Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi everyone, I'm a french welder (and also pipefitter and welding coordinator but I love to much welding to stay in an office).

I'm passionated by welding and as I look at weldingtipsandtricks.com on youtube since many years, and as I've got a very very very important question to ask, I register myself on this forum because in USA and Canada you're better than us in Europe in SMAW welding pipes.

I've got a question about the polarity on the root pass during downhill welding on pipe with stickrod 6010.

My teacher told to me that we must, as with 7018, inverse the polarity for the root pass (DCEN so for the root pass and DCEP for fill and cap) but even he is a very bright welder, he did not work in pipeline welding.

But as I did not have enought time during my IWS certification (that I obtained) and my 2 monthes of welding in the workshop (I paied from myself 8 welding certificates), I'm at home this week, waiting for my new welding job, and I go to the "Institut de Soudure" of Strasbourg next Friday to pass my SMAW welding pipe certificate with 6010 rods full downhill welding. I even managed 6G full 7018.

For the fill and cap I'm good enough with 6010 but I've got big problems on root pass.

My prepartion is 2mm for the gap and 2 mm for the land. I weld the root pass with 70 amps with an 3,2 mm stickrod 6010 (electrode on negative). And on the bottom of the pipe I don't manage to finish the roo pass it is horrible. However I keep a very short arc.

But as we have got many CO2 maybe we don't need to inverse the polarity and so have every pass with the electrode on +. Or maybe I'm not bright...

Here is my question and I hope that you all guys will accept to help myself because if I manage this certificate, I will be abble to work in pipeline later and have the possibility to travel in other countries with my family.

Thanks a lot everyone.

Bye.


Sylvain

Hi, Sylvain, and welcome!

Sorry for the delay in getting your first post approved. Our time difference means I didn't see it until I returned from work.

To try to answer your question, 6010 is designed (and the flux is formulated) to operate on DCEP, and this is the only way I've ever used it. I have heard before of using straight polarity (DCEN) for a root pass, but that's usually been a 7018 root, or with 6011, which can run on either polarity or on AC.

You'll find in the responses to follow that EP is the norm in the U.S. and Canada, but you may also find people with experience doing it the other way who may shed more light on how and why this might be done.

Steve S

Thanks a lot. After having tried 3 weeks at home with my own SMAW machine, I became thinking about a problem with the polarity on rrot pass that my welding teacher explained to me.

In the same time I asked this question on this forum, I received an a,swer on a french forum "soudeurs.com" where a pipeline welder told to me the same thing than you.

So, I think I will have enough time for the next 2 days to entertain myself on this enigmatic root pass and the test for me is Friday.

I hope it will be fine.

Thank you very much everyone.

Bye bye.

Sylvain
veillon.sylvain@neuf.fr
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sylvain-veillon-aa453699/

Sylvain, welcome to the forum.

Thank you.