Ugly beads, critics welcome...

[GManBart]

boo, go rip the exhaust off your car then, your prolly running out of stuff to weld anway

It's stainless!

 

[GManBart]

When 7018 is too hot the rod will glow red hot close to the stinger and sometimes melt before you finish the rod. Had that happen today with some 3/32"so turned the heat down a tad. On your weld with the tubing turn your heat up and go a little slower. Most books say to angle the rod 45 deg's to the joint. I tilt it down a little more so the puddle washes up the vertical plate easier.

On the tubing I turned the heat up a couple of times and the last one was the best, but I thought I still had to go up a bit more. I left the settings where they were, so I'm going to bump it up a little more and try again. That's one of the drawbacks to the way the amperage is set on my machine. It has a coarse range knob and then a fine range knob that has 1-10 and the manual is pretty unclear on how to set an exact amperage. I'm looking forward to the digital readout on the PowerArc 200ST!

 

[GManBart]

Fillet take 2: I went up about 10 Amps, and while not perfect (undercut and porosity at the start and overlap with the prior bead) it seems better. I didn't clean the slag well from the prior beads, so that may be part of the problem when I started a new bead...just have to revisit that. Thinking maybe I went up a little too much in heat, but I'm not sure. The undercut could have simply been me not pausing enough at the top of the zigzag, or the rod angle, right?









My first project tacked together....rear brush screen for the Cat:

 

[Shield Arc]

Sometimes you can get under cut with the improper rod angle.

 

[4570Man]

Here is a bead pad I did today. 1/8 7018 at 100 amps. Then I took a 7/16x3 bar and cut in half and mig welded it back together. Although it wasn't a proper bend test I was pretty happy.

 

[Arc weld]

Fillet take 2: I went up about 10 Amps, and while not perfect (undercut and porosity at the start and overlap with the prior bead) it seems better. I didn't clean the slag well from the prior beads, so that may be part of the problem when I started a new bead...just have to revisit that. Thinking maybe I went up a little too much in heat, but I'm not sure. The undercut could have simply been me not pausing enough at the top of the zigzag, or the rod angle, right?











My first project tacked together....rear brush screen for the Cat:

It looks like you had the rod angled more to bottom plate and your heat may be just a touch hot for your current skill set. Could go a little slower to get nice round ripples in the bead. Pointed means a faster travel speed was used. It can be OK sometimes but the weld has to completely fill up to the proper size with no undercut. Try using a shorter arc length too.

 

[GManBart]

It looks like you had the rod angled more to bottom plate and your heat may be just a touch hot for your current skill set. Could go a little slower to get nice round ripples in the bead. Pointed means a faster travel speed was used. It can be OK sometimes but the weld has to completely fill up to the proper size with no undercut. Try using a shorter arc length too.

That makes sense.

I thought I probably went up a touch too much on the heat, but didn't have another piece of this square tubing ready to try again. I'm pretty sure the rod angle was a bit too close to 45* as well and needed to be flatter.

I had no idea how much metal I'd be going through during this process! I found a good local supplier for scrap steel, but didn't buy nearly enough last trip. The guy let me walk around the shop and pick up whatever I wanted from the drop piles, and only charged me $5/25lbs. I guess I need to go back and buy a lot more!

This also has me shopping for a cutoff saw....it never ends!

 

[Arc weld]

"This also has me shopping for a cutoff saw....it never ends!"

Consider it stress relief. Look at Shield Arc, I think he enjoys buying toys as much as he enjoys using them but offers them up for anyone that wants to come over to his fantasy toy box with the 80 ton crane. :cool2:

 

[ovrszd]

"This also has me shopping for a cutoff saw....it never ends!"

Consider it stress relief. Look at Shield Arc, I think he enjoys buying toys as much as he enjoys using them but offers them up for anyone that wants to come over to his fantasy toy box with the 80 ton crane. :cool2:

I think SA is genuine in his offer.

 

[Arc weld]

I know he is and it would be hard to find a better mentor.