Welding Tips and Tricks

I need to pass the AWS D1.1 qualification soon. I have done many pipe style welds (weaving) and consider myself pretty good at them. I am having trouble getting my vertical stringers to look as professional as I would like them. Does anyone have any tricks or secrets that helped them have an epiphany on this technique. Thanks for any input.

Hey,

I too once had to make a transition from pipe welding to structural, without ever having had training in structural welding. It's tougher than it sounds isent it? Especially considering a 6G is supposed to be worth more than a 2,3 and 4g test

Now I don't know excatly how you weld, but let me just give you some pointers based on experiance.

When I welded pipe, i used to use just one heat. It seemed to make the weave more uniform.

On the D1.1, you have 3 positions, so use 3 different amperage settings.

I like to use:
Horizontal(1/8 7018): 125-135

Vertical:I prefer to use a 3/32 rod for the vertical, if you can, especially for the cap stringer.
but if you have to use 1/8, set the amps at about 115-125

Overhead:About 135 is just great. In this position, a hot rod uses a strong arc force to keep the metal sleek and uniform. I had a horrible time with this when I first started.

When I used to weave beads, I would count the seconds in-between left and right motions. Don't try that with a stringer, theres just not enough time. Use your eyeballs, keep as tight of an arc as possible, weaving at most maybe 1/8 of an inch. Keep in mind, that the hotter the rod, the easier it will be to keep moving that rod without weaving. My pipe weaving beads I always ran cold. Don't do this.

Now on the vertical, position your stick-rod 90 degrees into the groove. Then tilt it up just a little bit. Too much will create problems. When i was a pipewelder, I aquired a tendancy to use a strong uphill angle(like, 160 degrees, whoa!), probably becuase i ran cold and this helped keep the puddle flowing. Don't do that, either.

On the horizantal and overhead too, try to use as straight in of a rod angle(90 degrees) as possible. Once you arc, you will adjust your angle of stick-rod find the right balence for yourself. I say to strike the rod at 90 degrees, then find your balence afterwards, becuase again, as a pipe welder, i had the tendancy to strike at a hard 45 degree agle.

So yeah its different, but if I can get it, lord knows anyone can.

Keep it up,

-Rick

One last tip, if you have a backing strip, make sure to start your weld before the plate, dont just arc on the edge and start diggin in. That was another mistake I made, most pipes not having any backing strips.

Best thing to do for vertical stringers is go slow. I know it sounds crazy but I had the hardest time running Vert! I use to run it really cold and fast because I was afraid of getting dingle berries and having it fall. After having a good friend of mine watch me weld he noticed I was long arching ALOT..(I was compensating for the low amps). He also said I was rushing my welds. I turned the miller up to about 128-133 and slowed right down and BAM!!! Beautiful uphill welds!! Also when I'm doing a root pass, I start on the backing strip and always "Zig no Zag" as a pattern. Start on the right and pause and say one alligator, go straight to the left and pause one alligator, move up one rod width and to the right side pause one alligator, then straight to the left one alligator. And so on so on up the plate pausing at each edge for one alligator. Good luck

I second his suggestion to slow down. I am in my first semester of welding school, and while 6010 vert up was the bane of my existence, 7018 took a while to get down as well. For me when I first started laying down some nice beads was when I was going so slow I felt really uncomfortable with my speed. Bam - perfect. Also another thing that helped me was to lower my plate so that I could concentrate on watching the top of the weld puddle and concentrate on keeping my electode arc length short and at the leading edge of the puddle. Good luck! Oh and dont be afraid of amperage, it's our friend.

Jay

If you need to test on the 1" plate with a backing strip I would go with the maximum gap allowed this will keep the electrode from getting stuck on the bevels. Arc blow plays a big factor when you are deep in the groove. Remember the bevel for the D1.1 is 22.5 degrees it is not as forgiving as the 37.5 degrees for pipe welding. Place you groung clamp directly on the test plate in the direction of travel this will help some if you experiance arc blow adjust the rod angle and tighten up the arc length. If you can get some plate practice one or two. Once the root and hot are in it's smooth sailing. Good luck.