I have put a few pictures of a recent, very small, welding project up on a website, and would very much welcome your feedback:
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I have put these up not because I consider them to be great welds (especially not in this company!), but rather because I am a fairly new weldor (around 4 months) and have mostly been learning on my own (trial and lots of error), and could use some feedback. If you have a moment to look at the pictures, I would especially welcome feedback on the following questions: 1) Did I use approximately the right setup (amps, rod) for these welds? 2) Anytime I do anything like a fillet weld, I seem to have trouble avoiding a little bit of undercutting. Any suggestions for how to avoid that? I have tried dropping down on the amps, but then I don't get as good a weld. Since changing the amps mid-weld is not an option, is there a some other way to control the heat going into the piece in the SMAW process? I have read something about moving the stick closer or farther back, but am not really sure which does what.
not too bad, but, you are limiting yourself with the AC machine. A D.C. machine would give supperior results. However, the 6013 was not a perfect choice. Those roads are generally considered a sheet metal rod, being that they are generally a lower penetration rod. If you did something similar in the future, use a D.C. machine, do a root pass with a 3/32 6010(or 6011), the 6010 rods are high penetration and fast freeze, they leave a shallow but hard to chip slag, use a grinder to remove all the slag on your root. Then cap it with a 3/32 7018 --- two passes, first one on the base plate at approximately 90 deg , the second one on an almost horrizontal into the rod. The 7018 is a great general purpose rod, but because of the gap between the rod and base plate, you'd end up with porosity on your cover pass, so that is the reason for the 6010 root pass. You are only welding on a 1/8th base plate, so keep your rod size smaller. good luck, hope this helps.
Less spatter, perhaps, but just turning down the amperage will help a lot in that respect. DC is smoother, but the weld is just as good from a strict 'quality' perspective.
This was a flare weld onto 1/8" material. How much penetration do you
*need*?
Why 6011 if it's a DC machine? Why not 6011 with an AC machine?
While this is necessary for pipe welding and pressure vessels, it is far from necessary for a bracket to hang some stuff on. Just the root pass with
3/32" 6011 would have been sufficient for the task at hand. Similarly, a single pass of 3/32" 6013 would have been sufficient.
The quality of your welds is one thing, and that has been well critiqued already. Another aspect of making "things" is their design. Forinstance, if you had drilled a couple of holes in the plate and plug welded it to the rod from the back you would have a neater looking project. Part of what keeps making "things" interesting for me, is to have a professional looking job when finished. It's easy to get carried away, welding too much. Good design is not easy, but it's fun to strive for.
For now, the AC machine is all I have available. I would very much like to try a DC machine; one of my goals in the next few months is to build a converter ... besides less spatter, what would DC do differently for me in this situation?
Hmmm -- I could use 6011 with the AC machine, and I have some 7018 designed for AC; however, I don't have a rod oven, so I'm not sure how good the 7018 is at this point. My bigger question however is the three passes you are suggesting -- to my unitiated thinking, that seems like overkill for a simple project like this ... and a whole lot more work than the one pass I made with the 1/8" 6013! Yes? No? Anybody else got an opinion? (Like I have to ask ... !)
Thanks, Mike, for the affirmation. Yes, I am not as consistent in travel speed as I'd like to be ... particularly when I begin to realize that I'm getting too hot! I'm intrigued by the issue of the bead size and the heat; I have tended to feel that I don't get a good smooth bead that flows between the two surfaces if I try for smaller & less heat. Would you recommend 3/32" instead of 1/8" for this (see reply from PLC)? How does (or does) the 1 amp per .001" of thickness guideline apply in this situation?
By the way, the next lower step on my welder is 115 amps, and I started out with that ... but that was where I ran into trouble with the tack weld, and made a bit of a mess. However, I also had it positioned awkwardly at the time, so that may have been a bigger factor than the heat.
I have a feeling I'm pushing in when I should be pulling out, and vice-versa. (Okay, let's try to avoid the inuendo on this one ... I'm talking about my WELDING!!) Is there some sort of fall-off on either side -- ie, does it get hotter and hotter the farther out the rod is, or does it get hotter up to some distance, and then begin to get cooler when one goes farther out than that? (Yes, I know -- it gets a LOT cooler if I move it far enough out that it breaks the arc!) Farther out = more spread of the arc? More spatter?
Again, thanks for the feedback (both Mike and PLC, and any others to come). One nice thing that I can say about my own work is that it is a heck of a lot better than what I did a couple of months ago ... but as you can tell, I still have LOTS of questions!
Andy, are you familiar with Buies Creek? I assume you are if you are using a Campbell url. I am just getting into the arena of welding by listening to what these old timers have to say. I'd be interested to know what kind of resources you looked into in the Triangle area if you have only been at it for four months, i.e. what are the best places to contact, where did you find the best info, etc.
Ray, I live between Lillington and Angier. I'd be happy to share the limited experience I have, for what it is worth! (Anybody else out there in the NC Triangle area?)
I have not had any welding classes up to this point; though I had been looking for a class at the community colleges for the last year or more, I had not been able to find one that was geared for hobbyists and/or that I could fit into my schedule. This fall, however, there are two choices that will work for my schedule: A continuing ed class at Wake Tech on Friday nights, or a for-credit class at CCCC (Sanford campus) on Tuesday nights. Both sound similar in terms of what they cover -- basically, both are introductions to welding. I'm planning on taking the continuing-ed class at Wake Tech, because it fits a bit better into my schedule, and I don't need the credits. (For any of you out there that have taken classes -- any comments on the likely difference between a continuing ed class and a for-credit class?)
So far, my learning has been almost entirely "self-taught." I put that in quotes because I have learned an enormous amount by lurking on this newsgroup and asking occasional questions. I also read a brief welding manual from Century (it matched the first welder I bought), and perused a good many of the articles on the Lincoln website. One of my students helped me get started, lending me some gear, showing me how to strike an arc, and commenting on my first couple of attempts -- but that's about it as far as actual, "real live" instruction; I've done a fair bit of trial and error, and made several projects (welding table, roller stands for the table saw, a Biesemeier-style rip fence for my band saw and most recently, one for my table saw). Some of the welds on the earlier projects are pretty poor ... but that's part of the learning, I guess! I am looking forward to getting into a class, partly (hopefully) to try out some other kinds of welding (I've only done SMAW thus far), and to have someone look at my welds and welding, and give me some tips. And just to have some time to practice, practice, practice!
I have only been to one welding supply store, in Durham; there is one in Dunn, and several in the Raleigh area, but I have never had the time to stop by when I've been in those areas. Since I've bought used machines rather than new, and since the only consumables I have needed are commonly available electrodes (I've bought them at Home Depot, Lowe's, etc.), I haven't had any urgent need to go to the welding supply stores ... yet!
The first welder I bought was a very limited, 100-amp, 110v machine. I bought it used for $65. It let me get started, and make a few projects ... and by the time I moved up to my current machine, I could make pretty decent welds on 1/8" material. I sold that welder for what I paid for it, and now I have an ancient 275-amp, 220v machine that I bought for $25. (The guy who sold this one to me had another one that he wanted to sell ... are you interested?) I had to spend another $25 or so to make leads for it, and of course had to spend a few dollars to put in a 220v outlet. I also had to make the connectors to connect the leads to the machine, and I had to spend a good while cleaning up the machine ... but boy, does it ever weld. I wish I'd had this first; it would have been easier to learn, I think.
Finally, I've found some fabricator shops (in Fuquay and Cary) that have been willing to sell me steel pretty much at cost. Likewise, the student who helped me get started has also provided me with a good bit of steel for the projects I've done, as well as a good many "coupons" for practicing; he can get them pretty cheaply from the plant where he works. Had it not been for these sources, I might have been discouraged from getting into welding by the prices (and limited selection) of steel at the big box hardware stores!
Hope this helps! Be warned that if you get bitten by the bug, it can cause all kinds of trouble ... just ask my wife!
I don't know about all of you guys and heat, but I run 1/8" 6010's at around
115-120 amps on a 1/4" steel plate and my weld's come out half decent (i ripped right through to the other side on my first root pass in a V groove plate). And 7018's at 125 amps.
Keep in mind though, I'm also a newbie. I tend to go a bit fast though and this is somewhat working for me though. I am in the process of playing with the machine and trying different amps with different rods, lower amps, etc.
Just do what you are doing. Mess around with different rods, roots, combinations, polarity, heat. All will come into play in different situations.
Keep this fact in mind: The better you can weld, the hotter you can weld. But in some situations you purposely do not want to weld hot.
Motion, speed, direction, polarity, rod, root configuration, every time is a variable because those things can always vary. Learning how they vary, and the cause and effect of them is vital. There will come a time when you will have one chance to weld something or make it into useless metal. Knowing these things will make the difference.
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