stick / SMA weld fence / railing / tube - choose rods

Mar 28, 2007 1 Replies

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Richard Smith 19 years ago

Hi everyone. Advice for me, working in Britain.

Been welding railing around a building today. Where horizontal tube meets flat plates of access ladders.

Co. I work for knows only 6013 (rutile)

I've used only 6010/6011 and 7018 in the past 1~1/2yrs.

Welding machine is better end of AC buzz-box (fan-cooled, 180A).

(i) do you need a more arc-gap / arc-length with 6013 than 7018? Seem to get a lot of trapped slag, parting the weld down the middle, if "try to really get into the corner" using style when fillet-cornering with 7018?

(ii) 6013 seems just plain hard work compared to 6011 for this work going around a pipe - believe 6011 not so critical about slope, which can easily become "push" angle as trying to get around pipe, in that don't get slag trapping as there is very little slag.

(iii) the penetration and fast freeze of 6011 - this is good and works for you (makes things easier) in this situation of wanting small penetrated positional welds?

Richard Smith

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Randy Zimmerman 19 years ago

Sounds like you are not running enough heat if you get a separation in your bead. I would turn up the heat and hold a tight arc, almost dragging. When you encounter a gap aim your rod toward the plate rather than the thin walled pipe. Let the molten metal wash into the gap between plate and pipe/tube. The next step after that is to fill the gaps with a second rod. Gaps or burn through over 3mm can be a pain to repair. I knock the flux off a second rod and use that as a filler... much like running TIG except your heat comes from your arc rod and you add more filler with bare rod. In field work nothing goes as planned. Randy

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