Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey guys and girls hope your having a great weekend. I’m welding 1 inch HSLA 80 steel on a excavator bucket. I’m using GMAW-P Mig. The guy that helps out at my shop sometimes he works at a big welding shop making crane booms and such for 28 years. He got mad because I picked to weld this plate with Pulse Mig with 0.45 ER70S-6 with 90Ar-10Co2 mix gas. He wants to weld it with Flux Core. So I’m wondering which one is the right way or is it a preference. Also, lately I’ve been welding with the pulse mode and with the 90/10 mix and I’ve had some black soot showing up what could that be. Thank y’all for your time and options.

I already replied to your other post on this topic, but a question occurs to me: what is the bucket itself made of? What kind of steel? Are you welding HSLA to HSLA or are you welding HSLA to mild steel? or something else? If you are welding HSLA to HSLA (or any other alloy other than mild steel) then you are both wrong. If you are welding HSLA to mild steel, you could probably get by with ER70s-6 for a while, but why? You have the 90/10 already. Go get some metal core to weld this stuff. Its best to use a low diffusible hydrogen filler for HSLA, even if welding HSLA to mild steel. HSLA is very prone to weld defects. Something like this in an 052 or 1/16th filler size. https://www.lincolnelectric.com/en-us/C ... nElectric)

If you are welding HSlLA to HSLA, you need to go up a notch to something like this: https://www.lincolnelectric.com/en-us/C ... nElectric)

I think right way is a troubled way to look at the options. Each will have an upside and also limitations. Sometimes it comes down to comfort and confidence, with a little bit of equipment capacity/ availability. There’s always 2 ways to skin the cat, most often more than two options.