Miller 350 w/ Flux Core

Date 07-01-2011 23:04 Edited 07-01-2011 23:07

Knucks,

WELCOME TO THE AWS WELDING FORUM!!

That does seem a little high for all position welding. I'm afraid I can't give you a better answer as to what I use at the moment.

Maybe you could help us though with some more info?? Material grade, thickness, electrode manufacturer, etc?? You would be surprised at the difference just a different manufacturer can make.

Have a Great Day, Brent

By Knucks Date 07-02-2011 03:18

Unfortunately I feel like I know very little about what I do for a living. :confused:

I only recently finished the first year of my apprenticeship.

I can't give you the material grade of the stuff I'm welding, beyond the fact that it's mild steel. The thickness of the C-channel and I-beams we use in the skids varies from 1/4" on the web up to 5/8" on the flange of some of the bigger I-beams. The majority would probably be 1/4" web with a 1/2" flange. I'm not sure of the exact designation of the wire, other than it's 0.45 all position flux core from ESAB.

I remember in school we welded with much lower settings, especially wire feed, but I'm expected to complete welds on beams 12" and under in a single pass. The only stuff we run multi-pass welds on are the lifting lugs.

I've cranked the machine as far as 25 and 350, that will pump out a reasonably nice 3/8" thick fillet weld on both the verticals and the overheads, but it'll blow right through the 1/4" stuff on a vertical weave if I'm not careful.

I suppose I could stop being stubborn and just learn to weld with the settings my journeyman likes, after all I did pass my CWB test with them... but it seems like with a little tweaking I could get much better looking and higher quality welds. I'm thinking of moving on to bigger and better things when I get my blue book back from the apprenticeship board, and I don't want to get laughed out of a shop that actually has some quality control.

By Lawrence (*****)

Date 07-02-2011 06:26

Welcome Knucks

Here is a link to the manufacturers (ESAB) FCAW fillers. The first link is parameters for their most popular all position dual shield electrode (710X) AND THE other link is to the rest of what they sell, just in case you use one of the others.

http://products.esabna.com/EN/home/filler_metals_catalog/filler_metals_product_detail/q/display_id.id4607b8a840c9a2.96957114/category_id.21824/path.filler_metals_cored_wire_carbon_low_alloy_steel_carbon_steel_gasshielded_flux_core_dual_shield_710x_71t1t9

http://products.esabna.com/EN/home/filler_metals_catalog/filler_metals_secondary/q/display_id.id4367f2a95dd644.32452846/path.filler_metals_cored_wire_carbon_low_alloy_steel_carbon_steel_gasshielded_flux_core

The ESAB literature is right on the money for parameters... You should not have to vary more than a half volt from their literature to make great welds. On material 3/8 and thicker that ESAB filler with mixed gas will run 450 inches per minute vert up! It will punch through quarter inch if you set too high...

First you must listen to your boss and not make waves... Then make sure what your boss wants is within the WPS ranges. Lastly, go with the manufacturers suggestions if at all possible, FCAW is not like solid wire and different vendors have different sweet spots for WFS and voltage... So it's always smart to look up what the makers of the wire want and use it if it is within WPS ranges and Boss range :)

When the ESAB FCAW electrode is running properly in Vert-up, it will *spray* into the joint... if you are seeing globs at the end of your wire, increase voltage by 1/2 volt incraments until it sprays... If you can see more than about 1/16" between the unmelted electrode end and the puddle the voltage may be too high and undercut will result.. Decrease by the same incrament until a smooth spray with a short arc length is achieved.

By Knucks Date 07-03-2011 18:43

Excellent, thank you very much for the links. I'll double check exactly which electrode we're using and test out some of those settings at work on Monday.