Welding Tips and Tricks

Now these first two photos are yesterday. Photo one is a mix of 7018, 6010 & 6011.
Photo two is a group of 6011 weld beads. Now these are all vertical position. Here are my amps 105 for 7018, 115 for 6011 and 85 for 6010. This is using a Miller 304DX machine and dig/arc control at 50. I'm guessing because that's what usually run for those rods I think. Usually I run my 7018 at 105, 108,110 or 100. I just watch Jody's video with 5 to 611 and today my goal is to do just fillit practice in the third & first position. This third photo is from about a month ago and is a 7018 fillet at 105 amps, 50 dig. Now all I'm asking Ladies and Gentlemen is advice.

Keep at it. Jodies vids are a great reference. Beyond that it just takes time and effort.

The 7018 looked fine from what I could tell, and the others weren't bad at all for getting started.

Don't worry about it. Keep up the practice. Trust me I've seen worse. At my high school some guys have gotten worse welds out of the squirt gun welder (mig) that are just a blob that don't even connect two prices of plate. You'll get it soon.

From my humble understanding, your thick plate is like a heat sink, it dissipates too much heat for that short period of time when you form a puddle, weld is "too cold". Preheat plate or add amps and try U motion(stretch puddle) or O, instead of Z

This is the case where you can not use the same settings that worked well on thinner material.

Thank you so so much as my GMAW welding post titled what is my malfunction was just put downs. I felt and I just want to succeed I am willing to die trying as I know GTAW alone is not always the process to use.

Fillet weld is pretty decent. For your flat beads you are going to want to stab your electrode into the joint. It looks like your arc keeps going out. You need to keep feeding your rod. You mentioned your mag welding. It is a whole different ball game. Just find your rythm and shove your stick electrode into the puddle. If you see space between puddle and the electrode push more. I'm sure it will be fine after some more focus

I'm not clear as to the description you gave correlating to the pictures you posted. It appears the picture 2 & 3 are the same picture.

Anyway, picture 1 that shows a stacked fillet look good.
Picture 2 (&3) the fillet weld has bad undercut on the "bottom edge" as plate is oriented. If that was a vertical "up" weld, then it is an indication you are not loitering at the edges long enough to deposit weld. Think 1, 2 sweep when you stick weld. Whatever you do to one side, you must do to the other (metal thickness being equal). Sweeping across the middle allows the puddle to fill itself in, you're not trying to deposit weld there. If you do so in a vertical "up", you will get sag and drop gobs of weld onto your toes or other Gentlemanly parts.

The stringer beads look very "cold" to me. I would say you need to increase the heat, and slow your travel speed down. When I weld stringers, I almost am only "feeding" rod and never want to feel like I'm pulling the puddle. This insures that I don't undercut/underfill the weld, don't stretch out the bead, and get full penetration.

Remember, Stick welds are completely about strength. Great stick welders make their welds look "nearly as good as" TIG/MIG, but they focus on insuring a strong, consistent, risk-your-life weld. Do that, and the pretty weld part takes care of itself.

That's my impression of the pictures and I hope you will find it positive, and constructive input.

Well, I'm no pro weldor...just a farm "boy" (at 70 years old) that sticks back broken equipment. But I always had trouble with 6011 (6010) coming out smoothly and looking like 7018 appears...smooth with consistent ripples. I'd hide the ugly 6011 base layer with a layer of 7018.

Then I studied Jody's videos.

The result was that I tried a whipping technique. What a difference. It is like a "two steps forward, one step back" process. It smooths out the hills and valleys while getting excellent penetration if the machine is set correctly.

It doesn't take a lot of practice but it may be worth a try.

Rhyno,
Are you having difficulty seeing the bead as you weld? Or is the rod not running smoothly.
Cleaning the mill scale off of the areas you want to weld and where it earths may help.
Other than that, seat time and practice.

These are my welds from today:
3F, 7018, 1/8 th" diameter & ARC control at 50 108 Amps
I did 2 full passes on a V groove in 3G position. Got 75 percent up a V groove. This is the first of 7 as I found a plate with 5 plates beveled on each side. Now some dummy in night class left it instead of taking it home for next class. They only filled out 2 of the 8 V grooves. They're beveled at 30 degrees each for a total of 60. This block of V grooves is roughly between 5x5"and 8x8". I didn't have good time to take a photo for you guys to pick it apart. Just simply ran out of time today.

Better. With 1/8" 7018 I run 122-125 amps. Yours look cold to me as the toes are not burned in. Travel speed looks much better though than your earlier pictures.

Yeah you need to up your amps a bit. That will help flatten out your beads. I would also recommend turning the arc force down between 0-3.

Are you using fresh, dry rod?