Butt weld seems to be one-sided

[tombardier]

Greetings there,

Been getting along nicely with my new arc welder, and making some perfect looking slugs on flat pieces of metal. I took some photos, but the camera is so crap that it's out of focus when close enough to actually see the welds properly :/ Anyway. I thought I'd try a butt-weld. I went for two pieces of metal, that had rounded edges, which I though would make a nice natural v type bevel to weld on. It's galvanised unfortunately, but I don't have much else to work with, just getting scraps where I can. Anyway, I thought I was doing really well whilst I was doing it, with my pool seeming to cover both sides of the weld, and when I finished my run, the slag coating looked like it covered both sides of the weld as well, but after chipping it off, it seems that the majority of the filler-metal is on one side, or the other, swapping over about half-way through. Could anyone suggest what I'm doing wrong in that regard?

The rods are E6013 2mm, on 2.5mm galvanised box-section style stuff with beveled edges, and I was using them at 60amps as per recommendation on the welder box itself for 2mm thick rods (or is the recommendation for the thickness of the workpiece?)

Anyway, it's started raining now which is why I'm here trying to make my welding better, and not still outside making a nice weld to show you

Cheers. Tom.

 

[oilcooled :)]

well working with galvanise doesnt help ur situation one bit, if u cant get mild steel, run the grinder on the steel to remove the galvanise, because the fumes of welding galvanise is deadly, get a sweet taste in the back of your throat, then a sore throat, or worse dizzy and vomiting if inhaled, and you dont even cop on your inhaling it. higher up ur amps some myt help too nd keep practising

 

[tombardier]

I just read this, and think I'll take steps to avoid _any_ fumes in future!

http://www.anvilfire.com/iForge/tutor/safety3/index.htm

What would a fan pointing at the work blowing fumes away from me work? I do all my welding on my driveway, so in the open air, and it's often quite breezy anyway, so I don't think I'll have had any horrendous exposure at this point! I noticed on the reverse side of the galvanised weld that I've done, that there is a white almost like a thick cobweb type coating all over it where the penetration heat would be. I take it that's a zinc salt? Strange stuff. I checked out the data sheet for e6013 rods too, and they're bad enough lol.

http://alemis.us.airliquide.com/ChemSafe/MSDS/Image/29134_1.pdf

Think I'll look in to getting some mild steel anyway.

 

[Delgado]

It sounds to me that you are probably running the weld a little too fast, remember that with the "v" you are not just laying the weld on top of the metal, but you are also filling the gap and fusing the sides aswell. Try turning the amps up towards the higher end of the recomended range for the electrode and posibly use a slight side to side weave pattern (like an alcoholic with shaky hands). Also, with E6013 electrodes, don´t be scared to bury them right into the grove, keeping a shortish arc. Normally, I keep the arc lenght at about 3/4 the diameter of the electrode (depending on what i´m doing), so a 1.5 mm arc length in a "v" is going to mean sticking it right in there.

Keep practising and you´ll soon get the hang of it!

 

[tombardier]

I'm thinking you're right. I've just been out there praying it's not going to rain, but I've run out of things that aren't galvanised that are suitable for butt-welding, so I've just been laying some welds on flat pieces. I'm getting a lot more confident about getting the weldpool to do what I want now, so I think I'll be getting my butt-welds sorted next time I get something tasty to weld Would anyone recommend trying e6011s? I have heard they are the beginners rods, but I just had some e6013s with the welder, and that's what I've bought subsequently (5kg of ) I'm gathering that if I can strike arcs with them, then e6011s should be a piece of cake? I'm getting better with striking the arc with these rods, but it's still like trying to strike wet matches :/

 

[Delgado]

I don´t really know too much about E6011 as I have never used them, and in my experiance E6013 electrodes are the prefered choice for general all position stick welding, personally, I would stick with them. With regards to striking your arc, I would advise that you forget about striking it like a match and learn to tap it on the work where you wan´t to weld, quickly lifting it away (not so far as to extinguish the arc), and then back towards the metal establishing the weld pool, wiggling it slightly at start to fuse the sides before you move along the joint. If you learn to do it this way (I know it will seem hard at first, and will keep sticking, but be persistant) you wont get ugly strike marks on your work and you will avoid the problem of incomplete fusion at the start of your welds.