Welding Tips and Tricks

I have some 4" Heavy wall up for a test. It's been a while since I have practiced but really looking on some tips to help.

Half the coupon will be GMAW, other half will be GTAW(maybe SMAW too). Should be carbon, Not sure of the actual thickness. No restriction ring, But close to the ground to simulate working environment. This facility has Lincoln powerwave 455 with the STT function and pulse- Unclear on what I will be using for doing this visual test.

My test is tomorrow morning, I could use some help with MIG parameters if I am unable to use that Lincoln machine.
* I have only welded a Mig Root on 6" Sch45 with 1/8" root gap with about 17.5 V and 280ipm/WFS on a miller xmt304 with 22a migrunner cc/cv. I have no idea if that is good settings for that pipe but I was able to keep a consistent root without blowing out a sidewall.

All I know is that with STT, you just camp out on the middle of the puddle and let the machine do it's thang. You don't keyhole or flick

I've never seen a split test on a single coupon in any serious application, so I'd expect the VT to be fairly liberal... Sort of a "can you work this machine and make a weld" test.

I'm sorry I can't help with the synergistic settings, or even MIG pulse. It's outside my experience. However, the whole point is to let the machine do the work, so if someone can get you in the ballpark, it should be fairly simple.

Good luck, and please report your results!

Steve S

There is nothing I would feel more comfortable with than that Lincoln machine... Who knows maybe I get to use it?

Otto, It is not a destructive test or cert test. just a stepping stone to see if they can use me

Did an asme9 test in stt last year.there are synergic settings in the feeder or you can set the voltage and wfs seperate if preferred

at 12 o clock you weave side to side to limit penetration,down to about 1:30
then change to the middle of the puddle for the rest of the way down,slight drag about 10 degrees.
Settings and program ill have to double check,but an important variable is 'background' current.set between 50 and 60 only. 60 has less penetration,50 has more.

Should have mentioned,setup was 6" schd80 about 1/32 land 1/8 gap in American
1mm land 3mm gap for us europeans and those down under

hacadacalopolis wrote:I have some 4" Heavy wall up for a test. It's been a while since I have practiced but really looking on some tips to help.

Half the coupon will be GMAW, other half will be GTAW(maybe SMAW too). Should be carbon, Not sure of the actual thickness. No restriction ring, But close to the ground to simulate working environment. This facility has Lincoln powerwave 455 with the STT function and pulse- Unclear on what I will be using for doing this visual test.

My test is tomorrow morning, I could use some help with MIG parameters if I am unable to use that Lincoln machine.
* I have only welded a Mig Root on 6" Sch45 with 1/8" root gap with about 17.5 V and 280ipm/WFS on a miller xmt304 with 22a migrunner cc/cv. I have no idea if that is good settings for that pipe but I was able to keep a consistent root without blowing out a sidewall.

Am I misunderstanding you? Do you mean that the first half (root and fill passes) are GTAW, and the cap(s) are GMAW?

Please clarify what you mean by "half the test..."

Steve S

Back in to report. Here are the results;

First off, the Foreman that I was getting setup with through an office manager was not there and apparently took the day off. No problem, but did not weld the heavy wall 4", instead it was 6" sch40 pipe. The welder that was used was very nice. A Lincoln Powerwave s300 or 350 with a Auto/Manual bench feeder with programmable memory modes.

Was told to tack only for top and bottom, should've really tried to continue with 4 if I could. Root gap was 1/8", but 1/16" by end of the first half of the root for tig portion(it closed up really bad at 9 clock. Had good reinforcement from 6 clock to 8 clock then rest was setup for failure for tig root. Flush root not concave. Mig root was flush without any reinforcement. The flux fill/cap looked awful.

live and learn.

Steve, I didn't know a damn thing until I got there really. The test I thought might have some stick involved, however, what I did was Half tig root, Half mig root, Rest was filled and capped with flux core

I hope this was a VT!

That's the second craziest test I've ever heard of.

Steve S