welding numbers and letters ?

[fortyonethirty]

I need to mark some parts that will be galvanized. They recommend welding the numbers on, like in this picture. Can anyone recommend a process and settings? Can you recommend an other way to mark the parts that might be better?

[snoeproe]

Any process you have will do this. Mark them out with soap stone and weld them.

[That Guy There]

soap stone or a scribe. I think a scribe will work best depending on the welding process you use.

[walker]

I find I get nicer letters with stick welding than MIG, not sure why, YMMV.

[aevald]

Hello fortyonethirty, IF you can, use stamped tags and wire them on in such a manner that they can be dipped with the part and not lose their identity or orientation. In this manner when the installation or erection of the components takes place they will not be subjected to any negative issues from other forms of identification (welded numbers, directly stamped numbers, this is often done with "low pressure stamps"). It also makes for easy removal if that is an issue.

There may be instances where the aesthetics of erected structures prohibits/limits visible lettering in the form of welding or stamping and so a tagging process and then a marker type identifier onsite will be the preferred method. This is further reinforced by painting/finishing requirements on certain occasions.

If it is important to have the numbering readily visible and as an aid to assembly/erection protocol then weld them as suggested. Just use the same process that is being used to fabricate the items. Good luck and best regards, Allan

[fortyonethirty]

Well, if anyone else needs to do this in the future, I tried everything from 6010 to tig and found that, the pulse spray on my 350p worked the best. Used .035 wire, 90/10 gas, arc length 60, wfs 200.

[Econdron]

There's a lot of other factors that play into this... Material thickness? Condition of material? What is the goal? Best looking letters, or fastest method of laying them down?

[bent]

This is about the only welding application where 6013 rod excels. Run it as cold as you can keep it lit.

[fortyonethirty]

There's a lot of other factors that play into this... Material thickness? Condition of material? What is the goal? Best looking letters, or fastest method of laying them down?

Speed, quality, and ease of clean up where the factors that seemed most important to me. Pulse spray won in every category on the material i am working with, hot roll 1/4" steel.

[docwelder]

in the fab shop i got pretty good at putting letters and numbers on machine parts and road plates. a stainless sick rod was my preference.

[lotechman]

I vote on the tags... Make sure you have good stamps that make a legible image even after dipping. it is really important that you use heavy wire because of handling. Thin wire can break off in stacking and handling. Leave everything loose so that the liquid zinc can coate everything on all sides.
There is a zinc resist crayon but anyone I have talked to said it was not any good. I have not seen the results but apparently the numbers show through the zinc coating.

[pistolnoon]

Stamp set

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