Welding Tips and Tricks

I'm currently doing overhead smaw in school and in my open root. Everything is going great with it accept for my restarts. I am having trouble seeing exactly where I need to be to get it to tie in, any suggestions on a light I could attach to my shield to help with this?

tschmitt wrote:I'm currently doing overhead smaw in school and in my open root. Everything is going great with it accept for my restarts. I am having trouble seeing exactly where I need to be to get it to tie in, any suggestions on a light I could attach to my shield to help with this?

maybe you could adapt a headlamp somehow, really never seen this done. Sounds like the booth needs better lighting, can you bring in a trouble lamp?

One of those LED headlamps with an elastic headband? Maybe take off the elastic and stick some velcro to the lamp and your helmet.

Easy fix. Start about 3/4-1/2 inch before you stopped. Weld over your previous weld and when you get to the end it should be hot enough you can punch through with easy and keep going. When your done just grind down the hump of the restart and do your hot pass. I use this method on all 6010 roots. It ensures a good tie in. Don't be afraid to get in there and eat the sparks. Seeing the puddle is a problem with overhead. I keep a dirty lense just for it so I can really get in there and see what I'm doing.

The biggest issue is being able to see due to lack of light, I knoe how to restart just having trouble seeing. I bought a head lamp with an elastic band earlier at lowes to see if I a can figure out a way to make it work and my instructors are pretty open to us bringing in our own equipment so if I had to I could bring in a lamp. I'll try the head lamp and get let everyone know what I get work so they can use it or pass it on.

....you should be able to see once the arc is struck...

I couldn't get the headlamp on the hood so I used magnets to stick it to the vent and it worked great and I was able to see where to strike and get my restart tied in good but messed my hood up later in the day when a glob fell on it now I have to get a replacement part.

If you need to get your hood so close to your weld to see that you melt it then you defiantly need to invest in cheater lenses.

Poland308 wrote:If you need to get your hood so close to your weld to see that you melt it then you defiantly need to invest in cheater lenses.

Yep, he's right. I run cheaters in my Miller Digital and it makes all the difference. Only about $9 at the LWS. Well worth it for the improvement in your welding.

You can get led flashlights that are also telescoping and magnetic, so you could stick it to the part and aim it at the weld.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Defiant-Magn ... /205867798

Magnets will become non magnetic if they are near welding too much. He needs to get a cheater lense if he can't see. I don't know how else you couldn't see the puddle while welding. Maybe try a lighter shade

I can see the puddle fine, the issue I was having is that when I put my plate back so I could restart I couldn't see where to strike it to start due to lack of light so I put a magnetic light on the vent in my booth and point it up and I've been good since I started to do that. My shield melted when my keyhole started to blow out and globs of metal feel on it.

I'm not trying to be an a$$hole here. Just trying to help you be more "field" ready. You don't have to light up at an exact point. How do you think it was before auto darkens? You just need to light up and then you will be able to find your way to the joint. What hood do you have? If you mean to take this seriously as a career you need to make sure your hood is rated for overhead. I run the Viking 3350 and I've abused it pretty good. Takes spatter and balls of fire like a champ.

I have a miller digital elite but have been using a Jackson someone gave me since the miller went down. I tried striking at the beginning of the root but would pass the keyhole and try to come back to it and wasn't able to tie in worth a shit. So I need the light to see where I stopped and now that I have a light I strike it about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch before it and and I am able to tie in just fine