My names lou am new to the forum I tried posting on another thread but got no replies so thought id try starting a new thread and see how I go.
Not long finished my Trade as a mature age apprentice and have decided to become a certified welder specialising in Tig/Stick
My goal is to become a pipe welder and develop the skills to pass 6G and 6G restricted weld tests on the spot so i can get onto high paying construction projects etc etc
I will start with my 2G
Ive been practicing my 2G for about 5 weeks now n heres what ive been doing:
Method: I freehand root and cap & walk the cup for hot and filler passes
Material practiced on: 3 1/2 inch 6mm Mild steel pipe
Setup: Metal cleaned up to shiney 20mm from edge of bevel inside and outside of pipe; Landing approx 2mm, Root Gap 3mm, coupon tacked @ 120 degress in 3 places tacks no bigger than 12mm. Coupon is setup in a pipe fixture and purged with Argon.............No 10 Cup with Gas Lens been using 1.6 tungsten on root and cap 2.4 on the rest eg hot pass and filler runs.................Gasmark 12-14
Settings: Root & hot pass approx 106 amps, Filler passes and Cap approx 110 amps
At this stage i am totally nailing my root and hot passes peno is great and am consistently now getting at least 1mm of inside reinforcement Im feeding the 1.6 rod slightly north of the root gap for about 3 seconds then doing a slight back and forth motion with my tungston n seeing a slight keyhole before my next dab. I buff with a power wire brush between runs but dont touch the cap.
Ive been welding the rest out including the hotpass with a 2.4 tungston I walk the cup for the hotpass (the theory is that this will help me warm up for my 5G) and any filler runs then freehand the Cap.
My problem is I seem to be doing to many filler runs after my hotpass and Im getting a slight bit of overroll on the cap. By this i mean when you look at my cap the northen part of my bead has less reinforcement than the sourthern part of my bead
Passed my 1st Nik break n bend test but want to fine tune my 2G
Have just started practicing 5G @ this stage Setup is the same as my 2G will do another post on 5g soon
My teachers at TAFE arnt allowing me to weave or walk the cup on the cap they insist that i freehand Im happy to do this as I want to learn as many techniques as possible........................
Any tips or advise muchly appreciated particularly in regards to optimising the apprarence of my capping runs..............
Regards Lou
