Welding Tips and Tricks

And hello there, how's it all goings?

So today I was doing a bunch of welding of 1.6mm SHS, using 7016 and when I ran out of that, 7018. I had the amperage at about 60 -70 ish when using 7016.

Anyway, several times I noticed it was going along all nice (horizontal, fillets and grooves), all be it a bit slow, and then the slag seems to catch up over the puddle and cover it over, making it lot quieter, but obviously I could not see it anymore and had to guess where it was. It otherwise seemed to carry on going under the slag,

Has anyone experienced this before, and know the cause? If I pulled the arc long, it seemed to blow it away, but if I kept that arc length things started getting hot and also it made it a bit messy. I do not seem remember this happening using 7018,

Any suggestions?

Cheers

Some different sticks need slightly different techniques, that is usually not enough drag angle, going too slow for stick or too low amps.
Both the more amps and a bit more angle force the slag back a bit more or going a bit quicker keeps it ahead of it.
Either way it would only be a small adjustment to cope with the different sticks composition. But that would be what I would try first starting with angle, not heaps but you should see it swirl when its right.

Thanks, that makes sense.

I do not think I have noticed it when running a decent amount of amps, but in this case I was worried about blow through of the thin material. I will give it go after I get a hold of some more rods

I got a hold of some Magmaweld ESB44, which is a twin coated 7016. It runs purrrrdy, its like WIA Austarc 16TC, has a black glassy slag which pops off easy, except its about 1/4 of the price. No more slag being smothered so far, except I did note I had to long arc for a while at the starts to avoid porosity.

If yer paying for your own rods in NZ and need 7016, have a look at https://weldingtechnology.co.nz/product ... 7016-magma

thanks for that, its appreciated.

7018 has thicker coating than 7016 resulting in more slag. You have to watch the weld pool and stay on the leading edge. You have to move a bit faster than 7016 because of the faster deposition rate with 7018.

tweake wrote: ↑Mon May 02, 2022 3:05 am thanks for that, its appreciated.

Did you go and buy them all, ya bastard?

I went to go buy some more and they are not listed because they are super low on stock

i wish !

supplies are getting short on a lot of stuff.