Welding 101

[TheIrishman]

The O/A is actually better for a less experienced welder building his own aircraft, because it's a lot more difficult to produce a bad weld that looks OK with it as opposed to TIG or (ugh) MIG. With O/A, if a weld looks good, it generally IS good. In fact, sometimes an O/A weld can look bad and still be good.

My '74 Triumph project was the victim of a "wannabe" TIG welder. Way too much filler material(along with some creative use of Bondo) laid in to make the joints of the hard tail look pretty, rather than being solid. After building a new tail section, I had my cousin burn it in with the TIG, but considered having him braze it. Were it a Bicycle frame or small home repair I'd do it myself, but on a cement mixer with wheels traveling 70+mph I let the professional handle it. I did most of the small tabs and such in a garden shed with the A/O.