The Worst Welds We've EVER Seen

[@ZILAwelds]

well, always push, dont pull the weld, always vertical up never down, go in a straight line, no gun manipulation and high argon flow rates are your friend ...... just in a nutshell

[@chrisguice139]

explain downhill pipe certs and drag for slag

[@yonmusak]

@@chrisguice139 Isn't that just a pipeline 'thing'?

[@chrisguice139]

@@yonmusak Drag for slag is a term describing welding process that leaves slag that creates the cover gas. SMAW.FCAW. when you put the puddle in front of the gas you loose the cover gas. When I build tanks out of 3/16 plate I keep an open root of about 1/16 adjust machine settings using hard wire mig. drag down hill .40 years of welding has taught me adjust the welding process to the job.

[@yonmusak]

@@chrisguice139 Many thanks for the explanation!

[@chrisguice139]

@@yonmusak Glad I could help.Best wishes

[@Kneedeepingore]

Strop dragging, weaving and bobbing. Pushweld aluminium. With a slight angle with the gun/torch

[@jonathanfletcher8184]

That’s what I’m here to say

[@ATM589]

+1 Push wire pull stick.

[@zf4120]

Was getting horrible welds with spool gun until I saw a internet comment like this to push. That single simple change fixed the welds and they came out super nice after.

[@skwerlz]

The original welds are what happen when you forget to turn on the gas. As a couple other people mentioned you PUSH aluminum mig, you get way less spatter and it wets in much better. No patterns needed, just pull the trigger and move in a straight line, this stuff freezes faster than 6010.

[@frankc9796]

Very cool that you gave an update on the original welders skill level. 👍

[@nekoroms]

sensible person would just decline any practice welds that would go down the road

[@denttech2515]

It's cool that he was open enough to come forward. Wish more people were like that

[@Kawika88]

Another training session. This guys take the time to get it right. Thanks guys.

[@mrdddeeezzzweldor5039]

Man...one of THOSE jobs you never expect to survive to come to you for repair! I like Aaron's style - I like to wear ear muffs pretty much all the time in my shop. Helps with my concentration and peace of mind!

[@baronclime6423]

Here in my local area of south central Kentucky, for a decade or two we were known for our houseboat industry. The hulls and railings were all MIG welded aluminum. Pretty much Miller machines were all used in production with Cobramatic push-pull torches with leads up to around 30 feet. I guess it was to meet expectations of what someone would thing welded aluminum looks like but every visible bead had to be the old stacked dime bead. Lake Lanier in Georgia and Lake Cumberland here in KY are probably the largest collection of boats from all the factories. The economy changed and most of the factories closed. Some merged and now live on as a small conglomerate type thing I guess. I would have loved to have bought some of the equipment from them. It was a good job getting out of high school in the mid to late 90's. Especially on road crew/service. Delivering the boats and spending your summer on the lake was great in the summer. Service jobs were even better and less restrictive. Spent most of the time driving from small job to the next doing service. Good times. I guess the point of this mess is the HTP has some nice features and they are nice machines but are not necessary to MIG aluminum.

[@thirdgearboogie2210]

Best WTF challenge of 2024 appreciate the ending 🤘

[@RichardUnger-fo1lv]

I didn't know just how good my welds look until now. I am a self taught welder and not a good teacher either. somehow my welds just improved at least 4 times in the course of one video. Thank You.

[@LiftArcStudios]

Hahahah glad we could help buddy! Keep on welding, that's the only way any of us got any good at it!

[@TheTrueCelt28]

Nice work. I have that same table saw! glad to see it still around.

[@HenningMogensen-fx3mw]

I'm not a welder, but even I could see that was a bad weld. So much fun to watch. I was a carpenter and we have a wood that is so hard we use metal-tools to cut it. And I have cut some alu too with woodworking tools

[@dangroce82]

Those aluminum blades are called a “triple chip” style. The first tip is cut at a 45 degree angle, one third in on each side, and is approximately .005” shorter than the next tip. The second tip is cut square. The first tip is meant to make the bulk of the cut, while the second tip cleans it out and cuts the corners.

[@stevenginnever5343]

Great video, my problem is I was about to buy a spool gun for aluminium. I do like the idea of a short distance from wire spool to tip, to avoid bird nesting. Also being able to use long cable and pipe runs. The mig set up looks great, but I do feel you would be very limited on cable length. Have you tried other spool guns, other than the one you didn't like.

[@Urchfab]

Nothing worse than fixing bodge jobs but you got it sorted, good job! Next time use the pulse or double pulse function with hot start and crator fill, 4t trigger mode. You'll be amazed at the results. Cheers.

[@LiftArcStudios]

Thanks Matt! Excellent advice!

[@fngrusty42]

Brother, you have not seen the worst in welding. Until you've seen mine.

[@ghostdog662]

I am glad the old "welds" chipped off with a chisel cleanly.

[@cae2487]

Im disappointed in youtube. It never gives me lift arc notifications. The only plus is i have hours of content to catch up on.

[@mercifulcreations3162]

that’s the ole “did it in the rain with a stick and a tractor battery”

[@hugegamer5988]

I mean that’s pretty good using a pine branch, but next time splurge for some actual welding rods.

[@hammer1212]

Push when welding Alum!

[@hinrik4]

"Maybe we shouldn't show the company's name" 13 seconds later it's not blurred 😂 13:12

[@LiftArcStudios]

That wasn't actually the logo from their company 😅 but went ahead and fixed that blur anyways, just in case... thanks for the heads up! - Walker

[@iainhetherington4608]

Teflon liner in the torch lead and the rollers are half round to stop squishing the wire good luck Good tip to use any old candles and wax your grinders discs to help cutting and grinding Cheers from Aus

[@Demonlord468]

Using a little WD-40 prolongs the life of blades as well as improves and speeds up cuts on aluminum. Just a tip from 23+ years experience as well as every old timer I ever learned from when working with Aluminum. Also always preheat your starts and into your welds on Aluminum Spool gun/MIG. Even in some cases with thick 6061 TIG will give better results. TIG however preheating can be done with your TIG torch if done correctly.

[@JasonAttaway]

For how bad it was y'all did a grate job, not to mention that it was the first time you used a aluminum MiG welder, so for what its worth great job.

[@Taints2k2]

MR-1 !!!!! I cannot wait for you guys to crack that open!! Been contemplating that since its release!

[@meusana3681]

You know its bad when you can chisel away the weld and still have the parent material untouched.

[@nmopzzz]

I dont see any issues here. Compared to some of my welds, these look pretty good. If you just crank the power really high, it will burn through the dirt and grime so you don't really need to clean.

[@rwarren4757]

Seen the kid's pictures at the end, they are all steel welds and are looking great, but aluminum is a whole different animal. I got to admit I'm impressed those goobers he put down stuck. At least he can say he glued two pieces of aluminum together; I can't say the same

[@2000jago]

was gonna make the same observation myself... let's see his aluminum welds now....

[@szanujmysie]

no, those steel "welds" looks horrible too, looks like he is not sure what he is doing. And yes, I can do better than him, even though I don't have much experience with welding. It's not only about experience. When you do a shit job for entire life, it will not magically improve by it's self. You need to THINK. Wonder what did I do wrong and how to improve it. Not just do the same thing over and over and hope it's gonna start to be something good

[@ronallen6578]

Tay, I always wondered what happen to you and the crew from Salvage Dogs. Loved that show and was truly sad when it ended. I may just have to check this out. Good luck in your business. Tell everyone at BD hello. Ron

[@robertblackshear8963]

😂😂😂😂Man those welds came in looking like Mr. Magoo welded them while playing the violin.😂😂😂

[@repairtech9320]

I heard that welder in other videos and with the pulse settings it sounds like a trumpet and welds like magic.

[@skaiidawg]

Well done. I would have put in small gussets as well just for more rigidity to cater for forward and backward forces.

[@tompalmer8049]

Do you charge by the hour for consultation time?

[@cedarman211]

Totally bought a shirt!! Happy to help.

[@jayc4562]

You can use a teflon liner. I use a MT800 spool gun on a 250 amp ESAB mig master. I see miller has some welders that work good but they are expensive, Not to say ESAB was cheap. What I have is older technology.

[@Mad-Duk_Machine_Werkes]

You guys arent used to working on Other tradesmens work trucks, OBVIOUSLY - if theyre in the field, and something breaks, they jam a screw in it, drill a hole and pop rivet, chewing gum, spit & Bailing wire, zip ties, etc - Your repair looks good, I would say if you think about the forces on those triangle brackets you welded directly to the new strips, every time they hit the gas at a light in that truck with several hundreds of pounds of GLASS on the racks, those flat plates are going to flex, every time they hit the brakes, they will flex more, the welds are just a flat plate in a T configuration, sideways and will eventually fail again within a year or less- Gussets wouldve helped, also dont use regular plain black socket headed allens face up to catch and fill with rain water, regular hex-head bolts wouldve been fine- it's a work truck, not a race car

[@melgross]

Temporary repairs are fine, but this was botched all over. It was more than a point failure and repair. Besides, poor welds are still poor welds no matter when they were made. I agree about the socket screws, unless they were stainless. But there’s no reason to have a little pot to hold water.

[@gixxerkid3120]

I have had some pretty bad welds walk through the door of our shop as well, the worst one was a weld that I peeled up with a set of chanel locks, absolutely zero pen.😢 good job fighting trough the pigeon shit...😂😂😂 Chris @ T-Town Welding and Fab.

[@jclay6680]

I saw a person run a bead and was able to peal it off with plyers . 😂

[@MrMertstube]

Always push when mig aluminum for proper gas shielding.

[@chainsawcanuck]

Once went to go fix a prep sink at a chain restaurant here in Canada.. The owner apparently had his buddy fix a leaking sink he "knew goe to weld" in my mind it was a 10 minute fix with a tig welder. The guy apparently spend 22 hours on it trying Stainless mig, Stainless stick 🤦 It was such a mess, they called us to fix.. Repair was so bad I said no, but we built them a new 2 compartment sink.. So good for us.. Lol

[@GRiMMxGT]

only weld machine i used is a fronius cmt tps machine has all the settings built into just adjust to your liking the torch is abit uncomfortable but you get used to it

[@Guds777]

And then the owner we're gonna place a glass or Granit or what ever panels on the rack that can weigh up to 6-800kg ( 12-1600 pounds ) And that was driving beside you all in the traffic. Classic...

[@yendoromega1]

you mentioned penetration but arent aluminum welds surface welds?

[@smokeybeardco]

I’ve had some pretty horrible repair welding come in my shop to get fixed. One time an old cowboy brought in a piece off a crop sprayer to get fixed ( that he welded on I bet 4 times before) and it was by far the worst pigeon shit welding is ever seen. When I was done repairing it I asked him to bring his sprayer to fit the piece back on and I asked him to bring his welder as well…..he asked why he needed to bring his welding machine? …..I said “ cause I’m gonna run it the fuck over with my truck!!!!” He just laughed and has been a repeat customer for years haha. He doesn’t fix anything himself any more. 😅

[@TayWhiteside]

amazing!!

[@hugegamer5988]

If these are the worst welds you have seen, you might want to look at many of the vehicles fabricated during WWII. These are pretty good by comparison, and I’ve ridden in one on a short distance and lived!

[@LiftArcStudios]

We're glad you're still with us!

[@willgallatin2802]

The shop steward that let that out the door should really look into a set of glasses. A new young welder is one thing. A steward not checking their work is quite another. I'm glad to see the young man is working hard to grow his skills.

[@colt45lmer]

for future those bedliners are like rubbery and just pull out from under the top rail. Also if needed the only thing really holding it in are the tiedown bolts. installed hundreds of those shty things at a dealer. Also would recommend getting rid of it if anyone has one. they rub the paint off and then trap water to rust away the bed and frame.....

[@guyfranks4354]

17:45 That company does not work with any metal, other than to remove aluminium windows and doors. So thats a good excuse for the crappy welds and assembly of the racks.

[@LiftArcStudios]

True!

[@anthonyhinson1269]

Great video

[@KZ-yy9pm]

Open up that MR-1 already!

[@austinburtch5972]

Yea! Forget welding.... Let's check out the langmuir systems MR-1! Cool video tho.

[@Jim37176]

Aluminum blades also have a negative rake angle on the teeth so they don't dig in so much, different than wood working blades.

[@Hu88le]

That’s how professionals do it!

[@deepwinter77]

Peter Zila is a wizard a setting mig up for aluminum.

[@fredmercury1314]

11:20 They're rivets. _Just drill them out and life the cage up on some blocks._ Rivets aren't expensive.

[@JohnBare747]

Those old weld beads shown at the end looked like aluminum turds! Turds of a weld for sure. Aaron did a great job fixing the mess that was that rack. pre-heating to get a better start is a secret mostly because people are too lazy to bother with it. Out of sight out of mind!

[@ronaldbrown2854]

18:10 “I don’t know what that means”. You are correct sir. 🥃

[@paulstimpson830]

"Geologic formation..." That's what my friend would have referred to as a "bird s..t weld"

[@LiftArcStudios]

We had to come up with creative terms to keep our monetization but your friend is spot on!

[@Knautschfriese]

I visit LARP and Medieval Events regularly as a LEather Worker. I often repair Shoes, Leather Belts and Pouches. Small Stuff, but the People I help are really grateful, and I never run out of Beer :-D

[@Kawika88]

Hey! That's my weld! I know because I re-did it three times!

[@CanyonArchaic]

It's more expensive, but TIG A/C really is the way to go. Plus it creates a good skill to boot. I like mig aluminum. But it just never felt right

[@denttech2515]

I would have told them to clean the bed out first. I've been in the auto repair business (PDR) for nearly 23 years. I can't stand it when people have a whole bunch of junk right in the area of the repair. I wouldn't pay someone to cook my dinner and have them do my dishes first. Recently, I had to remove the liner inside a trunk (the dent was on the quarter panel by the gas door). When i opened the trunk, it was filled top to bottom and front to back. I kept my composure, but about blew my lid. It's just common sense respect. Especially when they want it done as affordable as possible

[@5ivearrows]

We can all sleep better and feel completely safe about the fact that all of us are driving behind loads secured by welds and jury rigged quick fixes like this all the time.

[@tenthplanet3342]

Definitely need to get the rack off, drill out rivets remove base's, measure, for spacing to match where base was and weld it to the rack after brackets all squared off to the base, clamp the base to each side of the bracketsb4 welding lift rack reverse truck underneath to place on bed than bolt or rvit base back to bed

[@bigdavedownunder]

Lol you've never seen my welds

[@LiftArcStudios]

We all started somewhere! Keep it up though, welding is great!

[@jrperez3088]

Push dammit dont pull! You're driving me crazy

[@willsmith1988]

Nice Langmuir MR1 CNC gantry mill

[@tomwichman77]

You spent a lot of time ranking on some guy that is just trying to get to his real job. He knew he needed it done right, and when he found you, he ran with it. But huge kudos to him for figuring out how to get to work the next day, in spite of his lack of knowledge in your particular field. I lost a lot of respect for this channel today.

[@deezelfairy]

Yeah, generally not a good idea to punch-down on your customers - make a habit of that and word soon gets about. Dude doesn't need telling how shit his welding is, that's why he's brought it to them. Shut the fuck up, be humble, do the job your customers paying you to do.

[@swenwesselink4500]

Dijkstra did alright welding aluminium but push it and that heating up is always better cos aluminium needs a lot of heat.

[@bob-the-Millwright]

We call it "Fully committed to a lost cause" these days it seems every job coming in the door looks like this.

[@not_youngjustice3717]

23:29 work actually begins

[@AlAmantea]

I'm not even sure you could call that poop "welding"! I also now know that if I ever run into anything remotely close to this, I can just use a chisel and a hammer to get rid of it. no grinder necessary!

[@seabreezecoffeeroasters7994]

Slightly Negative rake blade for the saws for Acrylic and or Aluminum is well worth the $$.

[@MaybeCornbread]

The worst welding deserves the worst camera work.

[@TheOneAndOnlySame]

Modern art is to Art what internet memes are to philosophy

[@marc49lewis]

I am NOT a welder, but a certified soldering tech. This is perhaps the WORST weld job I've ever seen in my 55+ years in the business of repairs, including industrial work. Whatever company did that original wannabe welding should have their business license revoked. Disgusting.

[@LiftArcStudios]

It's amazing right? Not all of us around the shop are weld experts either but some of those are so bad you can tell they're dangerous from half a mile away.

[@frankconsidine5989]

I had a guy that brought a trailer in that was that bad. I had to charge for redoing of everything

[@liferuinerTV]

As a welder/fabricator of 95% aluminum work, ripping aluminum on a table saw is still my least favorite past time

[@johnversluis3084]

its cool that you allowed him tell him he to save face he is rooking welder but use 100% argon and not mixed gas

[@wvrockcrusher]

Push your MIG welds, don't pull. You don't need to weave, but you can use a whip and pause on heavier alum. Use some pulse, enough gas to get a clean weld, and just play around with your machine to find what settings works the best for your situation.

[@dr.feelgood2358]

customer states: "I can't figure out why the welds broke?...they looked solid to me!" frankly I think everyone would be better off with just not welding it. decently sized bolts through angle pieces to tie the vertical members to the base. problem solved

[@brodin667]

are we just going to ignore the MR-1 in the box or what??!!!

[@melgross]

Yup!

[@melgross]

I’ve never seen welds this bad. They just popped off when hit. I don’t know what to call them, calk maybe? I wonder if whoever made these even knew to weld with pure argon and possibly used 75/25?

[@NamelessLamb]

The art piece should be called "$60 an hour"

[@jeffwilliams8277]

I'm not a welder and I can tell how bad that is. The welds came apart with no penetration. The hardware was the only thing holding it together.

[@LiftArcStudios]

Yeah it's pretty scary because it's not just hobbyists that are doing these, it's huge plants overseas that don't hire weld inspectors in order to cut costs.

[@lelandclayton5462]

Those welds won't last long. As soon as that truck hits a good bump it will flex and crack the welds. I would of used angle brackets, grade 8 bolts, washers and nylon locking nuts.

[@majstealth]

on the other side - a thing like this would never be allowed on a german street

[@therealchayd]

In before "As a professional welder with over 30 years experience...."

[@flyingmaniac3827]

they make by metal, not just aluminum use them all the time to cut aluminum, but wood carbide work just as fine just don't push it to fast or ill grab and you will have a bad day. that's chit weld no doubt about it.

[@CrimeVid]

I'd like to see you guys do the job properly, I think you should weld that thing back on with gas welding techniques

[@LiftArcStudios]

That's an excellent idea for a follow up video for sure! We could show how you fix these kind of welds or how you do them right from the jump.

[@dhmetalworks8832]

These videos are really hard for me to watch. Three guys who don’t know how to weld aluminum spending forever setting up a machine from a manual then standing around talking shit about someone else’s work who is likely the customer that did the shitty work lol. Then they stand around forever again trying to decide how to go about the repair. Guys get to work and get it done. This is typical daily shit in a fab shop you don’t need to have a meeting of the minds on how to repair it

[@ZapachGaminG]

bruh, im not a welder, I use AC electrode welding, it was very cheap, cheap electrodes, welding only metal. My welding looks sooo awful. I don't exercise in welding. If i welded something and it has strong hold - for me its OK. btw i only weld for myself, and if someone needs right now and right here.

[@LiftArcStudios]

It's a great place to start though! Hit us up if you ever need any recommendations or advice!

[@jdsstegman]

By boss bought a trailer from a local trailer company and it had welds like this. It was awful. He took it back and all they said was there is a 2 year warreny and they will not do anything unitll a weld breaks Trust me, I'm not a welder but it will brake. Everything thing from melting threw to just melting it on top of the metal.

[@LiftArcStudios]

Yeah, especially when they're that bad you can spot them, you don't have to be a F-1 driver to know how a car works.

[@greekgods3399]

love it

[@pobesnelikrastavac1]

You haven't seen my welds....

[@LiftArcStudios]

WE HAVE FAITH IN YOU!

[@chrisduston9365]

Always push welding ali and increase gas flow.

[@Shadow6a]

Y'all just jealous of those beads and rivets! 👀🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@dugbennett7461]

Flip the blade works a lot better worke at a few junk yards an have used it to cut extrude alum

[@WilliamEllison]

There's a lot of pointless talking in this video, but if you skip to 21:20, you'll finally see them doing some actual work. You might need to fast-forward through all the chatter.

[@LiftArcStudios]

You don't love the soothing sounds of Aaron's smooth voice?!

[@WilliamEllison]

@@LiftArcStudios I just like to watch people work and time-lapse. He has a fine voice.

[@joonashannila8751]

Looks almost like someone tried to weld aluminum with non-aluminum stuff? To me that looks exactly how that could look like?

[@LiftArcStudios]

Never seen welds like this before, they were WILDDDD

[@Bennetts_Fabrication_Welding]

For the love of Valhalla, wear a damn respirator when welding aluminum. Your older self will thank you when you dont get lung cancer from welding

[@hlq2action310]

It had no welds, it had brazings.

[@melgross]

Not even that. Razing sticks.