Welding Tips and Tricks

Brand new to welding and SMAW. Lit up first few beads over the weekend and had no problems with flat and filet welds but can't seem to figure out what I'm doing wrong with my vertical up for 7018.

Electrode: 1/8" Excalibur 7018 (freshly pop'd can)
Amps: Tried a few settings between 118-125
Machine: HF Titanium 225 (yeah not the best, but works)
Sub-strait: mixed bag - 1/2" Flatbar bright clean steel, 1/4" Flat bar
Type: Vertical up Stringers and Vertical up lap-joint

Have a look at the pics. The skinny globby stringers were all laied in vertical. The nice (er) looking ones were flat, I'm happy with those, no trouble there!

For vertical I started out at around 130 but that seemed too high and was getting what I thought was dripping metal (maybe it was just slag now that I think about it). So I lowered it to 120 and was able to get something somewhat like a stringer. Maybe my travel speed is too high?

Any comments or suggestions to try? Focusing on stringers now but want to perfect my lap joint.

https://imgur.com/a/aloczST

Switch to 3/32 rod. Run about 72-80 amps. Get use to the fact that the slag will drip off but the weld is still there. It’s a visual trick the welding gods play. Practice will help. Burn 50 lbs of rod ($75) and it will all be ok.

Vertical up 7018 stick is a hot process. 1/4” material is hard to weld vertical up with 1/8” 7018 stick.
You should have no problems welding 1/2” material with 1/8” 7018 stick.
Your amperage settings are too high for vertical up 7018. With my personal machine, I run in the range of 110 amps max for vertical up 1/8 7018. The machines we have at the college, we run 100-105 amps vertical up with 1/8 7018 on 3/8” plate.

Vertical is a different animal. Your stacking weld on itself as you work your way upward. You have to oscillate your puddle from side to side and allow it to stack on itself. As you travel upwards, your material gets hotter and hotter.

Just had a look at your photos.
Instead of trying to run vertical beads on a flat plate, set yourself up with a T joint or a lap joint in the vertical position. Learn to fill it up.

I just started doing vertical up with 7018 in class this week, as Poland said, ignore the slag, its going to run like that no matter what you do, I'd drop the amps some, I like 115 personally. I find the puddle wets in much better if you're running up some sort of fillet, lap joint etc, rather than just stringers on a plate so you may want to just tack together a bunch of joints and run multiple passes on those to start out.

Can you read the puddle yet? Better question are you positioned well enough to see said puddle? Are you stable and comfortable? If you're new to stick welding and you're finding as soon as you start your vertical stringer that everything just goes to hell, you might not necessarily be ready yet, it's hard to learn when you don't know what you're doing wrong.

But honestly, the best advice you really can get is just to burn a couple dozen pounds of rod. You have a fresh can of Excalibur 7018. Have you done a bead plate yet? done one horizontal? I don't know if you've seen Jody's video but that would be a good place to start. If you haven't already burned 10-20lbs of rod in the flat position. I'd get a 6 pack and burn the entire 10lb can stacking beads. Then I'd pop another can and burn 10lbs of rod in the horizontal position, half on a bead plate and the other half building up a couple T joints. THEN after a good 20lbs of rod burnt I'd move back to doing vertical up

Obviously Lincoln Excaliburs are expensive, You might be better off picking up a 5lb box of Lincoln 7018 AC at home depot and burning that in the flat position, then the rest of your can horizontal, but even if you know EXACTLY what to do in your head, your body just won't cooperate until you've spent 50-60 hours practicing

sbaker56 wrote:Obviously Lincoln Excaliburs are expensive, You might be better off picking up a 5lb box of Lincoln 7018 AC at home depot and burning that in the flat position, then the rest of your can horizontal, but even if you know EXACTLY what to do in your head, your body just won't cooperate until you've spent 50-60 hours practicing

For practice, cheaper rods might be an option, maybe not. I've tried some cheaper brands from the LWS and they actually weld ok. Nothing like excalibur's, but ok enough for practicing. This one vendor out of Florida called Mundaka Technologies has 44lbs of 3/32" 7018s for $67 shipped. I might try them out.

Thanks for all the support! Yeah, it really did fell like I was running it too hot so I'll give it another try this weekend. Also yes, I'll do a bead plate this weekend as well in flat position. I completely agree about being in a comfortable position. You might not always get that in real life but for just learning you need to be well braced. I'll try lowering my amps for the vertical and see how that goes.

Oscar wrote:

sbaker56 wrote:Obviously Lincoln Excaliburs are expensive, You might be better off picking up a 5lb box of Lincoln 7018 AC at home depot and burning that in the flat position, then the rest of your can horizontal, but even if you know EXACTLY what to do in your head, your body just won't cooperate until you've spent 50-60 hours practicing

For practice, cheaper rods might be an option, maybe not. I've tried some cheaper brands from the LWS and they actually weld ok. Nothing like excalibur's, but ok enough for practicing. This one vendor out of Florida called Mundaka Technologies has 44lbs of 3/32" 7018s for $67 shipped. I might try them out.

I've not ran a lot of different brands of 7018, but I've found the biggest difference is how easily the slag comes off, I've had slag literally drop off a bead before I could get my chipping hammer with Excaliburs, 9/10 the slag is already starting to curl up and all I need to do is flick it off with a rod.

Other 7018 slag I've noticed ranges between being a little less forgiving, and literally not wanting to come off with a wire wheel. I've always used the 3/32 7018 in class when I had a choice because they were Lincoln Excaliburs and the 1/8 rod was unbranded, given that we ran out last week, I don't think I was the only one that preferred them.

I don't have a rod oven at home however so I only run 7018 I can buy cheaply in smaller sizes. That being said, I can think of a lot worse things to do than to buy a 50lb home rod oven and a 50lb can of 1/8 Excalibur.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I think rod ovens are totally overrated. I recently got passed the bend tests for AWS d1.1 and I used an old unsealed can of excalibur that has been riding around in the bottom of a toolbox.
I'd say tons of practice is your best bet, and if you can find somebody skilled to come watch your technique that can be a big help. I weld everyday and I struggle with vertical up more than any position, its tough

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chickenfarmer wrote:Maybe I'm in the minority, but I think rod ovens are totally overrated. I recently got passed the bend tests for AWS d1.1 and I used an old unsealed can of excalibur that has been riding around in the bottom of a toolbox.
I'd say tons of practice is your best bet, and if you can find somebody skilled to come watch your technique that can be a big help. I weld everyday and I struggle with vertical up more than any position, its tough

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Do you live in a drier climate? That aside, I'm not suggesting OP purchase a rod oven unless he is going to buy a lot of 7018, especially in sizes that may not be used up very fast. Lincoln 7018 is rated moisture resistant, however much that actually makes a difference, so it probably doesn't "go bad" as fast as some. but I HAVE had issues from 7018 that has sat around too long. I've worked with an old Navy welder that gave me some old 7018 to warm up with that has sat in his truck box for years just to mess with me. it'll not want to strike an arc sometimes, burn erratically, but the biggest thing is it can leave an entire bead just FILLED with porosity.

I can generally tell the difference between a good 7018 electrode and a bad one. But for a beginner having a name brand 7018 that came out of a sealed can only a few days, weeks or even months ago is just one less potential problem to worry about.

snoeproe wrote:You have to oscillate your puddle from side to side and allow it to stack on itself. As you travel upwards, your material gets hotter and hotter.

THIS! You have to work your rod from side to side to spread out the metal. I think of it as a weave pattern (hold the sides for a second and don't spend to much time in the middle), except am staying within the confines of a stringer bead. I am really only going back and forth between where I want the toes of the bead to be. A straight up drag never works for me. Also, really push the rod in there. Keep the arc as short as possible. The weld puddle falls out when you long arc.

I suggest starting your uphill battle (pun intended) with your plate at a 45* angle. Makes the puddle easier to stack on. As you get your machine settings adjusted & gain control of arc length, speed, etc, you can adjust your plate to greater angles. Pretty soon you will be true vertical up. Watch the toes of the weld, hesitate on each side until the puddle flows, then quick across the middle, to the other side hesitate & do it again.

For stringers, again once you get you machine adjusted, you'll find that a 45* plate will help you figure out the travel speed to stay on the leading edge of the puddle while watching the sides wash in.

If your 7018 is contaminated with moisture you won’t know the difference. Unless it’s really bad! The problem with contaminated 7018 is not immediately visible without an election microscope. It’s hydrogen precipitation that creates a brittle weld over the long term.

I’ve tested with the CWB at multiple locations. It adheres to CSA W47.1 which is the Canadian equivalent to AWS D1.1
The electrodes for these tests must come from an approved storage oven. The testing facility must have this all in place prior to getting approved as a testing facility.
On a job, using moisture contaminated low hy electrodes leads to hydrogen in the weld zone which may not be seen by the naked eye. It can and may show up as under bead cracking. This can cause pre mature weld failure.
On a code job, you would never get away with it with a reputable qc department in place.

snoeproe wrote:I’ve tested with the CWB at multiple locations. It adheres to CSA W47.1 which is the Canadian equivalent to AWS D1.1
The electrodes for these tests must come from an approved storage oven. The testing facility must have this all in place prior to getting approved as a testing facility.
On a job, using moisture contaminated low hy electrodes leads to hydrogen in the weld zone which may not be seen by the naked eye. It can and may show up as under bead cracking. This can cause pre mature weld failure.
On a code job, you would never get away with it with a reputable qc department in place.

I agree totally, but there is a big difference between practicing for a test day, and practicing with the idea of taking a test in the future. If your still trying to get used to how a vertical up weld looks as you do it, or your working on proper position, and building muscle memory then non rod oven rods are still ok in my book.

chickenfarmer wrote:Maybe I'm in the minority, but I think rod ovens are totally overrated. I recently got passed the bend tests for AWS d1.1 and I used an old unsealed can of excalibur that has been riding around in the bottom of a toolbox.
I'd say tons of practice is your best bet, and if you can find somebody skilled to come watch your technique that can be a big help. I weld everyday and I struggle with vertical up more than any position, its tough

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Passing a bend test will get you the job , passing x ray will keep it . If you want x ray quality welds with 7018 they must be moisture free .

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