Hello makeithot, I believe the test that you did illustrates to a great degree the problems that can sometimes arise when you try to make welds with one diameter electrode over another one in specific situations. A given diameter of rod will make a specific size fillet more easily and to a better quality standard, that's part of why we have different choices of diameters for like types of rods.
To me, a couple of the wire processes illustrate this even better. When you consider gasless FCAW wire for example, many of the .068 diameter wires are used for vertical up welds in fillet situations, although many aren't really designed for this application. An .045 wire of similar type will improve greatly on the visual performance of the weld application in this case and allow for more operators to make satisfactory welds with greater ease and less chances of failures(time is money though and so most fabricators and erectors will still opt for the increased diameter wires as they go by the bigger is obviously better train of thought).
GMAW with .045 ER70S-6 compared to the same wire of .035 dia. fillet welds on 12 GA. with either of these wires, I would argue that it would be easier to dial the .035 wire in to make a good looking weld with sound mechanical properties and much less spatter than would the use of the .045 dia. wire. Here again, cost and acceptability of finished product will determine which will be used in most cases. In this instance there could be a ton of variables that would also come into play, position of welding, type of shielding gas, mode of arc transfer, pulsed or not pulsed, and others.
What I'm really trying to say here is when it comes to making particular types of welds, some combinations of welding variables will lend greatly to the ease of welding, operator comfort, speed, accuracy, and consistency of welding, amount of clean-up required and in many cases the amount of rework that is required. One needs to pay attention to the over-all picture many times and not just necessarily the portion that they perceive to be a slowdown point. My $.02 and certainly not gospel. Regards, aevald
Aveald, Maybe not gospel but true none the less. Those are my thoughts exactly. All variables should be considererd when one makes a decision as to what process, rod dia etc is going to produce the most cost effective results. The end result of course being good weld quality with minimal or no repairs necessary.
Spent a good part of today fillet welding down shear studs with 5/32 7018. When compared to the same size weld performed with 1/8 7018, i was knocking them dead. Later had to 3F some shear clips onto the sides of columns standing on some rather long extension ladders. With feet on terra firma or even a less flexible vulcraft deck, this is an easy one with 5/32. With the gentle swaying of the ladder brought one by the very act of breathing and a bit of an extended reach at arms length to reach the last two inches, I quickly realized that 5/32 was not going to pay the time savings that was first thought. A small bump of the ladder by another ironworker yielded a defect in the finished weld as would have easily been avoided with 1/8. A bit of an overlap on the last 3/8" of weld sent me down the ladder for the grinder to correct the defect. All the time I was working to correct this I was thinking to myself how many times I have been bumped, shook, hit with flying objects, had the ladder kicked by superintendent trying to get my attention, all while welding with 1/8 and always managed to get through the disturbance without nearly a mark in the finished product. Just a little more molten puddle to carry up seems to make a big difference in the results when adversity strikes. I didn't save any time on that one for sure. It seems to be rare to weld verts on structural without the need for some kind of ladder, scaffolding, manlift,etc. I have welded for some years either in a manlift or a truck mounted boom using large diameter FCAW wire encountering similar disturbances by outside forces, whom believe that shaking what you are welding on makes it easier for you to weld. Not much went wrong when using the wire. Just seems that SMAW thing is a little more sensitive to such influences as ladder induced operator shake. Especially when the ladder being used could seem to double for a flyfishing rod. One of those big hundred foot manlifts is also a treat when welding from the basket at full boom extension. Seems like even just a heartbeat moves the thing a couple of inches up and down. No 5/32 verts here for sure. Now when they decide the spacestation needs some big SMAW verts on the side I 'm there! Would be very cool to see how big of weld bead you could carry with the effects of gravity minimized.
While You are up there on the space station You could try bare electrodes, probably work a lot better there than down here.
Hey Al ,
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