3G Open Root Test by a Welding Student | 6010-7018 

Get used to a 3/32 gap and land. Reason being fits on pipe are rarely perfect. Tighter is easy to deal with wide not so much. On a tight gap with 3/32 land you can cut it open with a wafer wheel and will weld perfect. If lands get to thick after cutting open, thin the lands with a grinder. Also keep 3/32 in your bucket for tight gaps. Please don’t be someone who needs grinder lines to weld straight. That is rookie shit along with needing arm and hand rest. All of those are not needed.

In welding school we learned to weave for 1 day, then the instructor that was a 66 year old CWI that spent the first 20 years of his life welding pipe told us to "never weave again unless they let you or made you" after that everything with him was the hard way first. Open root plate was done with a 3/32 gap and the whip method first, then he showed us the 1/8th gap and just jamming the rod in, he then lifted his hood up, and looked at us and talked to us while he finished the root. He said "That looked way easier didn't it?" we said yes why didn't we just do that to begin with he said "If I showed you guys how to work with a ideal scenario I wouldn't be doing my job." we learned Tig and stick and spent 1 day on fluxcore, the one day on fluxcore was all test plates, that we all passed with zero problem. Then we had a local contracting company come talk to us and tell us that the next to last week of school they had a shutdown going on and if we wanted to come work it we all had the opportunity, we were given a whole day if we wanted to come test out at their place. "They were not paying us to test like normal, but still a great opportunity" Well I decided to end school a little early and go test. It was a 6g pipe test Tig root and hot with a stick fill and cap on schedule 40 pipe "We welded 80 in school" This contractor did a majority steel mill work, and some paper mills so you can guess the quality they were accustomed to. I got my root in with zero problem hot pass went good, fill pass went good, then I got to the cap, I had two beads on it and after that then joint was filled but I had undercut all the way beside the pipe side of my last bead, I was straight scared and thought I failed, the guy giving the test walked over and said "What's up" probably because my 18 year old self was just staring at my test piece with a blank look I said "I failed didn't I?" He said "are you not just going to run a third bead right there?" I said Wow I can do that? He said "Dude this isn't a test for a nuclear power plant, do what you need to, I'm not going to specify exact demission's or the number of beads for each pass run another bead and it will be fine". I went to a strict welding school, so strict I thought that the guidelines I was given in school were set in stone. Then after getting said job I watched one of the best welders I've still to this day ever meet get a terrible fit on a low pressure 30 inch water drain pipe, break the flux off a good 20 7018's shove them in the gap and weave over them to make a root pass. In welding school the teach you to weld like you are going to weld a joint for a nuke plant. In the real world I've learned that a lot of places want you to pass a test, then go out there and make every day bad situations work. That was the moment in my carrier only a couple of months in I saw that a real welder is the guy that can weld with inspectors watching every joint in a nuke plant, but it's also the guy that can shove 20 fluxless 7018's into a huge badly fit low pressure water pipe in a steel mill, then fill it and put the best looking cap on it, then have the "pipe superintendent" walk by and say "Wow great job that will never leak"

Thats why we do this. Good luck. Hope we are helping!

No need anything just go and sign up I have 3 weeks u see my belt at school and from watching videos my words are at 3g did 2 passes and they said move to the next and so on videos and techniques from others on here help me so much to make different welding

Whatss!! we could do that with 6010 root pass? Im struggling with going up and down can i do with circle im scare i dont get enough penetration?

@@danielguzman8421 The only time you don’t do circles is on your root pass. The others Don’t matter

I am so confused, so you tell him to just do circles or triangles ,but than you say not to on the root pass.iamt that what he kinda of did.

@@mranoraks5860 The root pass is your first weld, then you do ⭕️ circles or triangles on the full passes.

@@danielguzman8421 youll get a lot more slag on the inside with circles

At my job we usually do stick welding since we're always in the field, and it's kind of a pain hauling our 65lb mig welders around. We bring them out for bigger projects once we have decent paths and scaffolding though.

This is the same way I’ve been taught as well. Never thought necessary to grind a guideline. Seems like a lot of extra work, and potential for a mistake.

My brother

Experience is everything.

This student would fail because the second root pass has too much slag. Same with some of the weave techniques. But it'll hold farm equipment together.

Your ground clamp, can be clamped on the table if the piece of metal you are welding on is touching the table (or tacked preferably). You can also clamp direct to the piece you are welding on, just make sure it’s not in your way. Hope that helps.

@@weldtube Yes that helps alot!! That's a what I thought you could do. But what about if the part your welding is small and the table is not metal? Guess you just have toclamp it to you welding piece regardless cause you have too.

@@Riddick_4506 yo can use a piece of scrap metal and clamp to that and just make sure it’s touching what ur welding. Like weld tube said it works better if you tack the piece to what your grounding too

@@lanceromance5768 Ok, thanks for the tip!👍

This is a structural cert test

@@srjr2531 cool thanks good looking out

maybe work on your self confidence and tell yourself youre good