the filler and if it blobs up I go down in size, it also depends on what size bead you plan to make, I apply pressure down on the rod so it is some what bent and parallel with the surface I am welding and start working the cup. If I knew how to post a video i would maybe I'll try to figure it out

I am wondering if an idea I have will work for welding aluminum tube to flat. I have noticed at the supply store that I get my aluminum from that they sell round tubing that will slide into the next size up. In other words the one inch od will slide into the 1 1/4" with a fairly nice fit. What would happen if I was to take the larger pipe and cut a 1/8" slice off it so I was to end up with a nice ring that could slip over my main tube and just kind of melt that into the flat that I am welding to. I propably would not need to add any rod and I am thinking it may let me get penatration without melting my rod to early in the process like the lay wire would want to do. I could just go out to the shop and try this but I do not have the over sized piece of tubing to slip over the stock I have at hand. Just a thought I have here, and its probably a dumb idea but thought I would run it by some welders out there to see if its worth trying (if its not going to work I won't buy the oversized tubing)..............wayne