Weld symbol
Bevel groove weld symbol
Half a vee — one vertical leg and one sloped face — means only one member is prepared. A broken arrow points at the member that gets the bevel, because the symbol alone cannot say.
Reads as: Arrow side: bevel-groove weld, 3/8 size, 45° groove angle, 1/8 root opening.
How to read it
The bevel groove symbol is drawn with its perpendicular leg on the left and the sloped face on the right. The vertical leg represents the member left square and the slope represents the member that is cut back. That is a drafting convention and it is always drawn that way, so the picture does not tell you which physical member on the part gets prepared.
That is why bevel groove callouts are usually drawn with a break in the arrow leader. The kink in the arrow is a pointer: the member the broken arrow swings toward is the one to bevel. When both members are the same and it genuinely does not matter, the arrow may be drawn straight, but on a joint of two different sections the break is the only thing that resolves the ambiguity.
The angle beyond the sloped face is the bevel angle, measured from the prepared face to the plane of the plate surface, and it is a single-member angle rather than an included angle across the joint. That is the practical difference from a V-groove: a 45 degree bevel and a 45 degree vee are not the same preparation, since the vee's 45 is split between two faces.
The root opening sits inside the symbol and the groove weld size sits to the left, exactly as on any groove. Bevel grooves are common on tee and corner joints where the through member cannot be cut, and on joints where a single-sided preparation is enough to reach the root with a backing bar or a back weld behind it.
Where each dimension goes
- Bevel angle (beyond the sloped face)
- Angle of the single prepared face relative to the plate surface. It is not an included angle across both members.
- Root opening (inside the symbol)
- Gap left at the root between the prepared face and the square member.
- Groove weld size (left of the symbol)
- Depth of the joint filled by weld metal, measured from the prepared face inward.
- Broken arrow
- The kink in the leader points at the member that gets bevelled, which the symbol shape cannot convey.
Worked examples
Bevel groove with a broken arrow
“Bevel the member the broken arrow points to at 45 degrees and fill 1/2 deep.”
The break in the leader is what identifies the prepared member. The 45 beyond the sloped face is that member's bevel angle and the 1/2 to the left is the depth filled.
Bevel groove reinforced with a fillet
“Weld a 3/8 deep bevel groove and cap it with a 1/4 fillet on the same side.”
A bevel groove and a fillet on the same side of the reference line describe a combined weld: the groove fills the preparation and the fillet builds the transition at the toe.
Common mistakes
- Bevelling whichever member looks convenient instead of the one the broken arrow indicates.
- Reading the bevel angle as an included angle and cutting only half the preparation.
- Assuming the perpendicular leg on the left of the symbol shows which side of the joint is square on the part.
- Leaving no root opening on a single-sided bevel with nothing behind it, which strands the root unfused.
Typical joints
Related symbols
Practise reading welds, not just symbols
The drawing tells you what the weld should be. The gauge trainer is where you find out whether you can tell what it actually is.