pondy
Member
- Messages
- 1,627
- Location
- chedburgh, suffolk. uk
I brought a buzz box to learn to arc weld on at the start of this year but the duty cycle was so low I gave up. I recently got myself an r tech mma 140, 2 metres of 6mm thick, 50mm wide bar, cut this into small lengths and set them in a t shape so I could do a lot of practice today. now im here with questions.
at first my biggest problem was rod angle and to long of an arc, I had no angle and the weld pool was overtaking the rod, in a t joint I would only have a tall thin bead on one section of the metal, once I corrected these it made things a lot easier but from pictures you can see it stills happens abit.
I was using both 2.5 and 3.2 6013 siftrode rods that I got from weld equip. I do not know if I have a problem with the rods or it its because of user error. with one of the 2.5 rods I could just not get it to burn well, it left the bead bellow, it was all over the place, sounded very fierce and was only burning up one side the rod, leaving a long bit of flux on one side to dip into the weld pool. I ran 2.5 at 80 amps and 3.2 at around 110amps
2.5 issues
2.5 issues
with a few of the 3.2 it would become very fierce and loud like I had to long of an arc even though it was not?, was very hot and was gouging away at the metal and had a lot of slag infusion, lots of splatter on both occasions I would grab another rod, same technique and setting and would be fine? rods are stored in the original box inside a plastic container, they are also new to don't think its a moisture thing? picture bellow shows were things go wrong, starts off ok
3.2 issues
have some questions about slag, do I leave the weld to cool then clip it off or can it be removed right after the weld while its still hot? some time the slag chips of very easily in big flakes, other times its very hard to removed and needs a lot of work to remove and comes off in more of a powder, usually leaves a nice bead. a few times the slag chips of very easy but the very edges are a pain to remove, tried to show this in a picture.
hard slag on edges
I tried to do a vertical up, I could not have gone any worse, rather embarrassed to post pictures but o well. I had the rod angle facing up slightly, away from the welds, looked at a few YouTube videos and saw this. my welds were very tall and thin, no fusion to joint and looked like most the metal tried to flow away!
vertical on a flat was the same, weld pool flowing down into a large bump and metal getting gouged away! whats the tips for this, less power?
so far my thread looks like a typical first timers welding thread with lots of pics of pigeon splatter lol, I do manage to do so welds that to me looks good.
root and cap
had a go on the portamig also after getting frustrated with arc, so much easier
at first my biggest problem was rod angle and to long of an arc, I had no angle and the weld pool was overtaking the rod, in a t joint I would only have a tall thin bead on one section of the metal, once I corrected these it made things a lot easier but from pictures you can see it stills happens abit.
I was using both 2.5 and 3.2 6013 siftrode rods that I got from weld equip. I do not know if I have a problem with the rods or it its because of user error. with one of the 2.5 rods I could just not get it to burn well, it left the bead bellow, it was all over the place, sounded very fierce and was only burning up one side the rod, leaving a long bit of flux on one side to dip into the weld pool. I ran 2.5 at 80 amps and 3.2 at around 110amps
2.5 issues
2.5 issues
with a few of the 3.2 it would become very fierce and loud like I had to long of an arc even though it was not?, was very hot and was gouging away at the metal and had a lot of slag infusion, lots of splatter on both occasions I would grab another rod, same technique and setting and would be fine? rods are stored in the original box inside a plastic container, they are also new to don't think its a moisture thing? picture bellow shows were things go wrong, starts off ok
3.2 issues
have some questions about slag, do I leave the weld to cool then clip it off or can it be removed right after the weld while its still hot? some time the slag chips of very easily in big flakes, other times its very hard to removed and needs a lot of work to remove and comes off in more of a powder, usually leaves a nice bead. a few times the slag chips of very easy but the very edges are a pain to remove, tried to show this in a picture.
hard slag on edges
I tried to do a vertical up, I could not have gone any worse, rather embarrassed to post pictures but o well. I had the rod angle facing up slightly, away from the welds, looked at a few YouTube videos and saw this. my welds were very tall and thin, no fusion to joint and looked like most the metal tried to flow away!
vertical on a flat was the same, weld pool flowing down into a large bump and metal getting gouged away! whats the tips for this, less power?
so far my thread looks like a typical first timers welding thread with lots of pics of pigeon splatter lol, I do manage to do so welds that to me looks good.
root and cap
had a go on the portamig also after getting frustrated with arc, so much easier