ive been welding for about 6 years now and i still cant make my stainless welds look that great, well on butt welds when welding sch10 or 16 guage. it really pisses me off to be honest. so ive tried pulsing and not pulsing going slow and going somewhat fast but i still cant get it to look really professional. did any of u guys have problem with the arc wandering back and forth while weldling, cause i know thats one of the reasons my **** doesn look that good. ive been practicing on some sch 10 with 1/16" and 045" rod (.045 seams to be a bit under cut and looks ok and 1/16" seems to wander when the puddle gets even with the pipe surface) but its just not happening. anybody got any advice?


mike


heres some pics of the .045 on sch 10, like i said i think it looks ok but want it to look a bit better........

 

What machine do you have? Seems like you need to adjust your pulse time on the machine. Than play with heat and penetration to get a good weld.

I don't worry as much on how it looks, as long as I get a good strong weld.

 

Those welds look really under filled/concave. You need to use a larger filler rod or get busy jamming the rod in there. Personally the weld doesn't look that bad but it looks like the puddle is getting to hot and dragging along. See how it's getting a peak in the end of the bead?

Try it again but with more filler maybe that will cool the puddle down enough to stop the dragging/ peak int he beads.

 

oh i know they are undercut. that was with .045" rod, should i try 1/16" instead? i have a invertec 205 and that was not using pulse, does pulse turn out better welds for u guys? and ive never messed with the penetration. so ill have to look into that.


mike

 

Those weld dont look that bad at all. The second pic shows the beads are more consistant than the other two but it is undercut. Stick with the .045 rod get a bit more heat in it and really jam that filler in there. On pipe I do about half inch of filler rod each time I jam it in there. Also get you hand/arm comfortable and get a steady rythm going.

 

I hope you're not another guy who just wants pretty colours...

Your weld looks fine. Minus the undercut. The colours you have there are closer to what they're supposed to be. You just need to make some slight improvemnts. You already know where you need to improve.

 

ive got some 1.5" sch 40 at home, im gonna weld it up with some 1/16" rod tonight when i get home to see how that turns out. i have no issues with my welds holding i backpurge and clean it corrctly and all that stuff but i would like the end product to be a litte more appealing to the eye u know.



mike

 

pulse on DC? Most be some new technology lol.

 

What? He's not talking about balance lol.

OP push more filler in there. that's the only thing seperating you from pretty colors and a convex cap.

Dipping and pulsing is weak ninja for pipe welding. Learn to walk the cup and just cram filler in there. It's pretty sweet.

 

You've never heard of using pulse on dc?

 

damn I could have sworn the dynasty 350's we had at school didnt have them

on me then

 

Dynasty 350s most definitely have DC pulse yo

And this:

 

theres gotta be some kind of secret to getting this **** to look good cause i just cant ****ing do it. this is frustrating as hell!

heres some sch10 with .045" wire and some sch40 with some 1/16" wire

(now these were the bevels that came with the pipe so that may have had something to do with these welds being they they were not very wide)

 

that not bad for not touching the bevel. I will always put a sharp bevel on the sch material. personally i would stick to 1/16" for all sch thickness's. It is easier to get the right amount of filler in there without having to jam it in all crazy fast.

You could try lay wire. Take 1/16" rod and set it in the puddle then work the torch and push the rod in as needed, without taking it out the puddle. This takes some getting used to but it's easier for me and gives a nice weld appearance. also you will need a bit more amps then your used to sense the filler is in the puddle the whole time.

 

ill try that tonight and see how it goes. thanks for the tip sir.


mike

 

I know im late but it does look like too much heat and you need more filer rod when you go to dab

 

I'm new so I'm not giving advice.

How fast are you moving? are you pausing in each puddle? I use high frequency pulse and I think I move along faster than you and in smaller steps or sometimes almost non stop... But I'm a noob and I haven't done pipes yet.

 

Good thread

 

set #2 look better i havent got a chance to try stainless how is it compared to steel?

 

I've been welding stainless pipe for years and I still struggle with uniformity. I'd say that 50% of your consistency is in the prep. Make sure your bevel is straight as an arrow and consistent, because if not it can throw off your heat control and rhythm. Experiment with different bevel thickness / angle. I spent a long time making the landing too thin, and it made it difficult to get a good consistent fill. Now I leave it a little thicker and weld hot. And of course, make good use of your post flow. A large diameter gas lens w/ biggest cup possible and gas dialed in just right will give you a nice clean finish. It looks like you could use just a bit better gas coverage.

Good luck!

Here's a pic showing the best I have been able to do on sch 10 pipe :

 

bumping this back up cause i just tried some more tonight. i would be very happy if my welds looked like that markku. that being said well ive been messing with the pulsing and its working pretty well with the thinner stuff but still aint getting much better with the sch stuff. again im not worried about the strength as im getting good penetration with and im back purging, im just trying to get the finish to look more uniform and professional......... heres what i did tonight, sch 10 with single pass 1/16" filler.........














so after i welded that sch pipe i went ahead and did another pass over top of the first with .030" to see what it would looked like and this is the outcome.........












is this how u guys are getting a more uniform look???


mike

 

I do 2 passes for sch.10. Autogenous root, then .045" filler at 75 amps. You have to practice pushing filler in there until you see the edges melt and the bead come flush.
On 16 ga, I bevel it just slightly and use .035" filler at 42-45 amps.
As a rule, pulse is nearly useless with dipping. Constant feed is the way to go with pulse.
The key really is watching the edges of your puddle. That's where the consistency comes.
The key to pulse is a strong peak setting with lower background amps to let the material cool slightly. PPS should be fairly high, above 100 anyway.

 

What size tungsten are you using with the .045 filler?

 

For pipe I use 1/16", for tube I usually use .040". The .040" doesn't last long at 70+ amps.
It's great at 50 or less though, fires up nice with a stable arc.

 

Thanks. I have been having issues overheating my 1/16th filler on sch 10. I did the root pass with no filler, back purged....turned out pretty good...penetration, consistancy, colors, etc. But when trying to lay the second pass, I can't get the filler to spread out enough unless I apply 75-85A and then it turns grey upon doing so. This was with a 3/32 hybrid tungsten. Going to try the 1/16th tungsten soon.