[Cooperstown]

I have a 2 plates of 15ft by 12" by 1/2" Cold Rolled Mild Steel
and 3 plates of 15ft by 12" by 1/4" Cold Rolled Mild Steel

I have been purchasing welding coupons to practice and it has been going good. I was thinking I could save a bunch of money for quite some time if I use my plasma cutter and make my own coupons with the following. I am just looking to run practice beads ( That's all)

would I be able to set the AMPS at 120-180 just to run beads?
Could I set it at 90 amps just to run beads?
I know it is nowhere the amps I need if I was looking to make different joints and use it for some structural stuff, but what about just laying beads. Can anyone answer this? I guess I can just try it also LOL. I got the steel for free so it wouldn't hit my pocket. I don't mind doing the prep work but with the amount of steel I have I could make welding coupons for days!!! Thanks

[cj737]

You can use those amperages if that is for SMAW (Stick) rods and the 120ish is for 1/8" and 90ish is for 3/32.

If you are planning to TIG weld, you'd be better off nearer 140-160. You will have to travel slower to get the heat in, but for practice, it should be just fine.

[sbaker56]

Agreed, you'd really need about a minimum of 140 amps or so to pad beads on that thickness, and I'd suggest possibly even using a 1/16 wire at those settings, but they'll work and as the piece preheats the amount of current needed drops. You can absolutely make some great coupons out of what you have.

[LtBadd]

Since the question was posted in the TIG forum we assume you are TIG welding, be aware as you runs beads and the plate warms this will effect the amps needed, just back off on the pedal a little and/or increase travel speed, but at some point it'll be too hot so either start a new plate or cool that one.

[Cooperstown]

Yes I will be practicing Tig. My tig machine only goes to 200amps. I just didn't know if I would be able to get a weld pool going based on what the recommended amps were for that thickness. Looks like I will play with it at 140 amps. I will be using 1/16 er70s6/70s2 in both 3/32 and 1/16
Silicon bronze in the same diameter. not sure if I can use this but I will play with it a little and try, probably way to hot for that lol. I am almost ready to tackle my rocker panels and will be using much smaller diameter obviously, but I would like to run a couple hundred more beads or so before I am for sure good to go!

Again it is just for practice. I have stick welded on it for practice and it ran good. I am mainly looking to focus just on tig right now so this is good new. I had bought a lot of coupons from weldmetals.com. They are awesome and about the same price as if I went to my local metal supermarkets. But then I would have to prep them ( which is fine) but I didn't need to with weld metals. I have all this 1/2 and 1/4 steel and i could make hundreds of coupons with what I have which would save a bunch of money.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions I appreciate it.

[cj737]

1/16” or 0.045 SilBr for our rocker panels will be fine. For practice, probably 55-70 amps for 1/16 SilBr.