Welding Tips and Tricks

I have a sanitary job coming up later this year. It's going to be in a range of sizes. Haven't done much of this type of work in the past and want to improve my skills but I have the opportunity to practice up so visual finish is nice. Also keen to use pulse as well.

I have on the shop rack available for practice:
These guys would be square butt autogenous
5" x 1/16" 304
4" x 1/16" 316L

These guys would be vee butt prepped with filler, I can work on these OK just letting you know what's on my rack
2" x sched 10 316L
1-1/4" sched 10 316L

All will be purged, I have argon and nitrogen available.

So from my stainless guru mates out there can I ask the following advice please:
Recommended settings for straight and pulsing arc,
Best practice for sanitary autogenous arc manipulation - circling e's, weaving, forward and backwards?
sharp 3/32" lanth ok ? or would you go down to 1/16"
Getting the right colour result.

Thanks in advance.

OK us ozzies are patient if nothing else. Started playing around with some settings, see what you think.

Settings used in these pics are:

3/32" 2% Lanth, No.8 cup, 10L/min argon (21cfh)
Purged with nitrogen (used copper fittings for purge caps)

Coupon is 4" x 1/16" 316L tubing (101.6 x 1.6mm)
Kept a tight arc and used a quick freehand weave (no circling e's)

Pulse settings:
120amps peak (on the pedal but well off max travel)
25% on time
25% backgound current
100 PPS The root is nice in places and other places not so nice.
My speed tacking needs practice, caused a slight gap in one place that I had to use filler.

Looking for experienced advice please.
Hey Tricky, where are you brother? I need you!

Rick_H does this and can help I'm sure, if he doesn't show then send him a PM

Rick_H aka Tricky


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Coldman wrote:Rick_H aka Tricky
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Ok got it now

Sent Rick a PM, hopefully he will read it soon, also posting up some more results here.

Settings:
120 Amps on the peddle. Recorded this with my phone - only used 45 amps.
Background current 25%
Peak On Time 25%
PPS 100
Purge - nitrogen
Argon 10L/min (checked with the calibrator tube thingy)
Arc motion - slight quick weave - no filler fusion

Put this bad boy on and cranked up the argon to see what would happen. Kept the same settings:

Coldman wrote:Put this bad boy on and cranked up the argon to see what would happen. Kept the same settings:

So what do you think of the FUPA cup?
Doing a weld like this, I've realized that travel speed, torch angle and arc length, even tungsten prep all become very important to achieve consistent results, do you feel you're making progress?

I feel like it's another step in the learning journey. The fupa cup narrows the bead and flattens the root reinforcement with faster travel speed and nicer colour it looks good. But I have alot more combinations to try and I'd like to know more about avoiding pitfalls like in service cracking by increasing reinforcement or technique. Seasoned experience and knowledge here would save me alot of time zeroing in on reliable settings. With these last settings I am already outpacing cup walkers so that's good but plenty of argon is used. I'm pleasantly surprised how good nitrogen is for purging and colour.


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Good morning mates!

On .065" wall I use a jumbo cup, 1/16" Thor tungsten, 60amps, 2.5pps, slow and steady travel speed looking for that devil's eye in the puddle. My little 150 Maxstar STH doesn't allow me to play with background and peak time it is at 50/50. If I do straight pulls no pulse, I use about 50 amps no ocilation or weaving, if I walk which will have a ,#8 cup it's around 43-45amps.

My 4" sanitary has a .083" wall, I use 3/32" Tung, #8 cup, 60amps, walk the cup slow and steady.

My purge pressure changes depending on how big of a pipe I am doing. Edges of the pipe are flat and tight, alignment is critical or you'll fight full penetration.

Hope that helps!

http://tritool.com/product/model-304/

Use one of these if you don't have one already. Worth there weight in gold for SS tube.

Poland308 wrote:http://tritool.com/product/model-304/

Use one of these if you don't have one already. Worth there weight in gold for SS tube.

I have one made by Lefon...awesome piece, basically face and weld.

Both machines look awesome. Round this way they're $6k plus shipping. Oh well ...


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I did it for many years with a band saw, guide and a dedicated file...fit is everything.

Hey Rick wot's happenin?

Thankyou so much for your knowledge and experience, much appreciated!!!
I tried your setting 60amp, 2.5pps, 50% on time, 50% background current. I don't have a 1/16" gas lense for the fupa cup so I stayed with sharp 3/32" lanth. Result was incomplete penetration.

Increased peak current to 65amps, here is the result: I think it's looking good, what do you think?

By the way, I am using band saw cuts for fitup, and dirty used for everything file. (I'll get a new one for really and truly welds)

Hey Rick,
by "devil's eye" I presume you mean the tiny keyhole at the leading edge of the weld pool. I also found I needed to keep the electrode at 90 degrees to keep control of the weld pool and penetration. Any lay back of the electrode immediately caused incomplete penetration.
Is this your experience?