Welding a steel pipe to a 2x3x1/8

Hi,

I'm a beginner welder and have been doing lots of practice in scrap metal and have done a few small projects. My current project requires a 2" 1/8 steel pipe to be welded to a 2x3x1/8. I have drilled the 2x3 on the 3" side with 2" holes. The pipe goes inside the 2x3 and sticks out about 7" on each side.

The holes turned out to be a bit out of center, so I have to grind the hole to make the pipe perpendicular to the 2x3, however the gap between the pipe and 2x3 is larger than I have planned. Not by much, but it is not a tight fit.

This is a basic drawing of what I'm doing: (2x3) || ==||== >>2" pipe || ===||=== >>2" pipe ||

I'm using a 0.35 flux cored wire to weld this (FCAW). What's the best technique to weld this pipe to the 2x3 and fill up the gap that I have? I have a 220v 185amp wire feed welder from Lincoln Electric. I don't gas hooked up yet so I'm using it as FCAW.

Thanks in Advance, Guillermo

Reply to
Guillermo
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If by teh holes being oversize "not by much" you mean the maximum gap is less than about 1/16", don't worry about it. Just fillet weld both sides and be done with it. You will probably want to lay in three or four tacks to hold the pipe in place before running te fillets. Try to burn the wire in right at the root where tight, and a little weave where the gap is wide.

If the gap is larger than this, run into the gap to fill it, then run the fillet. You can also run around the inside of the hole to reduce its size before inserting the pipe, and open the hole back up to fit the pipe.

The fit doesn't have to be perfectly tight, and in fact you generally want it to have a little play to get the pieces together and for adjustment. If the gap is more than, say, half the material thickness, then you worry about filling it. Just ran nozzles on a vessel (1/4" all) with gaps approaching the 1/4 at points. No problem. Several passes to do it--tack, fill wide openings, root the fillet, cover to make weld size. Hydro'ed fine. In commercial welding, part of the job of the welder is to make up for less-han-perfect fit, and, within limits, nobody worrys about it. I'v seen structural beams stretched several times the thickness of the web with weld metal. Inspector approved it. Noblody batted an eye. Expensive way to build if it is a regular thing, and not considered good practice if the fitup can be done right, but sometimes you gotta...

Reply to
e

Thanks for the info.

I will try to get this done tonight and see how it goes. The gap is not very big. I don't believe it is bigger than half of thickness of the material. When you run a weave on the gap, would you have a short electrode or long? My intuition would be to have a longer electrode, but I'm a beginner :)

Thanks in advance. Guillermo

Reply to
Guillermo

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