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Weld Callout Leader Direction 1

MToomey

Mechanical
Joined
Dec 2, 2019
Messages
17
Location
US
Hi folks,
First off, please let me know if I'm in the wrong pond with this question; I've been searching around and it seems I can't find the right search terms to find a question I'm sure has already been answered...

I do a lot of weldment drawings for my fab shop. We build heavy lifting equipment, and most of our welding is to AWS D1.1.
I have always placed my weld callouts so that the leader is pointing about the same angle the welder's gun will be when they are making the weld. If it's a fillet, the leaders come in about 45° on the welded side of the joint. Likewise for single bevel groove welds, the arrow is about 22.5° from the flat surface (just eyeballing).
I can't seem to find anything about it now, but I thought I stumbled across something in a google image search a couple weeks ago that implied that the leader should point to the edge that should be beveled (ultimately ending up approximately normal to the bevel), and it occurred to me that I just made up my own standard (when I started here six years ago) based on previous experience in welding school.
Just fyi, we model all of our joint prep, so all bevels that will be needed are already visible on the weldment drawing.

Is there an industry standard or a codified standard that defines the correct orientation for weld callout leaders?
Is there any reason to care if our welders are doing it right?

Thanks in advance,
Matt
 
I meant to include some pictures...

This:
1750080898404.png

vs this:
1750080947917.png
 
I like this idea, but have never encountered before in the wild! I may start using it myself, because I like a clean and well-prepared drawing, but as a design engineer I wouldn't expect a welder to pick up on this intent. If I really care about it, I spec it out in writing on the drawing.
 
Is there an industry standard or a codified standard that defines the correct orientation for weld callout leaders?
No (as it relates to welding gun angle).

Yes, as it relates to joint prep.

^^^^ Edited after a quick review of AWS D2.4 as suggested by @gtaw


s there any reason to care if our welders are doing it right?
Gun angle is typically neither an essential nor non-essential variable in a WPS.
 
Last edited:
Buy a copy of A2.4 from AWS.
 
Gun angle is typically neither an essential nor non-essential variable in a WPS.
It would certainly be difficult to inspect! My intention when considering it is to communicate more plainly (even subconsciously) with the welders, and possibly catch an inaccessible weld I might otherwise miss.

My CWI pointed me to A2.4; our copy is 2007. Turns out a callout leader with a jog (broken arrow) is used if needed to specify which member gets beveled. Straight arrows mean the joint can be prepped on either side or it is obvious which member should be prepped. For posterity, I'll note that this is outlined in Section 5.4.1 and 6.1.3
 

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