Ey up, I joined roughly forever ago, then never actually got around to welding my car up. Life got in the way. I have however decided to weld up a skate rail as a bit of faff to do over the weekend - cheap thicker material is probably somewhat more forgiving anyway. Probably the first serious welds I've done in 'ever'. There's a bunch I'm not totally happy with though, can I have some criticism please?!
Machine is a Clarke Pro 90 (not the EN one), set to max and wire on '7', whatever that means in volts and mm/min. 0.6mm wire. CO2 gas, at about max on the tiny disposable gas bottle regulator.
Plate is about 6mm I think. Straight butt welded, no prep - partial penetration, I welded both sides.
The RHS is 3mm, ~1mm land, 45° bevel (eyeballed with an angle grinder).
I've tagged the more obvious defects, things I don't like.
A - I finished here and went back a bit with the bead, I presume this is just cold lap caused by doing that, and doing it too fast.
B - funny stringy bits at the toe, no idea why.
C - Porosity but I'm not sure why. I was welding outdoors but there was no wind at all. A bit of dirt on the steel that I missed?
D - Loads more cold lap. I was weaving a bit on the fillet, dwelling on the top toe, is this caused by not dwelling enough on the bottom toe?
E - More cold lap. Travelling too fast? I notice it's necked here a bit.
F - Welding around a corner. Should I have been starting on the corner, welding the length of one side and finishing on the next corner so all of my welds were straight without manipulating the torch too much?
G - More cold lap again, see D.
Any other advice?
Thanks!
Machine is a Clarke Pro 90 (not the EN one), set to max and wire on '7', whatever that means in volts and mm/min. 0.6mm wire. CO2 gas, at about max on the tiny disposable gas bottle regulator.
Plate is about 6mm I think. Straight butt welded, no prep - partial penetration, I welded both sides.
The RHS is 3mm, ~1mm land, 45° bevel (eyeballed with an angle grinder).
I've tagged the more obvious defects, things I don't like.
A - I finished here and went back a bit with the bead, I presume this is just cold lap caused by doing that, and doing it too fast.
B - funny stringy bits at the toe, no idea why.
C - Porosity but I'm not sure why. I was welding outdoors but there was no wind at all. A bit of dirt on the steel that I missed?
D - Loads more cold lap. I was weaving a bit on the fillet, dwelling on the top toe, is this caused by not dwelling enough on the bottom toe?
E - More cold lap. Travelling too fast? I notice it's necked here a bit.
F - Welding around a corner. Should I have been starting on the corner, welding the length of one side and finishing on the next corner so all of my welds were straight without manipulating the torch too much?
G - More cold lap again, see D.
Any other advice?
Thanks!