I have never completely understood why high speed pulse has the affect it does but the manufacturers claim in constricts or chokes down the arc like a choke on a shotgun which limits the spread.  But I do know it helps when you want to confine a bead like when welding on or near an edge.

 A miller electric rep I met a a trade show recommended pulse rates of 100 for tool and die and mold repair to confine the weld.

I have been experimenting with it ever since.   

For 4140, most technical resources recommend a 500f preheat so it stands to reason you want to keep it above 500 while welding to slow the cooling rate.

thanks for the comment,  Jody

That pad was a product I was experimenting with and sold for a while but discontinued due to some manufacturing issues. It worked great but the straps were not up to snuff.   

Wire speed settings seem very situational.  In a perfect scenario on say a 2f fillet weld, higher wire speeds like what mig charts recommend seem to work fine with very little spatter with a pull angle.  Push angles seems to make more spatter.

In my experience, gun angle and wire speed both affect spatter and a low wire speed combined with a push angle generally makes for more spatter with short circuit mig.  

there is a pretty wide range of wire speed settings that provide for minimal spatter but make it more difficult to control the deposit for vertical uphill welding so sometimes I just tolerate the spatter to lay down a bit less metal.

Short circuit mig uphill seems to always lay down more metal that you anticipate so Sometimes its just a gut feeling depending on how high that last pass is before the cover pass.

Thanks Martin,

I will definitely look into doing a video on coupon prep. Great idea.

You make a good point on the mirror welding and grinding. 

thanks

A higher inductance setting is supposed to make a bead wet in more but after the fact, I think the root pass might have pushed thru better with a slightly lower inductance setting.

Some of my machines don't even have an inductance setting so I was just experimenting with it. 

Thanks for your comment...It gives me a few ideas on more cut and etch stuff

jody

thank you Brian

I still have that box somewhere in storage . I need to try it again using copper ball bearings.  I think copper might work really well for certain small parts provided they don't fuse to back side

I think you covered all the main things. I think one of the main things is lingering too long while fiddling with a flimsy filler rod.  Back in the day, I would use .063" (1.6mm) ams4951 wire on this thickness with good results and no melt thru. The .045" wire is better for a smaller bead but I just liked the bigger wire for stiffness.  thanks

Very cool video Sam

I love digging into the science but I’m not sure I’m even scratching the surface of the physics behind it. We will keep the conversations going

that's my friend Lee.  an old friend of mine.  makes filming video a lot more fun than filming by myself.  We went to welding school together 45 years ago so I might just do a podcast with him reminiscing about the old days in school.