Todays welds

[sniggler]

Not allowed in structual steel work unless it.s stick plus he had been told not to and did it anyway

I do structural steel D1.1 building code and D1.5 bridge code D 1.8 earthquake. Pretty much all our stick welding is all done with lo-hydrogyn electrodes 7018, 8018 & 9018. We do use a lot of wire feeders with flux core, and dual shield wire with Co2 gas. It is all run up-hill as a rule. Pipe and tube in structural welding are run up-hill by tradition rather than by code. For heavy wall rectangular tube the code says it can be welded any direction the welder is qualified for. I only know this because i was welding on a job where we had a large amount of diagonal bracing which was 1/2 inch wall 8"x8" attached slotted top and bottom so the slot swallowed 5/8 or 3/4 plate the weld spec was a 3/8 but the was very often a gap of up to 3/8 so with a gap you have to add the width of the gap to the final fillet 3/8 gap = 3/4 fillet. Anyway we were using flux core wire 5/64 lincoln Innershield® NR®-212. I look up the wire parameters just to see what lincoln recomended.

NR-212 is an extremely versatile wire. Weld in any position, on a wide range of materials including coated steel. Not recommended for vertical up.

I found I could fill gaps of up to 1/4"running down hill very quickly so I just went with it turning the voltage and the speed way up making mutli-pass welds that had nice uniform cosmetics. So one inspecter says to the super I think he's running down hill. Big stink he wants to lay me off maybe but i was giving him more production than anyone of the other 25 welders. The company had to bring out the code and show the inspector that tube can be welded in any direction for which the welder is qualified, i kept my trap shut and brought in lincoln's paperwork quoted above i knew there was no way the company would show that to the inspectors because it would flip the whole thing. all the other welders were welding up. So i had to weld up no big deal i fill the gaps going down and finished the welds off going up I was the last welder on the job nothing trumps production.

Ironically nr 212 is the same wire lincoln sells in tiny spools for the little 110 wire feeders

Bob

 

[jgedde]

The easiest way to make nice welds is to get a good hood. If you cant see your welds you cant weld. Pick up a variety of diffrent shade filters, and a box of clear lenses. Try experimenting with the diffrent shades and see what you come up with. I worked for a pipeline welder who had diffrent hoods and lenses for diffrent jobs.

That statement is about as true as it gets!

Case in point: For may years I had a cheapo auto-darkening welding helmet. It worked, but was too dark and had a pitiful response time. So bad, I'd be flashed whenever I started the arc.

I recently got a Kimberly-Clarke helmet with lightning fast response time and adjustable shade... My welds improved literally instantaneously!

Task lighting is also very important. Don't rely on the arc to illuminate your work.

John

 

[oldgoaly]

Charlie they look good from here! your speed (your gun movement) looks perfect! only thing I'd like to see is the penetration, that it is hot enough to melt the base metal not just sitting on top of the metal. A journeyman tinner told me welders, are always the minimum on the ground clamp when new, if you upgrade you ground clamp your welds will be better now this was 30 years ago, and all the welders that I have had only the Tigs haven't been upgraded, they are pretty stout already. I regret not asking why but when they told you stuff ya had better listen and do it! Cleaning the ground clamp from time to time makes for better welds. Do you notice the ground clamp getting warm even though your not welding near it? that is probably a sign the ground clamp maybe causing you some trouble.

 

[sniggler]

Charlie,

To me it looks like too much voltage for the wire speed there is some skip where the weld washes into the base metal. The amperage adjustment on a constant voltage power machine is the wire speed more speed = more amps to sweet spot for mig with bare wire is probably at the high end of short circuit. It seems like your puddle is too elongated (either too high travel speed or to much voltage) you can round the puddle up a bit by push back into it a little as you go. Its nice if some one can adjust the speed for you as you weld, you keep a constant travel speed and stick out start a bit low on the speed and turn it up until it is crackling along just right.

Bob


This is a weld from my previous post about downhill welds you can see the progression of welding down to fill the gap and up to cap.

 

[sniggler]

Welding helmets: I have used several auto helmets the best I had was a miller elite they all broke, one fell in a puddle below a column i was welding another got smashed into an angle an cracked the lens it still worked but not right. I used the cheap 23$ Chinese auto lenses from ebay and they worked fine although the color was a bit odd. I concluded that for field use the company issue fibermetal standard welding hood with the flip up lens for chipping and grinding is the most durable. It goes without saying that the lenses should be clean and the cover lenses need to be replaced once they get scuffed up. You don't need a 300 dollar hood to weld.

I have a miller elite with the hepa filter air pack but the safety guys on my last job said no go because it need to be attached to a hard hat speedglas makes one with a hard hat. I try to where a respirator for all heavy welding. The air helmet was great because the air has a defogging effect, when you put a rubber respirator under a welding hood with safety glasses on you get instant fog on the glasses.

Grounding: We use c-clamp type bronze ground clamps, when ever thing aren't going check the ground first grind the spot you ground to the ground cable should be up to job current you're putting through it. Loose connections get hot and take the temper out of their springs. Welding cable getting hot means its damaged or under sized.

Bob