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yesterday it would appear that I have started a 3 day welding test on 1 coupon, the coupon is a standard CWB coupon, 3/8" plates, 1 with a 37° beveled edge, separated with a 1/4" gap and a 1/4" backplate, how fun, yesterday I ran the root pass along both sides with the tie-ins, my sup. had no comment on the tie-ins but says I failed due to having too much wire, oh well better luck next time... today I did the final passes willing it, a co-worker says it should pass based on height, but my ends seem to be a bit undercut, the sup. will probably say it will fail, tomarow I will grind it down and get them bent, lets see what happens then...My root passes were done with 27.5v and about 720ipm (was having troubles holding an ark with a lower ipm on the machine) the rest of the passes were done at 28.5v and ~500ipm (this was on a different machine). The reason for continuing is because my supervisor said to continue anyways and we'll see how it turns out. I think either he sees potential in me for welding or wants another welder on shift... Attached is a picture of my root pass with the tie-ins, I have also not cleaned the plate after the root passes before taking the picture. Any tips pertaining to the root pass or tie-ins would be great. Attached Images
Reply:took in my work from last night and guess what, it again fails in visual appearance... welds were too wide.... oh well, grind it down anyways, found a couple physical flaws in the weld, what ever eh? life as usual, start dealing with the back plate and guess what, it wasnt going for me so I used a little bit more force, oh ****, I gouged the coupon... I guess part 3 of the test fails too  If I stayed late I prob could have fixed up the screw ups to an un-noticable state by simply tacking the flaws at a high level of heat, too late now, we will see what the boss says I can do on monday, he will prob say to toss it in the scrap and get to work  If thats what he says, then I will try the test again in march. does anybody have any good tips for removing the backplate from the test coupon? I am not good with the OA torch and have never used a plasma cutter.
Reply:3/8" plates, 1 with a 37° beveled edge, separated with a 1/4" gap and a 1/4" backplateI have never understood this, why such a gap? I may not be the greatest but i can manage a 1/8" or better fit up on that free standing with OA... why space the coupons so far apart?Stick er out Rasterburn!
Reply:I forgot to mention the face of the weld can be no wider then 1/4" i think the reason for the gap is so the inspector can bend the weld instead of the material durring the final part as for the backplate, well just something for the weld to adhere to i guessThis is my grinder. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My grinder is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. My grinder, without me, is useless. Without my grinder, I am useless.
Reply:Originally Posted by rasterburnI forgot to mention the face of the weld can be no wider then 1/4" i think the reason for the gap is so the inspector can bend the weld instead of the material durring the final part as for the backplate, well just something for the weld to adhere to i guess
Reply:The 1/4" face could just be something my supervisor decided is best, when I completed the cap pass it was about 3/4" wide with the corners having a lot of undercut but the rest from a visual side and un-ground was perfect and within the acceptable tolerance of height but of course just too much undercut on the outer corners to pass so i had to go make a couple passes, the problem he has is that he doesn't seem to be giving me the important facts until after the fact but its only my first test, the next one i will be more prepared.edit: there seems to be some regulatory rule of some sort, not sure where it comes from, but it states that the weld should be no "larger" then the thinnest material you are welding. Having that said, the 1/4" face could also be coming from the back plate.Last edited by rasterburn; 02-02-2013 at 01:59 AM.This is my grinder. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My grinder is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. My grinder, without me, is useless. Without my grinder, I am useless.
Reply:You really need to ask him for a photocopy of that sheet.  Then you will understand the criteria.  For some reason people have  the code hold on to it like the Holy Grail.  They hold it behind their back while they make authorative proclamations that mystify the employees.  Then when employees fail the test they respond to the CWB inspector when he makes his tours by wondering just why these dunderheads on the floor can't seem to pass.  .... "Maybe they are being paid too much."  ... or some such stupid remark.  Sorry but it burns me how welding supervisors who have to take a written test to qualify treat the whole process as some sort of witchcraft.  Buried in his paperwork he also has a weld procedure specification that details the setting for your machine but I doubt you will ever see it.  Though the company paid some welding engineer thousands of dollars to compile those sheets, they rarely see the light of day.
Reply:sorry for the delayed response, I finally got some time to finish off the test, today I finished removing the back plate which I accidentally gouged the parent material... oops... and found that my root pass was porous to the point that you can see the outline of each pass, no big deal at this point, we continued on and cut it into the 3 strips which I found no signs of poor penetration which is very good and we finished it up with bending, my cap passed with no issues, the other 2 well we will just say they stayed in 1 piece each. Attached ImagesThis is my grinder. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My grinder is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. My grinder, without me, is useless. Without my grinder, I am useless.
Reply:it turns out I forgot to post the pictures of the final passes and grinding. And apparently I dont have pictures of them but they also failed, there was some pitting that was visible after the grinding and my beads were too wide.This is my grinder. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My grinder is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. My grinder, without me, is useless. Without my grinder, I am useless.
Reply:The standard gap on a CWB mig coupon is 1/2" in the flat position and 5/16" in horizontal.Try running .035 wire at 26 -26.5V and 550 or so wire speed.Drag in your first pass on the square edge, make sure your second passburns into the bevel and catches your first bead. Start your tie ins on top of the bead and drop into the crater from you stop.A 1/4 gap makes this test very difficult.In our shop CWB mig flat has the highest failure rate.It is not a difficult test, but you have to pay attentionYour fisrt pass is way too wide for the gap you have.
Reply:I took the measurements of one the other day cause I was questioning the 1/4" gap and yeah it turns out that the gap is 1/2" on the plates and not 1/4 as I initially thought it was. Alot of the guys I work with all recommend 27.5 - 28.5v depending on the machine with a bit higher ipm on the wirespeed, but I think that is just how they have been tought and are used to.This is my grinder. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My grinder is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. My grinder, without me, is useless. Without my grinder, I am useless.
Reply:Keep the faith man, you'll get it. You should try and avoid restarts on a MIG test coupon if at all possible but I'm sure you know that.So, this being a 2G (horizontal) process, I'm wondering if you're getting a good solid rest for your non-torch hand? I like to prop my torch hand and with the other hand and it's elbow anchored to a solid surface and use it to assist a good steady feed rate and torch angle for tests like this. It may help since I notice some inconsistencies with your weld deposition rate. Practice makes perfect. EricAWS D1.1 Certified SMAW 3G Unlimited, Open Root                             FCAW-G 3G Unlimited, w/BackerCellular Tower Reinforcement Welding on the frozen tundra of the greater Mid-West
Reply:Originally Posted by Welding_SwedeKeep the faith man, you'll get it. You should try and avoid restarts on a MIG test coupon if at all possible but I'm sure you know that.Eric
Reply:Originally Posted by rasterburnI took the measurements of one the other day cause I was questioning the 1/4" gap and yeah it turns out that the gap is 1/2" on the plates and not 1/4 as I initially thought it was. Alot of the guys I work with all recommend 27.5 - 28.5v depending on the machine with a bit higher ipm on the wirespeed, but I think that is just how they have been tought and are used to.