[DylanWelds]

Up until yesterday I have been welding pipe in opposite quarters to evenly distribute heat input to prevent the joint from pulling. I've been doing this from the root pass usually all the way out to the cap. Yesterday I was welding with some different fitters and they were surprised to see me try to keep welding in quarters after I had already put in my root.
If you already have your root in will the joint not pull anymore or should I quarter all the way out?

[Otto Nobedder]

Depends on material and thickness, but generally for stick on carbon, I only quarter the root. Additional draw during hot/fill and cap passes tends to balance out if you simply halve it, and a truly skilled fitter has allowed for draw in the fit.

You're doing no harm as long as your tie-ins are solid, but each tie-in has the chance for porosity at tail-off that should be ground/feathered, and you can save two steps of that by halving it out.

I don't do stick on stainless pipe (odd, that I've never done it, actually), but in this case I'd probably quarter both root and fill and halve the cap, as SS draws more than carbon.

I'm confident on the carbon. Take the opinion for stick-stainless as on opinion, as my stainless stick experience is limited to plate.

Steve S

[DylanWelds]

Thanks I appreciate it. I've never gotten to do any stainless pipe welding but I'm a rookie still. We're supposed to be making a huge fishing boat and most of the pipe is supposed to be stainless so I'm sure I'll learn a lot about it then.