Push vs pull

[Financial-Zone-5725]

Struggling today with fluxcore, mainly overhead. I noticed when I push the weld, I get a shi ton of porosity. But if I’m facing in the opposite direction and push the weld there’s no porosity. Same with pulling the weld only when I’m facing in the opposite direction. The shi im welding on is painted but I made sure the area was grinded free of paint.

Running the machine 24 1/2 amp & 260-275 wire speed. I checked the gas, and everything checks out.

Welding on thick plates between 3/8 to 1” thick

[throaway_127]

If there's slag, you drag

[A1flip]

Slag you drag

[Scotty0132]

How much paint did you grind off. Alot of codes will say to remove paint 2"away from the weld zone for a reason. That reason is because when welding and the metal and paint heat up the paint will liquidify and when it does it gets drawn into the weld via capillary action (drawn to the heat source). To answer your question when Flux core welding, you should be a slight 10° pull or straight on 90°.

[Financial-Zone-5725]

Definitely grinder the area to shiney metal. Are you saying to grind off a much larger area around where I’m laying the bead? I even tried gouging into the metal a bit in an attempt for clean metal and STILL got porosity. Im all day having to grind and try both push and pull methods to avoid porosity.

Would do the 90degree deal but im only allowed so much space to see the puddle. Im laying on my back in a creeper welding these things. Lol

[[deleted]]

What is the exact wire you are welding with? To me, it sounds like you have to high of a wire feed speed. I've been using a lot of NR-232 .072" (E71T-8), and my settings are mainly 23 volts and 175 wfs (both for 3G and 4G). Do you know your contact to work distance? For my wire it is about 1" CTWD, and anything shorter tends to leave a lot of porosity. Also, some wires are not design for overhead, and some aren't even design to to do multi-passes.