tonight i took a vertical up test on 1/4" stainless steel plate. i had a 37 +/- 5 degree bevel, a 3/32" gap, and a 1/8" land on it. i had my amperage on DCEN, my gas at 15 CFH, and the amperage was 100 for the root, hot, fillers, and cap. i was able to get complete penetration, but the sugaring was awful, and the back just looked awful. i thought about using a backing strip, but i wanted to do an open root. also, i had thought of using a purge box, but im not sure how well that would of worked. any hints/tips or anything would be very helpful. i tryed adjusting my gas some, and changed my amperage 3 times to higher and lower, and i still didnt see any significant improvements
robbee, You do have to purge the root side. It will always look like hammered dog turds if you don't. There is a type of TIG filler, that has flux on it like a brazing rod. I have used it a few times and dont really like it. I believe it was designed to weld root passes where you couldn't purge the back.