Thanks Chet...The run of hose from the flow meter to the machine is about 15ft or so and then another 15ft of whip to get to the biziness end. I'll check the flow rate a little closer while welding to see what happens to the little floating ball.
Frets me when we have troubles and everybody scrambles to remove everything in place and put back the FCAW before I really get a chance to dig very deep into the problems.....production manager doesn't like to see people gathered around a machine asking questions, he wants to see nothing but elbows and whatever...LOL
The welds were "all around" fillet welds at the base plate of some W12x49's. Not long fillets by any stretch, especially on the inside of flanges(from the web out to the toes). I first thought we had too much flow and was creating some turbulance up inside the column, when placing those welds, but it didn't matter if he was welding up in the corner or out on the outside face of the flanges.
Initially I wrote some welding procedures to cover the GMAW, and then gave the welder a qualification test and all seemed to be fine. Welder was tickled at how quickly he could fill up that coupon. The bends came out great, nothing but clean material deposited.
Rolled through that first roll of wire and no hiccups, all seemed to be fine. This welder using 1/16" MCAW was finishing ahead of his partner on the same table using 3/32" FCAW and then sitting back smoking a ciggy watching his buddy walk back over to the wall and pull out the air hose and go back over all over his welds to chip the slag. He would rub it in every chance he got about how much quicker the MCAW wire was...but after that second roll of wire was put on, something happened....