I started a thread on this a while back, but I can't find it. Anyway, we got this laser unit at work now. I thought I'd be getting intricate aluminum stuff to TIG weld.
As it happens, this thing also cuts heavy carbon steel plate like a hot knife through butter!
The print specifies a 5/16" bead -- that's all. It's welding 3/8" plate to 1/2".
I figure 5/32" 7018. I'm not that familiar with it. I had mostly stick welded 16 ga. through 1/4" plate, and 6013 and stainless from 1/16" to 1/8" worked fine for all of that. The box says "130 to 200 amps".
I set it to, I think 180 and 3/4 dig. Way too hot, the splatter and undercut making me unhappy. I had spent most of the day carefully fuse tacking the pieces together with TIG. I figured I'd go home, watch a couple of welding videos and tackle it again the next day. From Jody's welding tricks and tips: They were using 5/32" 7018 and welding horizontally on a beveled pipe joint and welding vertical up! Use the lowest amperage that will allow you to keep a very short arc and keep your arc very short. And they turned the arc force full up. 145 amps. So, that's what I did. The undercut was gone, there was virtually no splatter, and there was a big smile on my face.
As it happens, this thing also cuts heavy carbon steel plate like a hot knife through butter!
The print specifies a 5/16" bead -- that's all. It's welding 3/8" plate to 1/2".
I figure 5/32" 7018. I'm not that familiar with it. I had mostly stick welded 16 ga. through 1/4" plate, and 6013 and stainless from 1/16" to 1/8" worked fine for all of that. The box says "130 to 200 amps".
I set it to, I think 180 and 3/4 dig. Way too hot, the splatter and undercut making me unhappy. I had spent most of the day carefully fuse tacking the pieces together with TIG. I figured I'd go home, watch a couple of welding videos and tackle it again the next day. From Jody's welding tricks and tips: They were using 5/32" 7018 and welding horizontally on a beveled pipe joint and welding vertical up! Use the lowest amperage that will allow you to keep a very short arc and keep your arc very short. And they turned the arc force full up. 145 amps. So, that's what I did. The undercut was gone, there was virtually no splatter, and there was a big smile on my face.
