Stick practce welds and some etching.

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Getting ready to finally weld up the log splitter. Decided to stick weld it. Been doing some practice welds and etching. Using 1/8 inch Lincoln Excalibur MR rods for the root pass, and the same rod in 5/32 for the fill passes. Root practice...150 amps DC EPSlight drag angle on fillet weldPc. set up in flat position on table(V-shape)0.500 thick mild steel plateAll mill scale ground/sanded off(in weld area)Welded nicely, had a nice puddle, used a very slight side to side weave in the root pass. Had a thick sandy slag, easy to remove, but not the kind of slag that almost peals itself off when finished welding. Went with 150 amps to try and get the best penetration. There's a little undercut at the toes, I think I can live with that on the root pass. For the etching I sectioned and polished with sand paper/scotch pad on air grinder. Used Loctite naval jelly to etch. The first 2 pics were welded with no pre heat, the rest of the pics I used a light preheat. The weld nugget looks a little shallow to me in both cases. The splitter is mounted on a 360 degree rotisserie, I was hoping to just rotate the main beam around and do all welds in the flat or horizontal position. Maybe vertical welds would give a little more penetration. The splitter has a big 6 inch hydraulic cylinder, welds have to be as good as I can get them. I don't do a lot of stick welding, any help/comments would be great...Thanks....!Last edited by ZZWELD; 05-01-2015 at 04:44 PM.
Reply:No preheat on first 2 pics...
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Reply:Few more pics...
Reply:Amps are higher than I might have run 1/8" at. Bead also looks a bit larger than I'd do for a single pass.Post up picts of the bead itself if you have them. That would tell me a lot more than those etched picts do about how you are welding. I'd expect to see a bit more penetration than I'm seeing. I'm wondering if being at higher amps than I'd run is causing you to move faster and start to outrun the puddle, or if possibly you are running slightly a longer arc and that's cutting down your penetration some. Tough to tell without the actual bead to look at.I think I can still see the actual joint in the root. If so, you aren't getting down into that corner well and the material may be just rolling over the root without penetrating at all. I'm thinking a smaller slower bead may solve that issue for you. You are planning on multiple beads anyways, so why try and make the root pass bigger than it needs to be.Edit: I see you posted up the other picts while I was typing. Let me look them over for a bit and I'll comment..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
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Reply:Those last picts of the etches look like more what I was expecting..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:those had a little preheat....
Reply:You shouldn't really need preheat to do that well. If you want, it won't hurt.The beads in the 2nd etched picts look a bit shorter on the legs than the 1st ones do. Leg on the shorter material in the 1st pict looks like a solid 5/16" vs 1/4" in the 2nd set of picts. That's probably a big reason why the root looks better..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Thanks DSW, I'll do a preheat on a 1/2 inch plate fillet weld tomorrow. I'll turn down the amps to 125 and run a straight drag bead(no side to side motion). Slice and etch it, and post pics.
Reply:I find on fillet like this I like some motion so I can watch each toe fill individually. More a small C or Z motion than anything else. My motions aren't really large at all, just a small wiggle more than anything else. A straight drag also works, but it can be a bit tougher some times for people..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Looking goodBacked my CATMA over your CARMA oops clusmy me  What would SATAN do ?? Miller Trailblazer 302 AirPakMiller Digital Elite  Optrel Welding HatArcair K4000Suitcase 12RC / 12 VSHypertherm PM-45Rage 3 sawRusty old Truck
Reply:Did some more test welding/etching. Found vertical welding gives a little bit more penetration than flat position. The last pics(#4), had the best penetration using 5/32 inch 6010 rod at 170 amps. Lots of spatter with the 6010 !!! Check out the pics, all comments-help welcome....Thanks...!!!
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Reply:Not bad. Your consistency needs some work in spots. what you are finding matches up to reality. 6010 is a deep penetrating rod and tends to run at lower amps than 7018 does. You are running 6010 at the top of it's amperage range for both sizes, so it's no big surprise you are getting a lot of penetration with them. Your spatter seems excessive, so I'd watch your arc length at those amps. I'm also seeing a fair bit of undercut showing in sections #2 and #3. I'd be more concerned with that than a little bit of extra penetration. What you have done there is thin down the base material right where most of the stresses are going to want to collect. The weld may hold, but the steel will fail where it's thin and heavily stressed.Keep in mind, penetration isn't the only thing with welding. 70XX rods are stronger than 60XX rods. While on mild A36 steel, this may not matter, it's something to keep in mind. More importantly XX18 rods are more ductile than XX10 rods and hold up better to flexing and shock loads..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:For 1/2" plate, I'm surprised you didn't run with 5/32 at between 150-175amps.  You can put a lot of heat into a weld with the larger rod."Any day above ground is a good day"http://www.farmersamm.com/
Reply:Looks like yall had an alligator torch to cut those plates  lol ok that was my bash for the day.Don't think too much into the weld. You will do fine building your log splitter. Run multiple bead passes on critical members. The welds look good. I would turn the heat down just a hair, not too much though. Your getting a lot of spatter on a couple welds.Last edited by AndrewDavenport89; 05-06-2015 at 05:07 PM.
Reply:You need to realize that 7018 is a medium penetration rod, and doesn't rely on penetration for its strength. Rather, it's strength derives from the filler alloy.  As long as there's good fusion at the boundary, the strength is there.If I recall, in some weldments with 7018, penetration is held to a minimum to prevent contamination of the filler alloy."Any day above ground is a good day"http://www.farmersamm.com/
Reply:Originally Posted by farmersammIf I recall, in some weldments with 7018, penetration is held to a minimum to prevent contamination of the filler alloy.
Reply:Originally Posted by storemanHuh?  Sam would you mind explaining for us neophytes?  Thanks.Jerry
Reply:Another interesting article...........http://www.lincolnelectric.com/en-us...ldcracking.pdf"Any day above ground is a good day"http://www.farmersamm.com/
Reply:Thanks to all for info, if this were a small log splitter say 10 ton, I wouldn't worry too much about cracks. This is a 42 ton beast, with a six inch ID cylinder. I've added a metal strap on both sides of the rear mounts for extra strength. I'm waiting for a reply from Splitez(the company I bought most of the splitter parts from). They gave me some 6010 and 5P+ rods. The more I read the more confused I get. As soon as I hear from Splitez, it's game on. 75% of the parts are tacked into place and ready to weld. The splitter is mounted on a rotisserie, and ready to weld in any position. I'm probably way over thinking it. Time to just get to welding(K.I.S.S.). If it cracks and breaks apart, I'll just start over from scratch. Lesson learned by trial and error.Originally Posted by ZZWELDThanks to all for info, if this were a small log splitter say 10 ton, I wouldn't worry too much about cracks. This is a 42 ton beast, with a six inch ID cylinder. I've added a metal strap on both sides of the rear mounts for extra strength. I'm waiting for a reply from Splitez(the company I bought most of the splitter parts from). They gave me some 6010 and 5P+ rods. The more I read the more confused I get. As soon as I hear from Splitez, it's game on. 75% of the parts are tacked into place and ready to weld. The splitter is mounted on a rotisserie, and ready to weld in any position. I'm probably way over thinking it. Time to just get to welding(K.I.S.S.). If it cracks and breaks apart, I'll just start over from scratch. Lesson learned by trial and error.