Anything welding

Things can get very interesting it all depends on the policy of the distributor .Here is where way to many lawyers comes into effect

Some will Swap any cylinders .

Others only send customer owned cylinders to their fill plant to be refilled if they don`t fill in house. There own cylinders come first it could take as long as 3 weeks.

California who knows what protocol they need to follow.

It really Comes down to how good you know the vendor

 

Depends on the company, airgas would cool whatever tank we brought. We had an account but no need to set one up, same with Prax. I've never felt with a company that would send bottles out to get filled, just swap it out then and there.

 

I don't have anything against Praxair, but the nearest one is about 40 miles from me, while an Airgas is only 10 miles.

 

Airgas is better anyway.

 

Welding butt plates (1/4" gap, with backing, 3/8"x8" plate)vertical and I'm finally starting to be happy with my root pass.


The hot pass isn't terrible, but it's challenging with the rods were running this semester.
Lincoln has supplied us with Excalibur 7018 rods at an educational discount but they don't run very flat.
The Chinese rods (bowler, or bohler I think) that we had last semester weld so much better, we have a few left for testing and today he gave each student 2 rods to run the hot pass and it's much flatter with no undercut.

Hopefully tomorrow I should be moving to horizontal from vertical.

 

Lol hell no. Lincoln Excalibur rods are pure sex! They are the best burning 7018 IMHO. Also dont try to move too fast from one objective to the other. Learn the positions over and over and over. Do a plate test 3-4 times. Trust me. Nerves and new people and new environment will make you forget something you swore you had imprinted in your brain.
Take advantage of the school time as much as you can. Don't try to blow through it.

 

I won't argue because you've most definitely run more rods than me, but nobody (including the teacher) can get them to lay flat, there's always a pronounced ridge in the center.
What amp range would you recommend for 3/8 steel? We use 116-117, the teacher ran rods from 100-135 amps and he said it behaved the best at 116-117, but another student runs his at 140-145 to make it lay flat, but I think it may be to hot.

I'm definetley not trying to rush through, I'm just happy to be close to being off of vertical, once I get on horizontal I can run either one I want as long as I practice and pass horizontal.

I like the last few weeks of class when the teacher lets us weld however we want, we can practice what we feel we are weak in and do bend tests if we want.

 

Unless you all are using the same machine the range is going to be different from one machine to the next. In our lab all the machines amp dials were f'd to the point where you either used the same machine so you got comfortable with it or burned a few sticks to get a new one dialed in correctly.

 

Not only are the machines output different we all weld a little different most likely within 10 amps .

To a non welder 10 amps seems like a little difference to us it is quite a bit depending on position.

 

True, my teacher told us the start of last semester that he likes to run a little hotter than most of the people he used to work with.

We have 10 miller 304 machines, 2 Lincoln power mig (256 I think), and 2 miller 304 machines.
I use the Lincoln, it welds a little better at 119A, the other students are still trying to find the sweet spot with the millers.

 

Ran into a interesting Lincoln 350MP problem the software was different enough that the older machine would run a program just fine at what ever setting .

New machine would not weld any where close to the same settings on the same program 3 new control boards the old and new software are just that different

Only about 6 months difference in production dates

I told them this was the issue from the start.

 

some welds from work this past week.

Customer came in wanting to get his bout up a little higher on the trailer as it was very close to hitting the sides when hitting bumps. 1/4" stainless


8" pipe to 1/2" plate around 5/16 weld size



Fluxcore Friday!



And a AmeriSlagFlag with what was left of the whole pieces. Most broke when they hit the table

 

You know... I know people like to joke around and talk shit about how welders are crybabies... But what the hell do you expect when you leave plates fitted like this that are gonna be welded up with flux core which sucks with any real gaps..

 

What flux core wire are you running? I've never seen a flux core weld that clean with that little splatter.

 

Gas shielded Flux core wire looks like that all the time when your dialed in.

 

I can't even remember where I picked it up, but I've been running the Mountain E71T-GS wire and it's been awful. I've heard Hobart makes the best flux core?

 

This ^^^
We used dual shield (W/Gas) flux core my first semester, welds beautifully, just a little runny for welding with a gap (Like 7018).

 

its Hobart wire around 26v and 500ipm

 

Maybe you never heard this before Good Welders make poor fitters look good

 

Also, if you can step across that gap, I can bridge it.