Welding down hill

Looking at some of the welds some of you post I see a lot of down hill welding.

I wonder why that is when up hill makes a stronger weld.

Penatration

I will have to try it out. Honestly, I can only weld decent flat.

are you saying that you get better penetration welding downhill?

It?s easier . I can only weld flat or pretty close to flat

I like to weld thin metal going downhill fast, otherwise uphill is better.

When using a stick welder welding down hill leaves more impurities in the weld path. This effect the welds strength. When using mig or tig the difference is not very much.

That is just my experience not any scientific reason. A more trained welder can better answer the science behind the difference.

Stick welding you tend to over run the flux puddle going down, then get voids in the weld. Some rods can do it better than others. Downhill is quite common with the root pass on pipe with 6010.

Mig welding, there is nothing wrong with it, but you need to have enough power to get good penetration. Need to have around a 250 class power unit or better for anything more than light sheet.

My thoughts exactly so I wonder why some use downhill.

No to put anyone on the spot because the answer may be I don?t know how to weld uphill.

Was really just wondering if some believed downhill was better or uphill was not worth the extra time.

well for what is worth, myself and I have 2 other welders working for me and they are seasoned also, I currently run 2 Lincoln 250 gas powered welders, one runs a Lincoln LN25 suitcase mig welder, the other we stick with, one man runs the mig the other runs the stick, when welding with the stick we always weld uphill , JD is correct, when welding with a stick downhill you will have flux running into the weld, and In my experience and my other two welders this is how we weld with stick and mostly use 7018 on mild steel, now with the mig welder or suitcase that bugger has to run hot, soooooo, we weld down hill with it, using 035 wire non flux with 75/25 mix, the reason we run down hill you can keep up with your weld, running uphill makes to much puddle and tends to run, Now what I have found over the years ( this works for us ), we leave a little crack when butting two piece together so you can stick the rod in the crack also and get good penetration now after you weld uphill it will look like crap until you knock the flux off, it tends to run down and puddle, and for the guys that say you cannot weld uphill, do not beat yourself up, You can do it,, Play with your heat, and practice, just like welding over head, play with your heat settings when welding over head your heat has to be lower than flat weld, hope this helps

It takes a lot more experience and practice to weld up hill as you have to be able to weave the arc back and forth as you go up.
For light metal - say up to 14 gage - downhill is fine. But for thicker stuff you can not get the penetration going down.

Mig and tig works good Downhill when the metal is thin or strength is not really an issue. Not many times when downhill is appropriate when stick welding.

Pipeliners all weld downhill. Almost all of their welds are Xrayed. They say it's faster than uphill. They used to used HPPE rod, I'm not sure what they're using today. (They called it "hippie" rod)

I've done both. Depending on the situation on what I do. I have done down ground it out then went up to fill in any voids. I changed a set of cross members in a trailer and most of it was flat or uphill. I got lots of comments when I posted pictures a few years ago. Mostly about not cleaning the new steel up. It was new steel so just welded it. If there is lots of mill scale I will clean it off.
I have learned to wire weld in the last few years. I look at tig being much like gas welding with an electric arc instead of the gas flame.

I am no expert on welding but the times I have had to weld vertical I have used more heat and moved faster to keep ahead of the puddle. Also tilted the rod down more to keep it under the puddle too. Use 6013 because that is what I mostly have around. As I said, I am not expert but with a little luck I can make a decent weld with no imperfections/gaps that I can see.

You would do better with 6011 or 6010.

When you weld you are creating a puddle of liquid. Easier for the puddle to run down hill but you have to run more heat for penetration and like others said more dirt n flux in weld. welding up hill you are trying to push the puddle up hill. It all depends on what you are welding corner, butt etc.

Pipeliners weld from top of pipe to the bottom. A weldor on each side. When finished after several passes the inside of the pipe has a bead that looks like it was welded from the inside. This bead is created from the fisrt two passes, stringer and hot pass.

Depends on the rod

(quoted from post at 11:35:38 03/11/19) Pipeliners weld from top of pipe to the bottom. A weldor on each side. When finished after several passes the inside of the pipe has a bead that looks like it was welded from the inside. This bead is created from the fisrt two passes, stringer and hot pass.

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Some do that, our procedure is all uphill progression.

6010 root, 7018 fill & cap

Most rods used were 8010.