[rankamateur]

I was on a while ago asking about some structural welds I had. I got some great advice, especially from jpence and a couple other guys. I just wanted to let everyone know how it turned out. I've been running hard and haven't had much time to get online the last six months or so.

My inspector was okay with me running T-1 outdoors. The original inspector said "no dice" so I got him replaced. While I ended up jumping a few projects and missing a good deal of the structural welding, there was still a whole lot to do when I got there.

T-1 did great outdoors, I ran my gas pressure a little higher than in the shop and didn't have too much trouble with shielding gas. I was running .052 and was able to make a 5/16" fillet weld with a reasonable amount of weave and minimal fuss over shielding. We were running an eXtreme 12VS originally. A problem with the welder sent it off for repairs and I bought a 12RC and carried on with it. It did great as well. I hated having to run a tether, but being able to adjust the voltage as I switched from flat to vertical to overhead from the lift was great. I think a remote is in my near future for when use the 12RC.

Anyway, some of the local welders we brought out were using LN-25s and burning .078 NR-233. It didn't take me long to realize they were running circles around me, so I bought a pawn-shop LN-25 for $300 (best deal ever!!!) and picked up a spool and started playing with it a little more. After a long weekend I tested with it and started burning. I am throwing away my stinger and every stick of 7018 I own.

I learned real quick with the 233, my stickout was critical. It took some playing around for me to figure out my settings for each position and to be perfectly honest, I still have a cheat sheet taped to my wire box to get me close. I liked it so much I looked into some smaller diameter self-shielding wire for my lighter joining onsite and settled on .045 Hobar FabCore 21b (I am pretty sure that's the trade name, but couldn't swear), a T-8 for my smaller joints. I mainly went with the Hobart wire because it was available in quantity a couple blocks away.

The T-8 was a lot more forgiving when I had to join hot dipped galvanized parts, requiring a lot less clean up before and after welding. Again, stickout was important and I learned real quick that the weld seemed to freeze a lot quicker than the T-1 or the solid wire I was accustomed to, I am assuming this is because the flux is thicker with the innershield wire. Additionally, it took some practice for me to learn to distinguish the weld puddle from the flux while running it, but once I wrapped my simple head around it, it quickly became natural.

As far as working with inspectors go (I am fairly new to structural welding that isn't in a quarry where "it sticks" is not good enough), I learned that contrary to what I had been told, most inspectors are humans and have no horns or fangs anywhere. When I worked with one, I introduced myself first thing, then explained to him I was fairly new to field welding, and had him look at my first couple welds before I went to town. Each inspector had his own pet peeves and things he was going to for sure nail you on. Once I figured out what these were, I was able to finish the job without being told to rework or cut out a single weld. As one inspector put it "I just verify the weld passes. If you do not know the weld is going to pass, don't call me to come look". Some of our welders had problems with that, and ended up with inspectors that did no take kindly to it. You definitely want your inspector to take kindly to you.

I learned a hell of a lot on this job. I am much more confident with out of position welds, self-shielding wires, and working in the field with CWIs. I really appreciated everyone's help.

I do have one area that is still giving me some issues, though. When I have a T-Joint that is running between 30-45 degrees of vertical, so it's between an overhead and a vertical, I tend to sag in the middle and have large toes on my weld when running smaller wires. With the larger 233, I was able to get my settings, stickout and gun angle right and just run it in a single bead with very little manipulation, but running the .052 and .045 wires, these welds just looked like hell to me. They passed inspection, so I guess they were not horrible but I know they can be better and while I'm not trying to put guys with 20 years experience to shame, I do like to finish a weld and take pride in knowing it's as good as it can be and looks it. What method would you fellows take to these welds to achieve these results? If I get some advice, I'll sneak into the shop this week and try it and post some pics in a new thread so you can critique.

Thanks again for all the advice! This job had several challenges, welding related and in general and I really appreciated the sound advice I got here!

[Otto Nobedder]

That's great! It sounds like you've really hit your stride, and reaffirmed what I love about this forum... Solid advice with a minimum of bullshit.

I understand your concern about the appearance of your welds in the (nearly) overhead position. I've said it before, we tend to be our own worst critics.

Innershield is not my strong point, but (generally) I solve that problem with an increase in wire speed and a "push" of about 15*

Best of luck, and glad to hear you've been working!

Steve S