Welding Tips and Tricks

I've been a fitter for about 6 years now but lately I've been practicing on my welding because that's the road I wanna take. I gotta take a 6g test in a couple weeks and I'm sweating bullets over it. 6" sch. 80 c/s, tig root, tig, hot pass, 7018 fill and cap. Any advice? Anything helps thanks.

Take your time, don't forget to breathe, brush heavy and good in between passes and let it cool till you can lay a hand on it if at all possible between passes. I always lightly sanded the outside about 1" from the bevel, and the bevel. I weld one side LH, and one side RH...my test specified bottom to top, and no feathering of tacks.

I found my TIG Finger very helpful as did the test without walking the cup.

Slow and steady. I like to wait between passes as well. With a tig root I leave the knife edge and just rake it with a file so it's not quite a knife. I also like my gap on the small side and prefer to do the root and hot pass with 3/32. After that it's just fill with 1/8 to just under flush. And if you have enough time let cool before and during the cover. Before I run my first cover stringer I use a file to make a straight line just short of were I'm going to run it. Makes it a little easier to keep it straight when you can see that silvery line.

The WPS should dictate your settings but I also prefer a 3/32" gap, barely a flat to knife edge and 4 good 1/2" long tacks. Take your time setting the gap and getting good tacks.

It sounds like the biggest problem will be in your head, hearing the word, "test," echoing. We've all been there, at least once. Set up practice coupons just like the test, and try to treat the test as just one more practice coupon.

I know, that's easier said than done, but the easiest way to bust out is to let the idea of the test fill your head when you should just focus on the weld.

In the end, it's just another weld...

Steve S