Etching welds.

[Reverser]

Third picture is the weld made with the Lincoln V350-Pro,

Shield Arc, that V350-Pro must be an awesome machine. That etch is picture perfect.
I've never seen an etch weld pic showing that much penetration down into the corner before. :thumbsup:

 

[Shield Arc]

Oh yeah she is a sweet machine. These inverters just amaze me with the control they have over the puddle. That weld was run with 0.0 on the pinch / arc force. Need to run a fillet weld with it, and set the pinch / arc force up more and see if that gives any more penetration.

 

[Shield Arc]

I was just in the shop cleaning up around the saw. I found this 3/4" thick V-butt weld I did last summer with .068" NR-211. I thought, well lets see how it did.:laughing:

 

[Reverser]

Looking good. :thumbsup:
Now that you've got your etching skills perfected, you'll probably be etching anything and everything you've done in the past, that you can find.
You might even need to order a couple more bottles of that etching elixir. :cool2:

 

[dragoneggs]

Hey SA, I doubt you have the weld you did with my 211 on 3/4" Tee fully cranked but if you do, I wonder what kind of penetration you got?

 

[Shield Arc]

Oh boy, I'll have to look. It might have gone to Navy City Metals. I took a load there not to long ago.

 

[Shield Arc]

Welp, I couldn't find it, it must have went to the scrap yard. Would have been interesting to see how much penetration it got.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Very Interesting. Better than a bend test.

Etching shows the weld profile but not the strength of the weld metal. There is no substitute for a proper bend test for determining quality of weld metal, not even an X-ray will prove the welders and welding rod ability like a bend test will. That is why even after all macro-graphs, etchings, xray testing etc have been done on a welding PROCEDURE qualification, a bend test is the acceptance standard.

I have seen beautiful welds that failed the ASME IX bend test procedure.

 

[Sodo]

Here's a natural etch, using water.

I welded the ball onto this simple pin hitch. It's for a neighbor's ATV, used mostly to move his firewood splitter around. He wouldn't go on the highway with it, this is an ATV unit.

I welded the ball on, then realized that the ball was too close to the hitch so had to move the hitch pin hole. I cut 3/4" off the end, cut in the middle and welded it back in with 1/8" gaps to get a full inch.