[LAB80]

You are very close. Just heat control and handspeed and thats something we always doing anyway.
You would be ready for V ups soon

By heat control, do you mean arc length ?

[Gdarc21]

Yeah and no. If your amps are close to great and weld builds up a little heat etc you can close the arc a bit, whats called smother the arc. Dont drown it just bring it closer, but if your amps are way out it not as effective. I wouldnt worry about that yet as beads wont need it. Except edges.
I mean deliberately setting amps too high, not ridiculously high but too hot and running a bead and bringing it back down 5 amps and doing it over and over till you get to amps that are too cold. This will build a little experience with heat control and help if you do work somewhere and have to use thier gear. Its fine tuning 'your' settings. It also helps in setting a machine off heat rather than amp settings. If you grind a straight line with a thick cut off wheel then it shows when you arc and one variable you dont have to manage. Just follow it. The 'Am I still going straight?' thought automatically slows hand speed and for those of us that dont have the 'force' its handy at the start. and for placing multiple runs with dirty lens' You may have noticed that your hand is doing about three or more things, hand speed, arc lengths, drag angle and stick to joint angle. It feels natural later but managing variable when you can is good practise. I.e. cleaning, visibilty, ventilation all impacts to some degree.
Honestly just watching how metal melts and understanding heat control is fundamental to all processes it takes a while and you pick it up as you go.

[Gdarc21]

https://www.lincolnelectric.com/en/Weld ... ing-Guides

This link may help, there is ALOT of info dont get overwhelmed and dont over think it. its to help you enjoy welding not suck the fun out of it.

[LAB80]

https://www.lincolnelectric.com/en/Weld ... ing-Guides

This link may help, there is ALOT of info dont get overwhelmed and dont over think it. its to help you enjoy welding not suck the fun out of it.

Cheers for those posts. I welded up a bar leaner base and top on 2.5mm steel the other day, and used a bit of heat control in there I was able to melt in a previous pass better by increasing the arc a little, and also avoid blowing through an edge on a slightly wide fit up by bringing it closer. Still blew through a couple of times, but am getting a lot better at telling when it is about to happen, so most the keyholes just needed one or two dabs of filler to be able to carry on

This was with 7016. I do I think I will start using 6010 again though, especially for tacking things up.. being able to restart without first scraping the rod on the concrete or whatever is quite handy

[LAB80]

An interesting thing happened today, Whilst welding several wide gaps with 7016 for some reason I was able to somehow able to keep filling in the gap, without it all falling down and becoming a giant hole. It pretty much seemed to be case of just sticking the rod more in there, closer, and directing it where the filler needed to go... which I am sure I have tried before, but for some reason it kept on working this time. Weird stuff, but very interesting and cool

[Oscar]

An interesting thing happened today, Whilst welding several wide gaps with 7016 for some reason I was able to somehow able to keep filling in the gap, without it all falling down and becoming a giant hole. It pretty much seemed to be case of just sticking the rod more in there, closer, and directing it where the filler needed to go... which I am sure I have tried before, but for some reason it kept on working this time. Weird stuff, but very interesting and cool

yep, when the rod diameter and amperage is just right, you can make it fill in nicely almost like cellulose rods, but not as easy.

[Gdarc21]

Yup definitely sounds like you found the right amps and stick angle for the job.
Sounds like you are still having fun with it then

[LAB80]

So I was walking to the kitchen, and accidentally brought one of these things; https://www.ewm-sales.com/en/MMA_weldin ... 00502.html

Because it can run 6010, and does pulse stick welding too. It has arc force and ant-stick and all that jazz, and my goodness, it runs 6010 awesome. Just done 10 or so trial beads, and I had it down at 30 amps and it was super controllable and consistent, it almost went out a few times when I touched the plate, but it did not stick or anything, and I just carried on and everything was fine.

Absolutely happy. I have a box of bourbons, many electrodes, And a long night ahead of me playing with this new toy!

[Oscar]

So I was walking to the kitchen, and accidentally brought one of these things

What a coincidence! That's exactly how I ended up with all my machines!

[tweake]

So I was walking to the kitchen, and accidentally brought one of these things; https://www.ewm-sales.com/en/MMA_weldin ... 00502.html

Because it can run 6010, and does pulse stick welding too. It has arc force and ant-stick and all that jazz, and my goodness, it runs 6010 awesome. Just done 10 or so trial beads, and I had it down at 30 amps and it was super controllable and consistent, it almost went out a few times when I touched the plate, but it did not stick or anything, and I just carried on and everything was fine.

Absolutely happy. I have a box of bourbons, many electrodes, And a long night ahead of me playing with this new toy!

<drool>
they are one expensive little stick welder.
if i remember correctly they have a setting so you can run it on a 10 amp outlet instead of 15 amp.

i've just got a strata advance arc 165 https://www.strata.co.nz/shop/ARC+WELDE ... RC165.html
as a replacement for my little cheapy.

[LAB80]

So I was walking to the kitchen, and accidentally brought one of these things; https://www.ewm-sales.com/en/MMA_weldin ... 00502.html

Because it can run 6010, and does pulse stick welding too. It has arc force and ant-stick and all that jazz, and my goodness, it runs 6010 awesome. Just done 10 or so trial beads, and I had it down at 30 amps and it was super controllable and consistent, it almost went out a few times when I touched the plate, but it did not stick or anything, and I just carried on and everything was fine.

Absolutely happy. I have a box of bourbons, many electrodes, And a long night ahead of me playing with this new toy!

<drool>
they are one expensive little stick welder.
if i remember correctly they have a setting so you can run it on a 10 amp outlet instead of 15 amp.

i've just got a strata advance arc 165 https://www.strata.co.nz/shop/ARC+WELDE ... RC165.html
as a replacement for my little cheapy.

Yeah they do, you can set the 'fuse' rating of the thingy you are on. Of course, I used a cutting disk to set the 15 A physical plug setting to a 10 A one as an initial setup procedure. I am sure its in the manual somewhere.

[LAB80]

i've just got a strata advance arc 165 https://www.strata.co.nz/shop/ARC+WELDE ... RC165.html
as a replacement for my little cheapy.

That thing appears pretty solid, how much did it set you back if you don't mind me asking ?

[tweake]

i've just got a strata advance arc 165 https://www.strata.co.nz/shop/ARC+WELDE ... RC165.html
as a replacement for my little cheapy.

That thing appears pretty solid, how much did it set you back if you don't mind me asking ?

its ~$600.
there is the eziarc version which i think is the same welding features but without PFC.

considering my cheapy is $200-250 range.
there was a lincoln powercraft on sale for $400 but no pfc, no adjustable hot start, dig etc

[tweake]

So I was walking to the kitchen, and accidentally brought one of these things; https://www.ewm-sales.com/en/MMA_weldin ... 00502.html

Because it can run 6010, and does pulse stick welding too. It has arc force and ant-stick and all that jazz, and my goodness, it runs 6010 awesome. Just done 10 or so trial beads, and I had it down at 30 amps and it was super controllable and consistent, it almost went out a few times when I touched the plate, but it did not stick or anything, and I just carried on and everything was fine.

Absolutely happy. I have a box of bourbons, many electrodes, And a long night ahead of me playing with this new toy!

<drool>
they are one expensive little stick welder.
if i remember correctly they have a setting so you can run it on a 10 amp outlet instead of 15 amp.

i've just got a strata advance arc 165 https://www.strata.co.nz/shop/ARC+WELDE ... RC165.html
as a replacement for my little cheapy.

Yeah they do, you can set the 'fuse' rating of the thingy you are on. Of course, I used a cutting disk to set the 15 A physical plug setting to a 10 A one as an initial setup procedure. I am sure its in the manual somewhere.

they are good machines and a lot of features for the price. fronis, cea, kempi, etc have similar machines around that price but have none of the features.
its on my wish list as its about perfect for a maintenance welder. but out of my price range.

[tweake]

i've given the little strata a test run. it runs very nice.
it proved what i thought was the issue i had with the others. the stainless rods don't play nicely with VRD. they don't seam to draw enough current to turn the main current on. on the strata i can easily turn that off.
also gave it a run on 6010. surprised at how well it worked. it would run, just, if i kept the arc length super short. but any time it grew longer it cut out.
it ran 6011 good and hot. no issue with 7018 of course, and the 316 and 312 ran fine.

with VRD off and a bit of hot start, arc starts are easy.

[Jack Ryan]

also gave it a run on 6010. surprised at how well it worked. it would run, just, if i kept the arc length super short. but any time it grew longer it cut out.

Haven't seen those welders in Australia but they do look interesting.

I recently bought a CIG WeldSkill 180 for those times when portability rather than feature set counts.

https://www.cigweld.com.au/product/weldskill-180/

With all the talk of 6010 rods I was interested to see how well they would work with the WeldSkill 180. 6010s aren't readily available here unless you weld pipes as your day job. I don't so I ordered some from the US on Amazon - when they arrived, the flux was still on the rods so I was off to a good start.

It seems they worked with the WeldSkill 180 about as well as with the Strata. As long as I paid attention and kept a short arc, it worked fine.

Jack

[Oscar]

With all the talk of 6010 rods I was interested to see how well they would work with the WeldSkill 180. 6010s aren't readily available here unless you weld pipes as your day job. I don't so I ordered some from the US on Amazon - when they arrived, the flux was still on the rods so I was off to a good start.

It seems they worked with the WeldSkill 180 about as well as with the Strata. As long as I paid attention and kept a short arc, it worked fine.

Jack

Not all 6010s are created equal. I've seen them behave drastically different from different brands/manufacturers.

[Jack Ryan]

With all the talk of 6010 rods I was interested to see how well they would work with the WeldSkill 180. 6010s aren't readily available here unless you weld pipes as your day job. I don't so I ordered some from the US on Amazon - when they arrived, the flux was still on the rods so I was off to a good start.

It seems they worked with the WeldSkill 180 about as well as with the Strata. As long as I paid attention and kept a short arc, it worked fine.

Jack

Not all 6010s are created equal. I've seen them behave drastically different from different brands/manufacturers.

Yes, that's true, and I don't know if I got a good one or a bad one. I'm not going to start buying batches from each manufacturer to find out though. I am curious - but not that curious.

I got these: Forney 31610 E6010 Welding Rod, 1/8-Inch, 10-Pound

Jack

[Oscar]

I should get a small pack just to compare. I've noticed the 6010s that have a thicker flux coating are more difficult to sustain the arc. Even a tiny increase in overall OD, leads to a huge increase in flux volume (in some, close to +200%) compared to say Lincoln 5P+ 6010s.

[LAB80]

Pulse with 6010 is interesting. The top 4 or 5 wonky rows of beads is using 1.2 Hz, 50% balance, 2.5mm 6010, 60 Amps average, and 10 bourbons;

PULSE_MMA.jpg (1.89 MiB) Viewed 411106 times

Only just started dicking with it, but pretty much I waited for it to go 'booop' with the high current part, then moved slightly to the edge of the puddle, and waited for it to go boop again.

[LAB80]

Here is two runs where I was _trying_ to ramain at a constant travel speed; The top one is 1.2 Hz, the bottom is 2 Hz.

MMA_PULSE_CONSTANT.jpg (1.38 MiB) Viewed 411104 times

Its actually kind of hard to remain constant when it pulses, because It feels like you should whip forward for some reason. Perhaps more bourbons are required.

[LAB80]

the next 4 are at 2.5, 3, 4, and 5 hz.

I know what you are thinking; you are all jealous of my amazingly straight beads and super consistent travel speed. I thought I would post them anyway, just as some sort of idea of what the pulsy thing does when used by a monkey.

MMA_PULSE_FASTER.jpg (2.19 MiB) Viewed 411104 times

[tweake]

i thought Zila (on utube) had done a few vids on pulse welding with an HTP.
i would be interested to see what its like on thin material and especially stainless.

[LAB80]

i thought Zila (on utube) had done a few vids on pulse welding with an HTP.
i would be interested to see what its like on thin material and especially stainless.

Well I do not have any stainless, nor stainless electrodes. But I could grab some sheet metal or something ya want. How should I test it ya reckons?

[tweake]

i thought Zila (on utube) had done a few vids on pulse welding with an HTP.
i would be interested to see what its like on thin material and especially stainless.

Well I do not have any stainless, nor stainless electrodes. But I could grab some sheet metal or something ya want. How should I test it ya reckons?

try some butt join sheet metal, or thin wall tubing.
usually its thin stuff where pulse comes in handy, at least with tig.