Wes917 wrote:When I was doing a lot of vert up mig I would use the same pattern. Would also do a tight "mirrored" z pattern.

What do you mean by "mirrored" Z weave?

I'm prepared to go live in any State and am wondering how I can get my foot in the door into the world of pipe welding. I've heard UA welders are some of the best in the world but apparently it's hard to join their apprenticeships. I don't have much money so going to a proper school is not an option...

What are wagon tracks?

I got a 2.5 gap with 1/16 landing and running at 20 volts. I get a concave root everytime. Do I have to go slower? Is it too hot? Sorry I can't provide a picture. What causes this suck back? Thanks in advance.

I'm not that experienced and am not very good and listening to the sound and reading the puddle to gauge what volts I'm running so I'm seeing if there is any way to figure out what volts you're on when using MIG welders that have dials with meaningless numbers. No, I don't have the manual for the ma...

That ss pipe looks more like 5mm thick... 2mm thick pipes are near impossible with stick...

I posted this on welddit and I reckon I might as well post this here as well. So in school I started doing MIG welding overhead fillets with 10mm plates but I just have some questions about doing it the right way. So when I use a near 90 degree angle or the angle I use for flat, It either gets reall...

I'm not talking about 3G or going up a pipe. I'm going to do work experience for school at a place that makes earthmoving equipment and I'm pretty sure there will be plenty of fillet runs at an angle that needs to be welded uphill or some other weird positions that will need to be done uphill. How i...

As always, thanks for your thorough reply Otto. Seriously wished someone like you was my TAFE teacher. Yeah, I figured a junk rod will remain junk but for my particular situation I'm just concerned about the rod not sticking and "burning right" since I'm just using for practice in TAFE. So...

Okay then. Just wondering if things like 2G and 4G and be z weaved by low hydrogen stick.

When stick welding with low hydrogen open, can the second pass be z weaved for all plate and pipe positions? Also, if a low hydrogen rod sticks more easily than usual and sometimes just has its flux shattered as soon as you pull away, is this an indication that these low hydrogen electrodes need to ...

Thanks for the chart I'll definitely study that. And mike, can you explain that thing about surface tension in greater detail? I'm not sure what you meant by that. Am I the only one or is mig A LOT more sensitive than stick to movement? I can do vertical up stick with ease but I struggle with vertic...

I've done a good amount of stick at school and am fairly decent (except for 4G) and have done some MIG welding so I thought MIG welding would be a piece of cake. But unfortunately that is not the case for me and I'm having trouble figuring what voltage setting is appropriate for the different thickn...

My teacher said zirconiated is better than ceriated for aluminum welding (the one I'm using). Any truth to this? Btw, my machine can only go up to 65 ac balance.

Thank you for the good advice. I'll make these adjustments and see what happens. Btw, would it be "bad" to sharpen the tungsten to a needle point? My book and my teacher told me to just have a slight taper with a flat end. I find that this makes for a too large of ball that becomes really ...

I don't know why this is such a big problem for me. I was able to do flat butt welds fine but my fillets are inconsistent, white or just down right ugly. If the plate is 3mm, what range should my amps be? Is 120hz with 65% ac balance a good setting for this particular weld? Aluminum turns white when...

Come on... There's gotta be at least a couple of people on this forum that knows how to do this. Btw, any tips for 4g open root with 7016s? Do you just push up against the bevel a lot harder than you would with the other positions? Thanks in advance.

You sure 6010/11 are meant for dcen? Aren't they exclusively dcep?

As someone who plans on living in Australia I reckon I better learn how to do open root with 7016s since I heard the majority of open roots with stick is done by them. So, how is this done? What are the settings when 3/32 (2.5mm) rods are used? Does it matter whether DCEN or DCEP is used? Is there a...

All right yall. I think I've got the hang of open root stick now. After a few more weeks it should be near perfect. I think my problem was staying too long in one spot after hearing the sound of penetration. When it's set hot enough, you can just shove that rod in and move along. The trick is to not...

Very nice back bead. Was this up or downhill? Did you use a grinder on your restarts? And this was 105 amps?

I've always done this with 1/8" (3mm) rod or bigger, but, generally, if you're snuffing out the rod, you need more amps... If you're poking through, you either need less amperage or less pressure. I assume you're using 3/32" (2.25mm) rod? When it's "just so", almost all the spar...

Holy batman am I frustrated these days. Been working on open root stick with 6010s for a few weeks with very little progress. I know restarts without a grinder for open root is very possible but for some damn reason I can't do it. When I do the bury rod technique for horizontal, the rod always ends ...

Just wondering if a grinder is absolutely needed to feather those tacks and restarts. Is there some way to successfully do this without feathering them? Thanks in advance.

When you say "work the puddle", you mean I got to stay right on top of that puddle and move it around instead of just jamming it in when doing the root pass, right? Can I at least be slight scraping against the plate when doing the root run?