Submerged Arc Welding

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Just wondering if there is anyone else submerged arc welding, and what setups you are using.  Hopefully there is someone running a powerwave 1000 that I could ask a few questions.Tandem Lincoln Power Wave AC/DC 1000's ~ Twin Power Feed 10A Controllers ~ 5/32" L-61 1000lb Speed Feed drums ~ 980 fluxDC1500 with NA3 ~ 3/16" L-50 60lb coil ~ 980 flux(2) Idealarc DC600's ~ .045" & 1/16" L-56 Barrels w/ C15 ~ Arc Gouging
Reply:What questions do you have?  We use ours only on 1/2" or thicker material, and we've not had any of those jobs for a few months.Single Powerwave 1000, usually running 1/8" and Bluemax 2000 flux.
Reply:Sorry it's been so long, I forgot to subscribe to my own thread...  The thinnest I weld is 3/4", standard is 1-1/4" up to 4".  My root pass is into a rough formed seam (single piece of steel rolled around)  which I have a press to line it up.  I used to run a full back up pass, weld the outside seam and then carbon-arc the inside and re-weld it in with gmaw.  I've gotten away from a full back up pass without burning through, but can't find good settings to get "drip-through", or a 100% penetration root pass, even with a copper backer (welds to it), ceramic backer (too much setup to be profitable) or a flux bed (blows through).  Also, how does that bluemax 2000 work? What wire do you use with that?  (For stainless, correct?)  We had a couple jobs not long ago that we ended up hand welding.  I'm currently writing new weld procedures for 1045 and 4140, and welding test coupons... I should probably do this for stainless too while we are waiting for material this coming week.Tandem Lincoln Power Wave AC/DC 1000's ~ Twin Power Feed 10A Controllers ~ 5/32" L-61 1000lb Speed Feed drums ~ 980 fluxDC1500 with NA3 ~ 3/16" L-50 60lb coil ~ 980 flux(2) Idealarc DC600's ~ .045" & 1/16" L-56 Barrels w/ C15 ~ Arc Gouging
Reply:You can't do a CP joint on one side only with SAW without using a backing strip.  The only way I have seen something like this done is on half inch plate.  We ran a bug across the joint with two cutting tips side by side.  The edges were not ground, only scraped clean and then the plates were pushed tight together.  With a square butt and no gap they ran around 300 amps then turned it over and ran around 500+ amps.  The joint had been tested and qualified before we the real ones.  The guy doing it told me that the 300 amps got over half way through then when they turned it over the 500 burned right in to the bottom of the previous weld.  I did the fitting and they wanted light tight fit on the butt.
Reply:Yeah, I figured it couldn't be done, I was just hoping someone had found a secret trick to doing it.  With our little subarc we weld smaller stuff complete all the time (1/4" to 1/2") with a water cooled copper backup and a little flux sprinkled on it; then we're running about 600 amps and a 1/16" gap.  We had tried using a pulse welder with some fancy program straight from Miller, and a different one from Lincoln, welding 15 degrees up into a 1/8" gap and sub arcing on top of that, but sometimes it would burn through, and other times it wouldn't have enough drip-through and we would have to run a backup pass anyways.Tandem Lincoln Power Wave AC/DC 1000's ~ Twin Power Feed 10A Controllers ~ 5/32" L-61 1000lb Speed Feed drums ~ 980 fluxDC1500 with NA3 ~ 3/16" L-50 60lb coil ~ 980 flux(2) Idealarc DC600's ~ .045" & 1/16" L-56 Barrels w/ C15 ~ Arc Gouging
Reply:what about tiging in the root and running the SAW over it to finish it outMiller Xmt 350Lincoln Ln-25Ahp 200xSmith Gas Mixer AR/HTig is my Kung FuThrowing down dimes and weaving aboutInstagram http://instagram.com/[email protected]
Reply:I was out in the (new) shop on Thursday and they were running tests with a 3 o'clock welder for a job we have coming up.  I can't speak to the details (the company wouldn't like that too much, I think), but suffice it to say that I was very impressed with the guys in the new shop and what they can do with a minimum of (joint) preparation.