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Chose between a 3/32 and a 1/8 rod on a thin tube sheet in Baton Rouge, and I'm still second guessing it
Had a job in Baton Rouge on a small water tube boiler last week, tube sheet was only about a quarter inch thick, and the print called for 1/8 rod but my gut said 3/32 would run cleaner on edges that thin. I went with the 3/32 at around 90 amps and the weld puddled nice, no burn through, but the inspector gave me a look like he wanted the bigger rod for penetration. Passed the PT test anyway, no cracks, but it took me almost 40 minutes to do 12 tubes because I was babying every pass. Anyone here run 3/32 on thin tube sheets or would you have stuck with what the print said?
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susana6615d ago
The rod size does not really control penetration on a tube sheet like that. Wall thickness and heat input do most of the work, so stepping down to 3/32 at 90 amps is not the reason you lost anything. If the print said 1/8, the engineer sized it for a reason, and swapping it on your own is the kind of thing that gets an inspector looking sideways even when the PT comes back clean. On a quarter inch sheet, 1/8 at the right amps would have run fine and given you more fill per pass, so you would not have spent 40 minutes babying 12 tubes. Your weld passed, so no harm done this time, but next time stick with what is on the paper and ask before you change rod.
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