[Coldman]

If you are going to weave, the gap must be wide enough to allow the wire to pass through. So in the 2G position the wire centre line must be in line with the knife edge (wire half inside the pipe and half in the Vee). In the 5G position, on the bottom the wire must be almost fully inside the pipe to allow for gravity sag, on top of the pipe almost fully in the vee and up the sides half in and half out. This corrects the suck back problem and gives good penetration.

If I have an uneven prep I will laywire back and forth where the wire does not fall through and immediately change to weave when it does using the same amps and adjusting wire position as I go.

[RamboBaby]

I was about to say, this now looks and smells like a pipe welding thread! I don't wanna be a debbie downer, and this is just my opinion, but to pass one test, albeit a tought one, won't have many aerospace welding employers beating a path to your door to weld their aerospace equipment unless you have a proven track record and a good long list of previous employers that were satisfied with your work. Even then, I would think they would be looking specifically for certifications in aerospace-type welding & materials(?). If I were you I would look into going the route of Travis aka: FieldRes on Youtube, with proper schooling in various welding disciplines. Don't get me wrong, if you can get your foot in the door with less than that, hey more power to you! Also I would be calling up prospective aerospace welding employers to ask about general requirements. Make a spreadsheet to keep track of their requirements as many will likely have similar ones. Then weigh and evaluate their requirements as a function of how much you need to invest in said requirements so you can decide which avenue to pursue.

That sounds like good advice. I'm still gonna keep at this though because I really can't imagine anything being hard to learn, in the world of welding, after trying this stuff. Plus I have all this pipe laying around just begging for me to learn how to weld it.
What I've decided to do now is to just take several hundred dry runs before I proceed to weld the other side of that coupon. Thanks to you guys I now have a basic understanding of what it takes to lay this root in and a much steadier hand when it comes to positioning and holding the rod. What I'm really lacking is a steady torch hand and that is only gonna come with trial, error, correction and practice. No sense in repeatedly grinding, welding and screwing up all of this pipe until my torch hands are steady enough to weld it.

If you are going to weave, the gap must be wide enough to allow the wire to pass through. So in the 2G position the wire centre line must be in line with the knife edge (wire half inside the pipe and half in the Vee). In the 5G position, on the bottom the wire must be almost fully inside the pipe to allow for gravity sag, on top of the pipe almost fully in the vee and up the sides half in and half out. This corrects the suck back problem and gives good penetration.

If I have an uneven prep I will laywire back and forth where the wire does not fall through and immediately change to weave when it does using the same amps and adjusting wire position as I go.

That's a mouthful. How long did it take you to get proficient at that?

[RamboBaby]

When I tig a root I leave the bevel at a knife edge and run no gap. I run about 120 amps and use a 3/32 wire with a standard #4 cup. I lay the wire at the bottom of the bevel and I set my tungsten so that as I burry the cup as far as I can it almost touches the top of the wire. I also grind my tacks out as I come to them so that I'm not welding over them on test day.

Is it permissible to run like that on a test? My dry runs are proving that to be the easiest method although I do have a tight 1/8 gap. There is only one place where I can barely push the wire through the gap but, by the time I get it welded up to that point that gap will have shrunk to the point where I wont be able to push the wire through.
I have also discovered that using my welding magnets on the outside of the pipe totally eliminates mismatch. No need to try and line anything up or bang it around after tacking.

[Coldman]

Couple hundred hours of pefect prep coupons in ideal shop conditions got me to cert stage. Then I got to site (real world ) where I found out very quickly that I knew diddly squat. My speedglas helmet was useless and so was I. I got lucky because experienced welders instead of shittin on me, patiently kicked me into shape. Worked hard during work and after work on more coupons practicing what I learned on the job. Probably a few more hundred hours. I can tackle just about anything in my trade (mostly xray). Wouldn't like to try retubing a boiler green. If I come up against anything new I'd like to practice it first if I can to avoid looking like a Galah.

[RamboBaby]

This is the first time I was able to get a root welded all the way up. Yep, it's crapola but way better than any of the other ones. Moving back and forth just isn't working for me. It probably will if I can figure out the correct torch and rod angle. After having such a hard time tying into that top right tack, i decided to just move forward when this thing starts to keyhole, then come back and fill in the hole.
I bought some pipe welding videos a couple of years ago and the guy shows how to angle the torch back to get the heat off the joint. I'm having some success with that but I think I need to pull back from the leading edge in addition to angling away.
If I only moved out as fast as Jody does in his videos then I would wind up with a 1/4" keyhole within a few seconds @120 amps. I can barely control 110 amps on the bottom side and as soon as I start to move up hill, I get a big hole.
I welded this thing at 105 amps from six o'clock to 12 o'clock on the right side and from six to nine on the left side. I had to turn it down to 100 amps just to be able to weld from nine to twelve.