How Do I Deepen Weld Fusion?

E35o, Your welcome and it is a pleasure to me to be able to help.

There is a lot of misinformation about welding and it is easy to misinterpret information in this field.

Is wire welding with short circuit easy? Well no, the same prep is required, the proper joint design applies to short circuit mig welding just as it does for most of the manual arc welding processes. A gap is a gap and an open root is an open root and must be dealt with and only with practice and proper instruction can these procedures be learned.

The AWS code D1.1 does not have any preqaulified welding procedures for structural steels that allow any short circuit mig on steels. In D1.3 the AWS does have some Preqaulified procedures for 1/8 and under for structural steels. And limited procedures that cover steel short circuit to 3/16ths. Short circuit has 3 problems, Lack of Fusion, Lack of Dilution with the base metal and Porosity. Both you and Franko have definately proven this. The world wide web will tell you otherwise. I mostly weld under ASME procedures. At work we don't weld any steel short circuit 1/8 and over. There are lot better ways and much better processes that don't have the lack of fusion, dilution and porosity problems using the same welder with just a change in gas and wire. And these processes are faster and easier.

I don't own a pulse welder and use a lot of spray arc with 90/10 and 98/2% oxy. For out of positition welding I switch to e71t-1 flux core gas shielded 75/25, which means I carry 3 shielding gases. Sometimes have 5 or 6 other gas bottles to satisfy the full capabilites of all my welders, along with all types of wires.

Pulse eliminates a lot of this. One gas for steel. Two wires for steel. Amazing.

At work I use the same welder you have. We use 2 gases and 2 wires for probably 95 percent of our welding. From 18 ga galvanized sheet metal to as thick as you want to get on a36 and some 514 steels under a 1/2 inch and T1 steel to one inch. I weld aluminum and a lot of 3 and 400 series stainless with two more gases. One machine that pretty much does it all.
 
chuck: Cool. I don't want to wear out my welcome. Thank you for letting me post in your thread Franko. I will buy the second book, and will continue to try to learn how to weld. Sign up for a evening class somewhere when work allows and if they allow old guys like me to be students. And when I am ready, I will ask you how you set up your machine for one gas for steel, two wires -- and also how to set it up and what gun for aluminum, etc. My signature on another forum says "Learning slowly..." I will add it here too...

BTW, I appreciate your reference to the pertinent code provisions, because D1.1/D1.1M:2015 STRUCTURAL WELDING CODE-STEEL is $548 for non-AWS members. This is a left over from the guild system. Nonprofessional purchases of the Uniform Building Code is also restricted in the same manner. Although the UBC is required by local Building Officials to be followed for construction of structures, it is crazy expensive to buy, and 20 years ago you couldn't even buy it if you were not a member.
 
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turnittupper: I was at the Airgas store yesterday looking for just that sort of helmet shield. No luck so my guess is that I will have to fashion one myself. Any chance you might post up a picture?
Sorry no pics as the shield has fallen to pieces after 10+ years but it is just a strip of self adhesive velcro attached to the back of the helmet and a couple of strips down the sides . I've found that thin leather or even better a dark tea towel [doubles as a sweat rag] keeps the sun getting into your helmet and annoying you. Hope this helps,
John.
 
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