welding shop

[fun4now]

i'm not a real fan of stick myself, slag gets in the way, it wants to burn threw to easy. its kind of like burning a hole, then waiting for it to fill back up and then move and repeat. all with little to no look at the true deposit till after its cooled and the slag is off. i think its one of those things you have to get a feel for to get good at. or i just suck at it....
but as i understand it you have to burn away then fill to get good fusion.
i much prefer MIG and TIG to stick. not that there is any thing wrong with stick. i see its advantages, and will likely like it more if i ever get a good feel for it.....supose time will tell.
but it looks to me your pipe is being done too cold.

keep in mind i have very little experience with stick, so i could be way off. it just looks like the bead is too much on top and not enough in the joint.

[KBar]

Not to sure what you mean but the puddle looks alright to me, and is clearly visiable i mean it glows read for minutes after the weld is done. i thought i might have been moving a little to fast, its just when you get used to stick welding (which i have done more of) a stringer bead with 7018 is a lot narrower than the stringers i mig welded, it has a completly different look ill take some pics tommorow of my stick welding and post them for everyone to take a look at.

If you are using a 1/8" 7018, your bead should not be narrow, it should be at least 1/4" wide, a lot depends on the method you are using.

Drop your camera in your welding bag next time. Your pictures are coming out fuzzy and not focused. It is easier to diagnose if the pictures are clear.

[jonnymag]

A couple of "dumb sounding" suggestions, but they work for me...

i did get burned right on the finger ignorance causes pain lol.

Here's a burn tip I learned in my glass making class. One of the other students is a nurse in the hospital burn unit. She says if you have a burn which does NOT break the skin, the best way to deal with it is to soak it in Clorox bleach for a few minutes. Bleach is supposedly better than ice at cooling burns -- and more sanitary. Apparently, it's a trick they use "out in the field."

It sounded dumb to me, but guess what? It actually works. And I didn't get any blisters later. So now I carry a small wide mouth jar full of Clorox in my tool bag when I'm working with hot glass or metal.

But do NOT do this if you've broken the skin. Unless, of course, you really really REALLY love pain.

Not to sure what you mean but the puddle looks alright to me

The way it was explained to me when I first started was: When you see the puddle move, then you move. If you remember that, you should get a nice even bead.

For example, if you're dragging left to right, the puddle will seem to "move" to the right (towards the electrode). So you want to stay just in front of it to the right as it "moves."

It took me a while to actually figure out what he meant because it's kind of an optical illusion. But when you finally "see" it for yourself, it gets a lot easier.

[KBar]

Johnny, thats the first I heard about Clorox on a burn, I'll have to give it a try. I do know Clorox works on poison ivy, if its real bad, you can mix it 1/2 & 1/2 with peroxide but dont breathe the fumes, it will bubble and carry on for a minute when you mix the two.

[migman69]

thanks for the suggestions fellas, the t-wrench was mig welded on very thin walled pipe i tried to lay a constant even bead but it melted the pipe away so i had to use a series of small tack welds stacked to fill in the hole. thats why theres so many dog ears, i didnr use stick to make the t wrench, i use gmaw mig.

[migman69]

Well fellas here are some pics of my t joints i have been welding, using 7018 rods. what do you all think.

[KBar]

Well fellas here are some pics of my t joints i have been welding, using 7018 rods. what do you all think.

A couple things. First, trim the fringe off the bottom of your pants, a spark could light those fringes up real quick and it hurts.

Second, Im going to try and clear the pic up in my photo shop and take another look at it, its kind of blurry and hard for my bifocals to adjust, Was your joint tight or close ?, the reason I ask, it looks like the center of your bead fell down and your edges are high or you were dragging your puddle back, if Im wrong, correct me. You may need to adjust your arc length. It looks like you had good travel speed and had the amperage set pretty good.

More pics

[migman69]

The joint did have a small gap it was not fit super tight. I root pass went in clan though im still getting used to doing joints that pic is only the third iv'e ever done that being said how do you think i did for it being the third one ever.

[KBar]

The joint did have a small gap it was not fit super tight. I root pass went in clan though im still getting used to doing joints that pic is only the third iv'e ever done that being said how do you think i did for it being the third one ever.

You dont want the fit tight, you do need somewhat of a small gap, I just wanted to make sure it wasnt like a 1/4 inch or so. For only the third time, I would say its pretty good. Keep at it, more practice and you will be laying some perfect beads. Then you'll say, I didn't know this could be so easy.

[migman69]

well i graduated from doing t-joints to welding V-groove butt joints, both sides beveled at 45 degrees, Butted together. My instructor said i was doing **** good on the t-joints and it was time to do v-groove. Anyhow im having a problem with getting good penetration during the beginning of the root bead and at the end of the root bead it blows out. But the middle looks great. Any tips or suggestions on how to avoid these problems.