Welding Tips and Tricks

Happened a few weeks ago and I still have not been able to find anything in researching.

Old stock 1-5/8"OD SCH40 galvanized made in the UAE that I pulled from the off-cuts bin, with galvanize ground away from weld area except for the inside of the tube which I couldn't get to. 0.045 ER70S-6, 25CFH of C25, ~18v and what ever ~40%-42% on an old MM200 is. This spike that was not molten kinda rose and floated in the molten puddle. Never seen this before and have no idea what the hell it could be. I went to break it off and it was extremely brittle, almost like carbide. Did not notice any porosity or anything weird as I was grinding the weld away. Still have the same reel of wire in the machine and have not had this happen since (though it's only been about 100' at most out of the reel since it happened). My only guess is something in the tube, but I have no idea. The wire didn't seem to have any oddities in the arc during this weld. Only idea someone else has had was the galvanized spider-webbing/cotton candy-ish stuff that happens, but this was way different than that.

Today I welded some more stuff from the same length of tube and did not notice the same, so that partially rules out my idea of cutting-bit contamination on the factory bevel.

A one off phenomenon

LtBadd wrote:A one off phenomenon

Thats what I'm hoping for. Had 30 minutes to piece together a rush double drive and having to break the grinder out again sucked.

Our supplier has been switching up suppliers from the UAE, India, China, Mexico, and the USA non-stop the last few months because of the trade war. 50% of me thinks it was the base metal, but the other 50% thinks it was a defect in the filler. Trying to figure out if I need to stay away from welding certain batches of tube and just let the installers use that stuff up since we also have a ton of black and green powder coated stuff I need to make some gates from too.

Coldman wrote:

snail.jpg

I know what that one is. Me on a Monday before 9am.

So, it has happened 3 more times. Changed out the spool after one, and all was well until it happened twice on the same weld today, however this one was a bit more interesting. One of the spikey pieces actually had grinder marks on it from where I was grinding away the hot dip galv and beveling. Only thing that was the same as last time was the C25 bottle, me, the fact that it's hot dip galvanized, and the welder. Different brand of wire, different country of origin on the pipe, different brand of flap wheel, different method of notching, different method of cutting the pieces. Could something in the galvanizing process be leaving some weird things on the metal? I highly doubt it but I'm all out of ideas.

I think it's time you start shaving.

I hate shaving though!

Killed a bandsaw blade cutting a part but think I figured it out. Can't tell 100% what it is, but I'm willing to bet it's splintered tungsten in the seam weld. Thought we were getting furnace welded stuff but found one piece in a bundle of 61 lengths stamped ERW A53-A. Went back ans looked at the gate from yesterday and sure enough, it was right where a weld seam was.

Gotta love cheap steel.