1. Home
  2. ⚡ Welding Forums
  3. stick / SMA weld fence / railing / tube - fit-up

stick / SMA weld fence / railing / tube - fit-up

Second question on my "railings around a building" job.

If you really "square" the ends of the horizontal tube so that its butt against plate is very good match - tight fit with no gap -- that is going to make your welding a lot easier than when you have varying gaps with a canted-end rough cut?

Seemed to me good fit up means you can sweep around fast on a high current with a short arc and get a small neat penetrated weld even with 6013?

I found myself frigging around with the amps on the welder to avoid burn-through as the gap varied, wasting 20 times as much time as it would have taken to square-off the tubes in the first place - and producing much worse-looking welds. Is this the common experience?

I squared-up half the tubes before being stopped, leaving half with well-canted cuts, leading to this impression of mine.

How do you check "square end" on a tube? I improvised and it worked well for me - I took a sheet of paper and wrapped it once and a bit around the pipe, matching the wrap of the paper to overlap perfectly - at which you get a "square" to sight any correction made with a

4~1/2inch angle-grinder. What better methods exist?

Richard Smith

Reply to
Richard Smith
Loading thread data ...

I was a steel erection contractor. We used to repair and make a lot of ornamental metal, which consists of the components you are talking about.

I used almost exclusively 3/32" 6011 with the stinger negative. I know it's not in the book that way, but it worked like a charm to weld the small stuff with a narrow bead, good appearance, and decent penetration. I could even butt weld two pieces of .065" tubing together with this combination. Try it, it may be the answer to SOME of the situations you talk about. Short arc important, and keep the puddle small, which is easy with that small of a rod.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

"Steve B" wrote > I was a steel erection contractor. We used to repair and make a lot of

It's not in the cards for Richard either. He's using an A/C buzz box. I would try 3/32 7014 because its sooo damn easy to weld anything with. Tom

Reply to
Tom Wait

Duh. I didn't notice that factoid. Never mind.

7014 would be interesting. For the OP, please report on the results if you use it, or if you find the acceptable solution to your situation.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

I think 6011 will burn on an AC buzz-box. Will try to get some and report back. Might be able to get a handful of Arcos Nu5's.

Anyway, there are 6011's formulated specifically for buzz-boxes - for instance the Lincoln Fleetweld 180 - see

formatting link
tried them. Comments?

Given that all 6011's are designed for the purpose of running on AC:

When I tried root-running a V-prep'd pipe using 6011 on AC (used an "Oxford" oil-cooled welding transformer - admittedly a superb machine costing twice as much as a DC-delivering fair quality economical inverter) - was taken aback that the arc crackled/buzzed in time to the mains frequency - yet the weld seemed identical and the rod handling seemed identical *to the best of my limited ability to judge this!*. Run 6011 on DC and the arc is a smooth roar, by the way.

Now, *to the best of my ability to judge* !!! - for rutiles (6013's) - you simply cannot tell from the rod handling whether it is on AC or DC

- I'll gladly be told that I should be able to observe some difference :-)

Richard Smith

Reply to
Richard Smith

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.