3/8" 2F fillet one pass with .052 meta core. what cha think?

By Kix

Date 11-07-2007 13:38

I'm watching my guys constantly fight running 5/16" to 3/8" 2f fillets with metal core .052 wire. They were using .045 witch was pushing it so I thought it would be easier and more cost effective for us to make the jump to .052. The puddle seams to be to fluid and the bottom toe of the fillet always seams to look like it's coming close to rolling over. It doesn't have the same transition into the plate as the top toe of the fillet witch leads to speculation of lack of fusion for the first few mm on the bottom toe of the fillet. I know what you think and that they're not feeding enough wire, but it still does it and then gets to the point your cooling the puddle off to much to be getting consistent fusion everywhere.
I've thought to maybe try out some all position flux cored wire to keep that top edge where it needs to be and make the fillet look like the cross section of a triangle. I just don't know if I will be able to justify the mess. I then could cut down on the # of rotations needs to position every thing so that it can be welded in the 2f. Before one rotation they could have three sides welded.
I just want to here how some of you justify using flux core over metal core or vise versa.

By 803056

Date 11-07-2007 17:57

Give several of your welders a simple fillet break test. The break will show you whether you have fusion to root and you can easily assess the weld cross section with your macro-etches. The fillet break test can be a very usefull tool to assess your situation.

If three of the four welds show problems in the root area or if they exhibit overlap or under cut, you know you have to change something to improve the situation.

Best regards - Al

By BMason

Date 11-07-2007 18:34 Edited 11-07-2007 20:42

Kix,
how long has it been since your guy's made the switch to .052?
it may just be a matter of getting use to the larger wire.
our shop switched every one to .052 about 5 years ago, and you could definately tell who had been using it all along and who just made the move from .045...
as far as the weld size, .052 is great for 5/16 single pass... 3/8 single pass it is a little trickier, and i reserve that for my best welders. i require every one else to do the 3/8 as a triple pass.
with practice i think your welders will get it.and you will be very happy with the bigger wire.
.007 doesn't sound like a lot of wire...but believe me it is...
it does however sound like a brittish secret agent..lol
we use ER70S-6... i hope this helps
oops... don't know why i thought u said solid when u clearly said metal core

By MDG Custom Weld (***)

Date 11-07-2007 19:56

I always have had trouble with .052 metal core wires. It seems like the amount of wire verses the amount of powder in the mixture makes the puddle really fluid and hard to get good fusion on the toes without rolling over. We ditched the .052 metal core and went to solid wire and all of the trouble went away. Smaller diameter metal core works well on some stuff, but .052 has not worked well on anything.