Welding Tips and Tricks

hello board. I'm hoping some of you can help me out with my cwb test coming up soon. having a little trouble with the root. (hair line cracks) through out the plate). I'm pretty sure it's not slag inclusion as I clean the plate pretty well on each pass. my fill and cap are ok. I'll be testing with 7018 1/8 rods with 2 start and stops. I'm pretty new at welding. I looked on the board here but can't seem to find info.

any tips and tricks would be greatly appreciated.

thanks
chris

Do you have any pictures of the "cracks"?

Are they side bends or face/root bends?

If they are root bends, do they run the entire length of the face width?

Are there 2 of them parallel to each other?

It's 2 roots and a face bend on all cwb GF tests now.

U want ur electrode angle at about half the included angle so IE 45 degrees while doing the 90 degree portion. and a drag angle of about 5 degrees. One of the biggest things I recommend is run your roots as hot as u can stand and keep the arc as tight as u can.

Sounds like u may not be digging into the corner of the joint and burning the edges away and biting into the backing. Also don't forget to check the machines arc force setting and turn em up for ur root. And always run the long start/stop on the fillet side first so when u restart the piece is nice and hot.


Also use a hand brush and chipping hammer to clean ur roots grinder brushes can polish and almost harden slag that's caught in undercut making it impossible to get out easily. Save the power brush to polish ur cap .

Hope it helps