stick welding tube to plate

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TURN YOUR HEAT UP ...

As an apprentice, I was working with a guy who specialized in steel buildings for oilfield skids. The panels were about 1/8" (10 or 12 gauge)and welded to the thicker checker plate on the skid with 1/8" 7018. I'd never done this type of welding before so the guy(not the nicest but seemed to like me) showed me how to do it. I wasn't used to it so tried to weld the conventional way but had nothing but problems. He got mad and said I don't know how to $#@%& weld...

I turned my heat down around 115 , held the rod at about a 60 deg. angle and even tried whipping the rod slightly to let the puddle cool so I wouldn't burn through. :ashamed:He told me again how to weld it. Turn your heat up to about 150 amps (really hot for 1/8" 7018):shocked:, point your rod almost straight down with the arc about about 1/8" away from the vertical panel and let molten puddle flow over and fuse the panel. Finished weld looked like it was done with an automatic machine!:cloud9:

I'll attempt this Arc but I'm gonna use 1/8" 7014. I think hot for that is 130 as my welder runs it pretty hot at 125.

 

[Shield Arc]

Is this method done moving away from you ?

Doesn't really make any difference. What ever direction you feel more comfortable making Js.

 

[ThomasH]

I agree completely with Arc Weld. I have welded thin to thick (20 guage to 1/4) to 1/2-3/4 material and it's a matter of using high heat, a rod without high penetration, and directing all or almost all of the heat at the thick piece. Depending on what you might call the 'thickness ratio' I have not even put the rod on the thin piece, but have been right next to it, and it penetrated enough with the puddle being immediately adjacent to it.

 

[arrow]

Well dang it, I wanted to give this type of weld a go however what happens when you have a 2" space to be filled with a 2" blocker? Just about fits. As I did not want to wrangle a tooth bar on with these close tolerances, I decided not to weld the spacer in but instead use it as a big "washer". this way I can fit on the tooth bar and just slightly pound in the spacers and then cinch them up with a couple of bolts. Should hold I think. In the picture is an old Harbor Freight half inch drill I bought about 30 years ago. Turns real slow but gets the job done.

 

[Arc weld]

Darn.:confused3: I wanted to see how it turned out.

 

[vwnotrunning]

You might want to cap the tube to minimize the debris you will collect in there.

 

[Furu]

I know that the OP has chosen not to go with his original plan due to changes but a technique that I found might work. Having said that my disclaimer is that I am still learning every time I pick up a stinger and do not know very much.

I was trying to attach 16 gauge sheet metal to a C5-9# channel steel. I was finding the burn through problem eating my lunch as I prepped/practiced for the actual weld. Tried 6013 3/32 and 1/8 and the burn through issue got worse than with 7018. I obviously do not know how to use 6013 since it is supposed to be for sheet metal. May have been because to get penetration with 6013 into the channel the heat got too much for the sheet.

Tried the J motion with some success but still got burn through. Tried using 3/32 7018 to lower the amps but not happy with the result.
After several weeks of trying to get the results I wanted, this past week I came up with a new idea.
Do not know why I finally tried the following but it seemed to work. Wish I could draw a picture but will try to describe adequately.

Instead of laying down the rod at the normal angle and moving in the normal fashion for direction of weld movement I stood the rod up perpendicular to the direction of travel, directed the rod into the channel steel and pushed the puddle up onto the 16 ga sheet in the horizontal position and pushed the puddle over/sideways in the vertical position. Then worked the rod across the joint. I know that you minimize puddle movement with 7018 but it worked and I avoided burn through. Ran it at 110 amps, which is a little light I thought, but it worked with no burn through.

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

Who says you minimize puddle movement with 7018? Someone that can't weld anything but a stringer bead? No, you move it where and how you need it, within reason of course. You can't do vertical up justice unless you weave a 7018.

Take a look at older welding manuals....You won't see that anywhere.

 

[Arc weld]

Some codes and weld tests call for stringer bead vertical up 7018. Supposed to give a finer grain structure. Having said that, I talked with probably the head guy(Walter Sperco) in charge of ASME codes and he said it doesn't matter how wide a weave is on carbon steel and he would challenge any weld procedure that limited weave width. He said it makes so little difference in grain structure it would never be a problem and putting more heat into the steel is a good thing. He also said a lot of procedures are based on what was done in the past and some engineers are just too stubborn to accept newer procedures. 2 1/2 times rod dia. is one of the more common "wives tale" procedures. Might be appropriate on stainless or other specialty metal but on carbon steel you could weave 6" wide if you wanted. Just like horizontal welding except you have to make sure not to get slag inclusions.

I did some 3/16" vertical up 7018 welding pig traps for the Trans. Canada pipeline. We weaved about an 1 1/2" wide and the welds were 100% X-Ray. I think it was 36" pipe and the engineers didn't even want you to stamp your welds, even with low stress stamps. I found out after the fact. Oops. After X-Ray, flanges were bolted on and the whole assembly was hydro-tested. The flanges were about 5" thick with 42 bolts. The bolts had to tightened in sequence and put to 5000 ft. lbs. in order not to leak. The first one they used about a 10' snipe on a 2 3/4" socket. Then they got a hyd. torque wrench for the others.

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

The codes call for it because of a general lack of skill by the welder, and it can ensure a better weld by a less capable welder. I have a military welding manual that go back to the the 30/40's and another manual that goes back to the late 60's/70's and both discuss weaving as the normal method, and stringers for starting out or for limited use. Somewhere along the way, to put more welders to work, stringers became a normal teaching method as it required less instruction and practice...A friend of mine welding pipe and did derrick work in the 70's and 80's laughed at the idea of stringers and proceded to show me how to make a 4" wide cap pass with a 3/16" 7018.