Welding Tips and Tricks

Greetings,

Nice to find this group.

I am trying to get good at butt welding 1/4 steel plate before starting on a steel sailboat.

Here is where I am now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZXesmcNEJ0

I know I am too aggressive on the length and size of welds on the back side, after the front side is tacked, but I'm sure there is lots of other tuning I can do too, so suggestions are welcomed.

The video covers most of it, but I'm using flux core, 1/16" wire @ 250amps and 245 ipm welding flat down. I think I'll go back to a square butt tonight to save time over double beveling and up the amps to 275 and maybe the wire speed too in order to get the weld to flatten out more and to get the filler material in with less heat into the plate.

Thanks
Doug Jackson
Tulsa, OK

First question, is there any specific reason you are using a 1/16 wire to weld 1/4 plate? Way too much heat and weld metal. An .045 should be the biggest wire to use. That will cut down on the excessive heat input and the shrinkage of the very large weld deposit from the 1/16 wire. Along with that it would be to your advantage to restrain the joint during welding. Also, I would not use a root opening on that double vee groove, you are going to back grind anyway. To minimize distortion, you want to put just enough weld metal in the joint to do the job. Your weld bead profile should only be about 1/16 higher than the base metal. If you want , I can give you a complete weld procedure for that plate you are welding. If not, good luck with it.

Jim

Yes, a complete weld procedure would be most welcome.

The choice of 1/16" wire comes from recommendations of other welders and is actually consistent with Lincoln's recommendations for higher deposition rates to minimize welding time: http://www.lincolnelectric.com/en-us/su ... etail.aspx

I'm not married to any recommendations and welcome all viewpoints. Tell me what has worked for you and that will be appreciated.

Thanks
Doug

Sorry I haven't responded. I was out of town. Do you still need help with the plate?

I build powerplant boilers and have never seen anything over .045 wire for the heavy welding we do with mig guns. 1/16 seems over kill for 1/4 in plate. Assuming you prep the joint by putting a nice bevel on it, you should have no reason to go any larger than .045 to do that specific joint. You could try stick welding it too with some 3/32 but it'll take way longer.

Thanks, Jim gave the same advice and I am back to using .045 Outershield, flipping the material 6 times to balance the welds, and starting with a double V. The results are much better but I'm trying now to use a square butt instead of the double V in order to save time. I'd like to flip it fewer times too, but I don't see a good way around that without stressing one side or the other too much. Here is a video of the test with the .045 and the double V: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRvVPXBZrGM

Appreciate the suggestions.
--Doug