Welding Tips and Tricks

GREETINGS
After a year at welding school, well 4 hours a week for a year, and although it was six years ago I thought - cupla days practice and I'll be ready for welding on my steel boat. NOPE.
Made a couple of benches out of angle and 3mm sheet off cuts to practice horizontals and verticals and all's well but I'm not ready for critical stuff.

And again, I thought the pixies would come and make me weld in a straight line,....I assume after a few 8 hour days of laying beads I'll learn to see what I gotta see.. HOPE SO !
I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING HALF THE TIME. Going from left to right the rod obscures the view I guess cause as a right hander, going from right to left using a push angle I see where I'm going but generally its too dark to see much.

Following a previously laid bead it disappears often and the straight line wanders.

ARE CHEAP BATTERY OPERATED SHIELDS USUALLY SO DARK ? Mine is a $ 120 special, and darkens instantly but even set on # 9 shade I can't see where I 'm going yet if I chuck on my ancient $ 30 shield with its # 10 lens I can see everything.

I bought a pack of 25 rods that are labelled 7016 and the slag is like black glass. What is that ?
I have many questions but I'll check over past content first.

THANKING YOU ALL AND UNCLE JODY.
PAT APPLETON.

Back when I taught myself I used a fixed shade and I found a great cheat. Park one of those 500 watt Halogen work lamps nearby facing right at it. It really helped. Bright sunlight helps too.
As for helmets the best one I ever had was $120. I found it worked as well and lasted no longer than a HF $35 auto helmet. They all seem to work just fine.



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yachtweld3mm wrote: I thought the pixies would come and make me weld in a straight line,....

Yep, those modern day pixies ain't what they used to be. I blame it all on cell phones and wifi, even the pixies are at it.

The glasslike slag on 7016 is nothing strange. It just means that that is a double-coated rod. A mix between basic and rutile, but it's still a low-hydrogen rod. Those rods have a more stable arc with lower OCV and are a bit easier to restart than full basic rods with the dull brown slag.

Like Drizler1 states. Get some extra lighting on the job if You're getting on a bit age-wise like me.
Scribing a line with soapstone or a silver pencile beforehand helps.
But to be honest. I'm 56 and my eyes aren't what they used to be, but with my 3M Speedglas 100V I don't have much problems seeing where I'm going unless it's very dark in the shop.

Make sure you have a clean inner and outer clear lens, and you have removed any protective plastic off of them.

Oscar wrote:Make sure you have a clean inner and outer clear lens, and you have removed any protective plastic off of them.

Also if you can think of is your helmet and some kind of a bag. That shop dust n dirt tends to get into every little crack between those lenses.


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There was a podcast recently where they talked about 7016 open root. It appears the rod was engineered for use in open root veritical up high strength pipe. you might be better off with a 7018 rod if you need lohi on regular applications.

bap_ wrote:There was a podcast recently where they talked about 7016 open root. It appears the rod was engineered for use in open root veritical up high strength pipe. you might be better off with a 7018 rod if you need lohi on regular applications.

7016 is used a lot in Europe and Oz and has been for a long time. I use it a lot and I love it. The fact that it's new to You Americans doesn't make it a lesser rod.

yachtweld3mm wrote:
ARE CHEAP BATTERY OPERATED SHIELDS USUALLY SO DARK ? Mine is a $ 120 special, and darkens instantly but even set on # 9 shade I can't see where I 'm going yet if I chuck on my ancient $ 30 shield with its # 10 lens I can see everything.

I bought a pack of 25 rods that are labelled 7016 and the slag is like black glass. What is that ?
I have many questions but I'll check over past content first.

THANKING YOU ALL AND UNCLE JODY.
PAT APPLETON.

what helmet do you have?
one thing to watch is how much light your getting in the back of it. ie light going between helmet and your head and then reflecting off the lens. this makes your eyes close down and you don't see anything. the old shield may be tighter fitting and blocking more of the light.
one way around this is to use a work lamp and light up your work.

7016 is a "basic" (thats a type of flux) rod like 7018. but unlike 7018 is doesn't have metal powder in it.

I started tossing a shop rag on my head a while back. It blocks most of that unwanted backlight. Ir serves another bigger purpose too. Keeping that spatter off my bald spot[emoji6]


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With regards to light coming in from the back of the helmet, Optrel makes a leather attachment that goes on the top lip and draps down to help block out some light and protect the back of your head and neck. It doesn't block out all the light, and it does shift around if you tilt your head, but it's better than nothing.

I was suffering from back light and lots of reflection..SO, I tried to hold a shop rag onto the top edge of the shield with heavy duty paper clips. That kind of sorta helped but holy smokes it got warm in there and every once in a while one of those clips would spring loose ... ... never knew I was so jumpy.

drizler1 wrote:Back when I taught myself I used a fixed shade and I found a great cheat. Park one of those 500 watt Halogen work lamps nearby facing right at it. It really helped. Bright sunlight helps too.
As for helmets the best one I ever had was $120. I found it worked as well and lasted no longer than a HF $35 auto helmet. They all seem to work just fine.



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Thanks Mr. drizler, I've been meaning to add a lamp. since posting and many a bead since I'm starting to see more, I'm not fixated with the arc now and looking around more.

drizler1 wrote:Back when I taught myself I used a fixed shade and I found a great cheat. Park one of those 500 watt Halogen work lamps nearby facing right at it. It really helped. Bright sunlight helps too.
As for helmets the best one I ever had was $120. I found it worked as well and lasted no longer than a HF $35 auto helmet. They all seem to work just fine.



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Thanks Mr. drizler, I've been meaning to add a lamp. since posting and many a bead since I'm starting to see more, I'm not fixated with the arc now and looking around more.

thanks ET,

E T wrote:

yachtweld3mm wrote: I thought the pixies would come and make me weld in a straight line,....

Yep, those modern day pixies ain't what they used to be. I blame it all on cell phones and wifi, even the pixies are at it.

The glasslike slag on 7016 is nothing strange. It just means that that is a double-coated rod. A mix between basic and rutile, but it's still a low-hydrogen rod. Those rods have a more stable arc with lower OCV and are a bit easier to restart than full basic rods with the dull brown slag.

Like Drizler1 states. Get some extra lighting on the job if You're getting on a bit age-wise like me.
Scribing a line with soapstone or a silver pencile beforehand helps.
But to be honest. I'm 56 and my eyes aren't what they used to be, but with my 3M Speedglas 100V I don't have much problems seeing where I'm going unless it's very dark in the shop.

It's interesting seeing glass-like thin slag peel off, (never used 7016 before) but it is also still undignified when the glass-like slag doesn't peel off and needs to be mercilessly beaten to death to remove it.

BillE.Dee wrote:I was suffering from back light and lots of reflection..SO, I tried to hold a shop rag onto the top edge of the shield with heavy duty paper clips. That kind of sorta helped but holy smokes it got warm in there and every once in a while one of those clips would spring loose ... ... never knew I was so jumpy.

Thanks, yeah I noticed backlight is problem when the sun went down and was no longer a close encounter of the 3rd kind shinning in the doorway.
I tried the rag head trip but my glasses just steam up. But now being aware of it I'm adjusting the helmet to lose the back light. And also I've burned a few pounds of rods since I entered the question and I'm sorta learning where and when to look and what and when to look at.

Oscar wrote:With regards to light coming in from the back of the helmet, Optrel makes a leather attachment that goes on the top lip and draps down to help block out some light and protect the back of your head and neck. It doesn't block out all the light, and it does shift around if you tilt your head, but it's better than nothing.

THANKS,
I bought a shield for confined spaces which is merely like oxy goggles with an attached plastic face shield whereby your only forehead protection is via a cloth hood. Great to look through, improves vision and I can poke my head into positions only wrestlers and contortionists know but my glasses steam up completely and I hate the thought of at sometime forgetting the hood and toasting the skin above my eyebrows. Even just cloth over the back steam the glasses up.
Maybe if I was cool I wouldn't have the problem.

tweake wrote:

yachtweld3mm wrote:
ARE CHEAP BATTERY OPERATED SHIELDS USUALLY SO DARK ? Mine is a $ 120 special, and darkens instantly but even set on # 9 shade I can't see where I 'm going yet if I chuck on my ancient $ 30 shield with its # 10 lens I can see everything.

I bought a pack of 25 rods that are labelled 7016 and the slag is like black glass. What is that ?
I have many questions but I'll check over past content first.

THANKING YOU ALL AND UNCLE JODY.
PAT APPLETON.

what helmet do you have?
one thing to watch is how much light your getting in the back of it. ie light going between helmet and your head and then reflecting off the lens. this makes your eyes close down and you don't see anything. the old shield may be tighter fitting and blocking more of the light.
one way around this is to use a work lamp and light up your work.

7016 is a "basic" (thats a type of flux) rod like 7018. but unlike 7018 is doesn't have metal powder in it.

Thanks,
the helmet is branded WIA welding industries of Australia, just a cheap $ 120 one. was $80 when i bought it.
yep, exactly as you said, but I hadn't recognized it, the old ten dollar fixed shade kept all the outside light outside. Adjusting my position after recognising the backlight prob has helped.

E T wrote:

bap_ wrote:There was a podcast recently where they talked about 7016 open root. It appears the rod was engineered for use in open root veritical up high strength pipe. you might be better off with a 7018 rod if you need lohi on regular applications.

7016 is used a lot in Europe and Oz and has been for a long time. I use it a lot and I love it. The fact that it's new to You Americans doesn't make it a lesser rod.

Thanks, Wasn't that a movie in the 80's William Hurt was in, Children Of A Lesser Rod ???

bap_ wrote:There was a podcast recently where they talked about 7016 open root. It appears the rod was engineered for use in open root veritical up high strength pipe. you might be better off with a 7018 rod if you need lohi on regular applications.

Thanks,
I couldn't get 7018's at the time and only got a sample pack of 25 7016. I'm still a junior burger welder and haven't yet been awakened to the joys of 6011 or 7018.

Thankyou all for your replies.
I've realised it is better for beginners to start on thick metal, I was practicing on 3mm 1/8th sheet because most of my steel boat is such but I grabbed a big chunk of 4 inch X 4 inch by 6 inch and beaded it to death suddenly I'm producing edible beads and not in constant panic focused on speed, uncontrollable speed avoiding burn thru' now its: " oh look at the pretty ripples, gee look at my rod angle .... gee now I've got time to think.

yachtweld3mm wrote:Thankyou all for your replies.
I've realised it is better for beginners to start on thick metal, I was practicing on 3mm 1/8th sheet because most of my steel boat is such but I grabbed a big chunk of 4 inch X 4 inch by 6 inch and beaded it to death suddenly I'm producing edible beads and not in constant panic focused on speed, uncontrollable speed avoiding burn thru' now its: " oh look at the pretty ripples, gee look at my rod angle .... gee now I've got time to think.

Hey guy’s I live on Cape Cod and the internet is free. This guy bores me to death. He is so slow and going off topic. I already have Jody Collier suppling all of my data. No need to waste time here.

Cheerio from Cape Cod,

Kirk


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Radishfever wrote:

yachtweld3mm wrote:Thankyou all for your replies.
I've realised it is better for beginners to start on thick metal, I was practicing on 3mm 1/8th sheet because most of my steel boat is such but I grabbed a big chunk of 4 inch X 4 inch by 6 inch and beaded it to death suddenly I'm producing edible beads and not in constant panic focused on speed, uncontrollable speed avoiding burn thru' now its: " oh look at the pretty ripples, gee look at my rod angle .... gee now I've got time to think.

Hey guy’s I live on Cape Cod and the internet is free. This guy bores me to death. He is so slow and going off topic. I already have Jody Collier suppling all of my data. No need to waste time here.

Cheerio from Cape Cod,

Kirk


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INTERNET IS FREE! ???? Here in OZ its dear as poison. $ 50 gets you 5 gig. Of course there's free wifi in some businesses and libraries but not much use at night.

Wow - that is expensive - can't be many pirates round your way - almost cheaper to buy a film than download - it must be a messed up country !

I have had problems seeing what I'm doing. This lamp was helpful.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A5 ... UTF8&psc=1

Also, smoke from the rods fogs up my mask pretty quickly. When I saw what was happening, I started cleaning it often. I guess I should turn on the fan when I stick weld.

noddybrian wrote:Wow - that is expensive - can't be many pirates round your way - almost cheaper to buy a film than download - it must be a messed up country !

it wouldn't be so expensive if I had a land line, and up to date modem. It is extremely messed up this country, it is controlled by overbearing women and effeminate men.