Beginner Tips and Tricks
Simple techniques that help welders improve efficiency, weld quality, and shop productivity.
Avoid Entanglements
To increase productivity by reducing the amount of time every day that I was spending untangling my torch lines, my manager and I built our own weld boom to get our cables off the floor. We use it to lower the torch wherever we need it. This not only saves time, as I am no longer fighting with tangles, but it also helps save wear and tear on our equipment and keeps the torch from hitting the floor and breaking the gas cups. Make sure when you build your own, it matches your welding machine.
Preheat High-Strength Steel
To make sure you have a good weld on high strength steel, preheating the weld area is critical. If you know what kind of high-strength steel you’re welding (carbon content), it will be easier to figure out how much preheat you need. The more carbon in the metal, the more preheating is necessary. Preheating your weld slows the cooling process, which will help prevent the weld from cracking. (See ARC Magazine’s Summer 2015 Master Class on preheating steel for details
Dialing in the Correct Amperage
When determining the appropriate amperage for SMAW, always consider the diameter of the electrode. For example, if you’re going to weld with a 1/8-inch 7018 low hydrogen electrode, a good starting point is 125 amps. Keep the following rule of thumb in mind: 1 amp for every 1/1000 of an inch in the electrode diameter.
A Small Tab for a Larger Piece
When you need to weld a small tab — such as 1 inch X 1 inch x 1/4-inch thick — to a larger piece, mark out the tab on a longer piece of material, drill any necessary holes in it, then cut with a bandsaw. Leave a small amount of material to hold the tab to the larger piece. You can produce many small tabs, but be careful not to cut them all the way off the larger piece. Then weld or tack firmly in place using the longer piece as a handle to hold in position, and then snap them off as you grind the corners after welding. This works with many types of material.
Avoid Distortion and Discoloration
If you need to weld stainless steel, it’s a good habit to clamp blocks of aluminum behind and around the weld joint. The aluminum blocks serve to draw heat out of the material, since aluminum has a higher thermal conductivity than stainless. Using chill blocks can reduce distortion and discoloration on the welds. Also, it may prevent sugaring on the backside of the weld, especially on thin material when back purging is not used.