Chromoly Struts Welds

[P Johnson]

I have been thinking about this for a while but the time is nearing for me to paint the struts, I have the streamline chromoly ones and the welds look pretty ugly to me, I am not a welder. I am wondering what others have done about the welds have you just left them, dressed them (don't like this idea), or filled and sanded them which is my preference and if so what did you use.

Thanks in Advance
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Paul

[Av8r_Sed]

I don't find these welds are objectionable at all and I would leave them as they are. Although I've never heard of cracks developing in these welds, leaving them visible makes inspection straightforward. It looks like the struts are painted nicely and the welds are the last thing anyone would focus on.

[Delta Whisky]

Ditto what Paul said.

[jrevens]

The welds look fine.

[cavelamb]

NEVER grind welds on thin wall tube!
Pretty simple.

[Birdseyeview]

I agree you should never file down welds beads on thin wall tubing. However, If you don't like the way the welds look you can alway cover them up and smooth them out with some Bondo. You may have to use some wool on the existing paint over and around the welds to create a better surface for the Bondo to adhere to. It may also require some light sanding of the Bondo to blend it in and some local repainting depending on how well you apply it. In the end the Bondo may not cover all the welding bumps but it can help improve the overall appearance. The downside is that it could also cover up any potential cracks in the weld due to the induced stresses of future hard landings. However, I'll bet the stress in this weld is pretty low during normal flight loads so cracking under normal flight conditions is probably unlikely.

[cavelamb]

I agree you should never file down welds beads on thin wall tubing. However, If you don't like the way the welds look you can alway cover them up and smooth them out with some Bondo. You may have to use some wool on the existing paint over and around the welds to create a better surface for the Bondo to adhere to. It may also require some light sanding of the Bondo to blend it in and some local repainting depending on how well you apply it. In the end the Bondo may not cover all the welding bumps but it can help improve the overall appearance. The downside is that it could also cover up any potential cracks in the weld due to the induced stresses of future hard landings. However, I'll bet the stress in this weld is pretty low during normal flight loads so cracking under normal flight conditions is probably unlikely.

I won't say NEVER in this case, but I would NOT.
Welds are always something I want to be able to inspect.

[P Johnson]

Thank you for your comments, I will just paint and move on.

Paul.