Newbie Volume 2

[driver444]

OK, so I've burned tons of rods now practicing everything you guys said in my last post. Getting better but...

I went and got some 1/8" 7018AC's. They seem to like the 100-110 amp range. (again, this is on 3/16 plate, doing butt welds, and t-joints). The beads I'm making are starting to look pretty good. I'm not blowing through anything, and it seems quite a bit easier than the 6011's. I see what you guys mean by "watching the puddle" because you really do have to keep moving with these 7018's.

I also had to get used not mistaking the weld puddle for the slag. I made a couple of welds that looked so bad before removing the slag, that I didn't bother. I chipped it off later, and was shocked! It looked great.

Here's the questions...
1. Is there any general guideline for how wide your weave should be when doing a weave bead?
2. I seem to be leaving ALOT of weld on my joints. These welds would be beautiful if they were on 1/2" plate, but seems like alot less would do just fine. Does this just mean I'm not traveling fast enough? When I'm welding, I already feel like I'm moving too fast.

Thanks

[Roger]

Don't need to weave on 3/16 plate with 1/8" rod. If your running hot setting and traveling to fast will get flat bead with ripples on bead more Vs than arcs. ))))))) >>>>>>>

Maybe a little wiggle.

[Tux_Rules]

Here's the questions...
1. Is there any general guideline for how wide your weave should be when doing a weave bead?
Thanks

From page 12 of the Miller Guidelines For Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW):

http://www.millerwelds.com/pdf/guidelines_smaw.pdf

"Use weave patterns to cover a wide area in one pass of the electrode. Limit weave width to a maximum of 2-1/2 times diameter of electrode."

[moya034]

I seem to be leaving ALOT of weld on my joints. These welds would be beautiful if they were on 1/2" plate, but seems like alot less would do just fine. Does this just mean I'm not traveling fast enough? When I'm welding, I already feel like I'm moving too fast.

7018 is a high deposition electrode. A 3/32" 7018 electrode might be a more appropriate size for 3/16" thick base metal.

7018 does move fast, but remember if you move too fast with it, you won't be getting good fusion to the base metal.

100-110 amps for 1/8" 7018 sounds low to me. I usually run it somewhere around 130-140. That being said, few arc welding machines have accurately calibrated dials. Basically, you want to learn to ignore the dial, and watch the puddle to tell if the machine is set correctly.

In any event, 7018 has a thicker flux coating, and iron powder in the flux, so it takes more amps to properly melt it then the same size electrode in say 6011.

From page 12 of the Miller Guidelines For Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW):

http://www.millerwelds.com/pdf/guidelines_smaw.pdf

"Use weave patterns to cover a wide area in one pass of the electrode. Limit weave width to a maximum of 2-1/2 times diameter of electrode."

I disagree with page 12 of that Miller text when it comes to weave beads. It's not so much that it's entirely wrong, but that in the pursuit of trying to simplify the text, I think that they give somewhat misleading information.

My AWS textbook states that a stringer bead is 2-3 times the electrode diameter (going by the metal core). It states that a weave bead is more then 3, but less then 8 times the electrode diameter.

Basically, the thing to remember with weave beads is that the whole puddle must stay molten. If you are weaving too wide, one side of the puddle will start solidifying, and when you go back that way on your weave, you will get slag inclusions.

Weave beads typically are only used for vertical, or the cap pass on a pipe. In other positions or situations, you usually would run multiple stringer beads to make up what ever width you need.

Now, if you want to be super duper, anally retentive technical, a weave bead, despite the width of it, is anything that involves some sort of sideways manipulation of the electrode, even if the width of the bead is a "stringer" bead.

Having said that, on page 12 of the Miller text, they have a flat butt weld, which would always use stringer beads. However, they want you to manipulate the electrode side to side a little in order to widen the puddle and keep it flat, so they are calling it a weave bead. But the end result is still a bead 2-3 times the electrode diameter, which for all intents and purposes is a stringer bead.

[driver444]

Alot of information to absorb there. Awesome.

I guess I have a ton more practicing to do. I thought I was running hot enough, but I'll have to re-check that too.

Thanks,