Pipe Welding (SMAW)

by Flyin Bryan on Nov.22, 2009, under Alright, so have just completed the initial SMAW Pipe Welding course at the local community college and thought maybe I'll share a bit about what I have learned. Again, this is solely informational and not professional, this is just a track record of what I have learned so far since I started back to welding school. Be sure and always consult with a professional before you do any type of welding or fabricating should you be a novice, like myself. So whenever I started the SMAW Pipe Welding class, one of the first things that we learned about was some of the different positioning that was involved with this welding techniqe. Along with this, the welding filler metal that was used in the course included either 6010 or 6011 electrodes and 7018 rods. Materials All of the pipe coupons that we used in the class were schedule 80, 6" carbon steel and were already cut and beveled for the students. Before we set up to weld, the pipes had to be cleaned of all the mill scale and prepared accordingly. For, this the class had some hand grinders and floor mounted grinders that we could use to prepare the pipe coupons for welding. The instructor made mention that for welding in the class the root face on the pipe should be between 1/8 to 3/32". I found out later why it helps to have a heavier land on the root face as it helps immensily during the root pass.