Welding Tips and Tricks

We all hear about welding history and tech from the western world but not much about Eastern more secretive countries in history.

Russia and historically the Soviet Union have always had access to a lot of Titanium. They also invented underwater welding.

I was reading the other day about when they constructed the titanium hulled Alfa class attack submarine they built massive sealed rooms and filled them with argon gas so that they can weld the hull in a purged atmosphere. The welders had to wear “space suit” like equipment to breath.

Would love to learn more about the things that were done in countries like this that did not have as much access to western

Well I don’t know much of anything about Commie subs but I’ll say one thing. They build ours like that. They leave the whole tanker there and someone plugs it into the building and the welders just work in the environment wearing breathing gear. They swap out trailers as needed.


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drizler1 wrote:Well I don’t know much of anything about Commie subs but I’ll say one thing. They build ours like that. They leave the whole tanker there and someone plugs it into the building and the welders just work in the environment wearing breathing gear. They swap out trailers as needed.

I think you're mistaken. US subs are not titanium-hulled, they're carbon steel. The hulls aren't purge welded either. They're welded from the inside to the outside, 1/16 wire used to weld 2" thick steel plates. One pass at a time, x-rayed every inch, every pass. Then they carbon gouge from the outside and do it in reverse, again, 1/16" wire pass at a time.

Those trailers you see are to fill the tanks, not to "fill a room".

No we never used titanium . I used to clear thr truck drivers at the Canadian border heading to Connecticut with their loads of Argon. The drivers said they just dropped them at buildings where someone plugged them into fittings. I didn’t get a lot of details what they did with the stuff from there . Just mention of workers suiting up and entering some sort of big sealed room and doing what they do.
I had a roommate at school back in the 80s who had worked at the navy facility in California running a civilian crew. He said they when changed the fuel in the Los Angeles class subs back then it was done right at dockside. They just cut a big hole in the side and out came the reactor, module or whatever. Then the welder got on some sort of tiny trolly and went slowly back and forth passing off the stinger to another guy when he got tired. One big long continuous weld . I think he said it took a day or more of big buck boredom. They likely have better ways these days though. That was a long time ago.


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I was submarine crew for many years. It was all HY-80 and Hy-100 steel back then, and I believe that nearly all welding processes were stick, with the exception of TIG for some of the internal systems. I wasn't a welder, that's just my recollection, but it was those welders that first taught me to weld. Those guys (and there was one girl, too) had a rough job. They would basically disappear covered in leathers down a hole with 5-10 pounds of rod, only to reemerge 4-5 hours later to eat a sandwich, have a smoke, and grab another 5 pounds of rod to then return to their hole. Same drill everyday for the most part. I do believe it paid quite well, though.

But our subs are built very differently these days now with the Virginia class. It's all modular construction...basically large sections built offsite and then fitted together in the yard. No idea what the welding process are now.

In Soviet Russia metal welds you. That is all.



Sorry I just couldn't resist




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My welding instructor worked with East Germans in the 80s and said they all had scarred up hands because they welded without gloves most the time. And they were excited to share bananas that were given to them by the company. Even though everyone got as many as they wanted in the break room. Dunno if that's what you were looking for though.