chadillac
Hot Rolled
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2005
- Location
- Benson, AZ
Is Oxy/Acetylene welding of thicker metal where you separate the men from the boys?
I'm taking an O/A class; Been going along welding 3/16" and thinner plate for the most part. I've been slowly improving and am starting to produce acceptable welds with this stuff, though I struggle daily with trying to get a nice looking weld. Our class has victor torches with tip sizes from 0-3, but limited amount of #3 tips, so I normally use a #2 when welding on the 3/16" stuff.
Now for the welding test, the instructor has given us 1/4" cards to weld the various joints. I find my difficulty in producing a nice weld with good penetration seems to increase exponentially with the thickness of the material, making this test pretty difficult. Any suggestions?
I try to use a crescent pattern and wait for the "keyhole" to appear before dipping my 3/32" rod in the weld pool Is there any rules of thumb for how much of the base metal to heat while doing, say, a butt joint? For example, using 1/4" plate, should you do a 1/2"+ wide sweep pattern with the torch?
Chad
I'm taking an O/A class; Been going along welding 3/16" and thinner plate for the most part. I've been slowly improving and am starting to produce acceptable welds with this stuff, though I struggle daily with trying to get a nice looking weld. Our class has victor torches with tip sizes from 0-3, but limited amount of #3 tips, so I normally use a #2 when welding on the 3/16" stuff.
Now for the welding test, the instructor has given us 1/4" cards to weld the various joints. I find my difficulty in producing a nice weld with good penetration seems to increase exponentially with the thickness of the material, making this test pretty difficult. Any suggestions?
I try to use a crescent pattern and wait for the "keyhole" to appear before dipping my 3/32" rod in the weld pool Is there any rules of thumb for how much of the base metal to heat while doing, say, a butt joint? For example, using 1/4" plate, should you do a 1/2"+ wide sweep pattern with the torch?
Chad