Hi all first go at a bead pad with my thermal arc bought from badger1bear I was using murex 3.2 which I preferred to the boc 3.2 BB kindly gave me with the welder.
Found one rod just didn't want to start easily so I just ditched that one.
You need to overlap your stringers, not lay them with a gap. The aim is to end up with a slightly rippled pad with no slag inclusions. By leaving gaps between your stringers you are encouraging slag inclusions.
Don't weld so your pulling the rod towards your body. If your right handed weld from left to right always start in at you're body welding away from yourself (weld sideways). Left handed do opposite, might sound stupid but it ls a good habit. I would have your welding earth in the positive terminal on the welder. 115 amps nice tight arc and take your time moving along no weave, your arc is to long.
Had another couple of rods tonight 120a then back off a touch. Was trying to get the rod a bit more upright and overlapping the runs and going slower
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Your looking for interun fusion. This is the fusion between two beads. Once a bead is laid down the next one should overlap the weld toe by about a 1/3 of the original beads width. 66 and 33.
66% of the first bead should be seen and 33% of it should be covered by the fusion of the 2nd bead and repeat. You'll get a very flat looking pad cladding it like this.
Right now the main thing to be aiming for is consistency - there's a lot to learn, and keeping the rod moving at the right speed, angle and maintaining the correct arc length are all things which simply require practice, which is the reason for the bead pad.
Looking at your last run you aren't doing so bad. The travel speed has varied a bit, and you had a bit of a dodgy start, but it's not too bad.
As a nice thing to be able to note, the slag which you have pictured breaking up and falling off by itself is a good thing; for it to do so, the current has to be right and the travel speed won't be miles off.
Keep burning those rods. and yes, MMA is a very nice process. Nothing like laying down a bead, watching the slag drop off to reveal a beautiful weld and thinking to yourself 'that's not going to break'.
Your wobbling and suffering a changing arc length. That's largely to be expected though pull your elbow and upper arm into your ribs, plan were your starting and have a dry run through first before going live. Short arc is controlled long arc wanders!
Can you see what is happening if you can't and I know it sounds daft but sort it so you can. Move your head, clean your lens, get an eye test - whatever it takes. Burn a full 5kg and you should be miles ahead