ASME? Had some experiences with historic boiler repair, became a bit frustrated in looking for certain answers in ASME code. Wondered if it was just me. Then was asked by the State boiler inspector if I knew what ASME meant- His answer was "Always, Sometimes, Maybe, Except". Can't argue.

Porosity can come from a number of places. Yes the typical culprit is from the base metal not being properly cleaned but, it can also come from worn out equipment. Check the "power cable" of your rig as well as your torch. I won't let any of the welders on my projects use the old flex neck torch heads that look like a crinkle cut French Fry they were made by weld craft and are pretty much obsolete. What happens is that the argon dries out the rubber and small cracks form that allow oxygen to be sucked up in along with the argon, kind of a venturi effect. Also it's a typical practice to use an oxygen regulator for argon in the field to increase the argon pressure at the gas shield lens I did it for years but remember sometimes to much of a good thing is a bad thing.

To answer your original question, yes SS wire will cover up porosity. But like has been stated in the post before, if it takes this to fix your porosity issues you might want to rethink your career choice. The welding world is a very small one and it's a hell of a lot harder to rebuild your integrity than it is to build a good one in the first place. As a QC manager I'd rather a welder tell me that he was having problems (so that I can help them) than for me to catch one cheating me, more importantly cheating them self.



Boiler Code is actually Asme Section 1, Asme Section XI is used to set welding procedures and to test welders and are two totally different codes with two totally different purposes.