My company dispatched my apprentice and I to an oil processing plant on the west cost for a crack repair on an oil heater treater. When we arrived in house staff was pulling this E-tube out and washing it for us. During the first inspection inspections a small crack on the exterior side was noticed on the toe of existing weld. After pulling washing and reinspecting a 21” crack was discovered on the back side.
I had E-tube propped up in the best possible position for ease of access on all sides, CARBON ARCED out the crack on backside . (1/2) deep and a total of 25 “ two inches past the the crack and welded her up with 7018 1/8 .
Next day came back gouged out the front all the way down to sound metal and welded it up on the 3rd day.
Front cracks was just as long as the front crack but dug in a lot deeper.
Base metal 515 grade 70 / 1-1/4 thick.
CAC made short work of joint prep. Joint used was referenced from AWS D1.1 (B-U8) CJP

So I finally broke out the check book and got me a new wire feeder that has a large spool capacity, went to the local home depot and pick up a scrap pice of 1"×1/16 tube and started playing with some low settings.
( linked up with linclon's cross linc really well)
Rather than spend 30 bucks for a bunch of tee joints a decided to make bait hook . It's not finished but my point is the profax vs1 was half the price of an ln 25 and came with a connector lug plus 3' of leed. So far happy with it. Can't wait to try dual shield, Flux and spray arc mood,
Welderskills thanks for the mig workbook and all the recent spray arc videos. 😉

Ripped this 1/8 304 plate with a circular saw I have, not sure if it's the same with any circular saw but it makes short work for sure, no sparks no, no smoke.
Thought it was smart to lay out with my chalk line then spray glue, to keep the line. It work till I had to clean it, oh well it's going straight into the fire box tomorrow anyway 🤪.