I am, and always have, struggled with stick welding t joints. Is just the angle of rod and teqnique I am unclear on, and I can get some nice overlapping beads on butt joints and lap joints. Can anyone just tell me the technique for getting a good, strong, overlapping bead on a right angle, T joint? I have had nice ones before, but I am not consistant with producing nice welds on a T joints.
- Thread starter Stoneward
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I always found this a tester when i was learning, Sometimes i could do it, sometimes i would end up with the weld bead on one side of the joint, and the rest of the joint filled with slag.
The trick is to weld with a slight side to side weave, just long enough to allow the weld to 'wash' onto each side of the joint. With practice you will get to recognise what is weld metal and what is flux/slag in the swirling weld pool. Might also help to up the amps a little (Although that seems to be my answer to everything!). Presume you are using the right size rods, right amps etc?
Sometimes easier, if possible, to set the piece up so the joint forms a V shape, so you can hold the rod vertically into the joint.
Welcome to the forum.
The trick is to weld with a slight side to side weave, just long enough to allow the weld to 'wash' onto each side of the joint. With practice you will get to recognise what is weld metal and what is flux/slag in the swirling weld pool. Might also help to up the amps a little (Although that seems to be my answer to everything!). Presume you are using the right size rods, right amps etc?
Sometimes easier, if possible, to set the piece up so the joint forms a V shape, so you can hold the rod vertically into the joint.
Welcome to the forum.
Hi, and welcome to the forum.
Without more info ...electrode size, type, amps, material ect.. it is kind of hard to give really detailed advice, but as for technique, here's how I would do it (all the electrode angles are from the base plate of the "T").....
Concave/flat "T" multipass fillet weld : (coincidently, I was actually doing this today on stainless plate with ultranox 316L electrodes (IMHO excellent electrodes to weld with)
1;Run a root pass straight down the middle of the join, pointing in at 45degrees with a slight dragging angle (little or no weave).
2; run another pass along the bottom edge of the first weld, pointing the electrode in more of a steeper angle, about 60 degrees (little or no weave).
3; run another pass along the top edge of the first weld, point the electrode in at a shallow angle, about 30 degrees (again, little or no weave, and if you don't make the angle shallow enough, you will "under cut" the top edge.
Convex/flat "T" multipass fillet weld
1; same as before
2; run a weave pass (circles, zig zag, "c's", or however you normally do it), keep the electrode angle at 45 degrees, using both edges of the root pass as a guide to keep your weave width uniform.
3; same as "2" in the first explanation
4; run a pass along the top edge of the 3rd pass, keep the electrode angle at about 45 degrees (little or no weave)
5; same as "3" in the first explanation
As I said, this is how I would do it, but don't be afraid to experiment a bit, to find out what works best for you.
PS Make sure that you tack both sides of the plates well before you weld, or your coupons will look more like "J's" than "T's" (I Know this from personal experiance
)
Hope this helps!
Without more info ...electrode size, type, amps, material ect.. it is kind of hard to give really detailed advice, but as for technique, here's how I would do it (all the electrode angles are from the base plate of the "T").....
Concave/flat "T" multipass fillet weld : (coincidently, I was actually doing this today on stainless plate with ultranox 316L electrodes (IMHO excellent electrodes to weld with)
1;Run a root pass straight down the middle of the join, pointing in at 45degrees with a slight dragging angle (little or no weave).
2; run another pass along the bottom edge of the first weld, pointing the electrode in more of a steeper angle, about 60 degrees (little or no weave).
3; run another pass along the top edge of the first weld, point the electrode in at a shallow angle, about 30 degrees (again, little or no weave, and if you don't make the angle shallow enough, you will "under cut" the top edge.
Convex/flat "T" multipass fillet weld
1; same as before
2; run a weave pass (circles, zig zag, "c's", or however you normally do it), keep the electrode angle at 45 degrees, using both edges of the root pass as a guide to keep your weave width uniform.
3; same as "2" in the first explanation
4; run a pass along the top edge of the 3rd pass, keep the electrode angle at about 45 degrees (little or no weave)
5; same as "3" in the first explanation
As I said, this is how I would do it, but don't be afraid to experiment a bit, to find out what works best for you.
PS Make sure that you tack both sides of the plates well before you weld, or your coupons will look more like "J's" than "T's" (I Know this from personal experiance
)Hope this helps!
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Walk before run
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What amps are you running the rods at Stoneward? Often if the amps are too low it makes it difficult to produce a decent weld.
Undercut is when the weld parameters are not quite right i.e running too hot, insufficient filler, basically speaking the 'edges' of the weld cut into the parent material creating a future weak spot in the joint.
Root pass is the first run on a joint (what you are doing), which is followed by other runs to get the designed size of the joint. One pass wont deposit sufficient weld metal, with sufficient penetration so its built up in a number of runs.
Undercut is when the weld parameters are not quite right i.e running too hot, insufficient filler, basically speaking the 'edges' of the weld cut into the parent material creating a future weak spot in the joint.
Root pass is the first run on a joint (what you are doing), which is followed by other runs to get the designed size of the joint. One pass wont deposit sufficient weld metal, with sufficient penetration so its built up in a number of runs.
Walk before run
fair point Paul, but I kind of got the impression from the post, that they knew how to weld but had never been shown/told how to do multipass fillet welds. Sorry if I went off on a bit of a tangent with my reply, and as for "stupid questions" they don't exist, I mean nobody was born with the skills and knowledge of how to weld. So keep the questions coming, as I'm sure that in this very friendly forum there are many people who will only be to happy to answer them for you.
Drains
Yeah, nah.
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Good answers boys!
Stoneward, undercut is usually down to too many amps and too fast travel speed - not letting the filler fill the joint, so you end up sucking material away from the deges of the weld.
If you're having trouble getting consistent beads, there are two obvious answers - use a good quality rod, so none of yer cheap Machine Mart or other Chinese ****e, and/or Paul's cure-all: - turn up the amps. You'll know if you've overdone it there, as you'll probably get undercut!
Stoneward, undercut is usually down to too many amps and too fast travel speed - not letting the filler fill the joint, so you end up sucking material away from the deges of the weld.
If you're having trouble getting consistent beads, there are two obvious answers - use a good quality rod, so none of yer cheap Machine Mart or other Chinese ****e, and/or Paul's cure-all: - turn up the amps. You'll know if you've overdone it there, as you'll probably get undercut!
