Had a weld test in Cleveland last week and the old guy running it changed my mind about flux core for outdoor work

I always swore by stick for windy conditions but watching him run a dual shield bead that passed X-ray on the first try made me pick up a new setup, has anyone else switched processes after seeing someone else's results on a real job?

3 comments

3 Comments

charles_baker2815d ago

Respectfully, I gotta push back on that one. Saw a guy try to run dual shield in a stiff breeze on a bridge job last spring and it was nothing but porosity and headaches. Stick might be slower but it doesn't care if the wind is howling at 20 mph (which it always is on a high rise). That old timer you saw probably has 30 years of fine-tuning his technique, but the rest of us mortals just end up chasing gas coverage all day.

betty_perry2415d ago

Man, @charles_baker28, I feel that pain in my bones (and my back, from all the bending over bad welds). Tried running dual shield on a windy parking garage deck once and spent more time chasing gas coverage than actually welding. Stuck with stick after that, mostly because I can't even keep a steady arc in a parking lot, let alone a stiff breeze.

morganmartinez15d ago

Honestly, the "30 years of fine-tuning technique" part is exactly the point though. That old timer didn't get good by luck, he got good by actually running dual shield in the wind instead of just assuming it won't work. Ngl, I've seen way more guys fail on stick welds from rushing or bad rod angle than I've seen dual shield fail from wind, and I've been on plenty of exposed jobs where both processes were an option. Tbh, if you're getting porosity in a stiff breeze, it's usually because your gas flow is set wrong or you're not holding the gun close enough to the puddle, not because the process itself is junk.