Welding Tips and Tricks

i need advice with one of the projects in my SMAW welding class. The objective is to cut a 1.5" diameter hole in 1/4" plate and then close it with E6010 from one side. I have not seen this demonstrated or described. The closest thing in our textbook is using brazing rod. I was thinking of building up a bead around the hole and then add stringer beads to edge. Any tips? Thanks.

Do you have a choice of welding the hole horizontally or vertically? I'm guessing that the hole needs to be filled as flat as possible and without a backing.

If you can do it vertically it would be easier (at least for me) since you could just whip horizontal stringers until it is filled.

With 6010 being a fast freeze rod it should be no problem to run a circular bead coiling it inward toward the center if you do it horizontally.

But that is what I'd do on the farm. A professional weldor should be able to give you the best options.

with that big of a hole, I'd probably start stacking stringers on the top and the bottom until they meet in the center. I've done this kind of thing as a quickie pipe cap for non-critical things many times, and the problem with just going around in a circle is twofold. a) you get the part too hot and b) the center always ends up out-of-plane because you can't burn it in deep enough. I haven't tried what I'm suggesting yet, but you should be able to basically close the gap down to 1/4" or so without getting out of plane. then you're just welding 1/4" plate together with a shitty fitup

I accomplished this twice. I was really surprised that I could do it from one side in flat position. I imagined enlarging the hole with huge blobs of molten metal falling on the floor. The instructor inspected the weld and it met the project requirement. I used a Lincoln 350 Pro which, in my hands, seems to have a little less arc force compared with the Miller XMT 350 (all the XMT booths were filled with other students) The more modest arc force seemed to work in my favor. I used 1/8" E6010 at 90A "crisp" with about 40% arc force (arc control +4). I would weld the hole in segments around the perimeter. First four segments, then three and then two. The surface tension of the molten metal worked as advertised to keep it in place and the arc force and rod angle also helped.

Throw it on a backer and Texas tig rig it and blow his mind lol.

the good thing, is that your using 6010. You want to start at the bottom and build a base closing the hole before you start filing it. the good thing about the 6010 is that you can pull out of the puddle before everything falls out. you can start and stop at will with very little slag build up. I did'nt say that you wouldn't have any slag,because you will. But it's thin enough on the outside edge to be able to tie into it with no problem.. Once you get your base it wouldn't hurt to give yourself a few more amps to ensure that your not trapping slag.. And it's best to work from the outside in just incase you do have to slag it.. Richard