Well I have burnt my first sticks

[Paul-n]

Hi all

A R-Tech TIG160 in MMA mode [SMAW mode ] my first tries at stick welding with it.
Rods PARWELD 2.4mm on 3mm piece of box m/s weld current around 100 amps ?.

First the 7 dead soldiers.

General view of welds I started welding top left and worked across then down one and same again , they were very easy to start [ helped by the welder I suspect ] with minimum sticking but boy do they disappear fast

Close up left and right.

In the bottom right hand corner I did not clean off the mill scale and the rods just kept on welding , I have run a wire brush over the welds to clean then after tapping the slag off [ it came off quite easy for most of the welds.]

First problem the stool I had was to low and it put my face next to the end of the rod so it was then awkward to hold it , so I tried standing then the table was to low to brace myself on so I could not hold the position very long [ wrong side of 50 ]. If I was comfortable for a short while that it meant I was unable to compensate for the rod shortening , I have a good DVD of how to stick weld and whilst it shows someone sat at a table and the end of the rod when welding it does not show the pose used ?

Second was I had trouble with the helmet [ cheap ebay one [ will be changed soon ]] I have a light directly above me and in some positions it reflected on the inside of the helmet very distracting. Also I seemed to be able to see the arc illuminate my clothing sometimes below the bottom of the helmet , I have found a adjustment on the strap and think my face was to far out of the helmet so hopefully that is fixed [ there is no light bleeding in around the lense ].

Also how do I see what amps the display on the welder is showing when I am concentrating on the arc ?

So comments please , certainly plenty to improve on !

regards Paul

 

[oilcooled :)]

some good welding there for a newbie, u made good progress, you could try a little left right weave if you want some of the beads are a bit skinny, . . . . .o wait u did that my bad, start sticking things together so

 

[shenion]

Don't worry too much about the amp display. Set the knob to the middle of the range specified on the box. Then, go by the profile of the weld and "feel". Too high will give spatter, too low and it will be tall, cold welds.

Looks real good. Better than my first runs

 

[inchpincher]

Couple of thoughts, welds look a little cold (sitting proud and not penetrating quite enough) not by much but i'd either slow down the speed of travel with the amp setting the same or crank the amps (maybe 120ish) and move at the same speed currently used. I imagine there's not much evidence of the weld on the flip side? Great first attempt though!

To get around ambient light reflecting on the inside of the helmet glass i gaffer taped an old t-shirt to the back, Lawrence of Arabia style, works a treat

 

[Charred fingers]

Hi paul nice to see you got your welder. I think all welds laid on the surface usually look a little tall so would suggest you cut the box into sections then weld it back together, you'll find the miniscule gap totally changes the penentration and the bead will change with it ie. much flatter. Noticed you mentioned the mill scale, you'll be suprised how forgiving stick welding is compared with other methods.

 

[Paul-n]

Hi all

Thanks for the encouragement , I assume the next step is to try and make a pad about 3" square and then think about cutting it up and attempting a butt joint ?

Bought a good helmet [ thanks weldequip for the advice ] and need to sort out my seating position , where should my face be in relation to the end of the rod ?

I think I will remove the starter from the tube over my head that should fix that problem !

Pass me some more sticks .............

regards Paul

 

[decepticon]

looks like a good start to me, the only way to get better is practice and more practice.
not sure about turning the amps to 120 as it is pretty high for a 2.5mm rod but it is worth trying different amperages as they aren't always exactly as the dial reads.
i would leave the butt welds for now as they are one of the hardest joints (they also take alot of time to prepare and set up), try a fillet weld then once perfected try one vertically. if you can do these then try a butt weld.
3.2mm rods are easier (in my opinion) for the fillet welds but if you can do one with a 2.4 successfully then you can do 3.2
use a slight weave with the fillets and flat runs, the weaving motion should be the same as the width of the rod
cheers
neil

 

[Paul-n]

Hi all

More progress , mainly backwards !

Made a stool , sorry no welding but it is fully adjustable and so I am now the right height and have a block of wood for an armrest.

Tried the pad but sort of lost my way , so restarted and it was a little better.

I have bought some s/h 3mm sheet 52" x 42" painted and a little rusty but new stuff seems hard to find in small quantities ? cut off 4 x 6" x 3" pieces and attempted a butt weld.

All the above and first butt was tried at 85 amps.

3 tacks and then weld over them [ cleaned slag off first ] very little penetration except for the strange area circled on the second piece , I tried to slow down on second butt and tried 110 amps .

Amperage was set at between 85a and 110a , on looking at the rod box it states 40a - 70a so maybe I am pushing them to hard ?

I did notice also that the arc would stop for no apparent reason , and although I am holding the rod at 45' to the right [ travelling right ] and have my face at 45' to the left I can clearly see the arc but seem unable to see the weld pool ?

regards Paul

 

[shenion]

Is that one of those small buzz boxes?

If so, they have a low OCV so the arc is not as stable. I also find the amp dials are overly generous.

 

[Paul-n]

Is that one of those small buzz boxes?

If so, they have a low OCV so the arc is not as stable. I also find the amp dials are overly generous.

Shenion

No it is a TIG welder in MMA mode.

It has a graduated knob with numbers and a digital display , but I cannot watch the digital display whist welding.

regards Paul

ps. your stuff is very impressive........

 

[Paul-n]

Hi all

Big mistake , apparently I should have left a gap of about a sticks width when trying the butt welds ? forgot I had seen the TIG video where you can but weld with no gap and almost no filler DOH

Back to the welding bench ......


regards Paul

 

[paul r]

Regardless, not bad welds mate. If your like me, you'l pick it up very quickly it's just a case of steady hands i think. I also found a decent light reactive welding mask helped loads!

Cheers,

Paul.

 

[pidgeon chit welder]

Re the light coming down off your shiny head and reflecting on the inner glass .

I'm not quite a whole egg but had tremendous probs for I also wear three different glasses ... reading , computer and distance .

I've found that the computer ones are best but the reflection was crazy.

I've ended up using half a soft hand towel rolling one end back three or four inches and tucking it down the front of the visor next to my forehead .

Not only does it give me a dark viewing situation it also stops stuff going on my head and neck

I'm going to see if I can come up with some form of loose skullcap that has a thick rim around it at the front to light seal things a bit . I have tried some of the commercial jobbies , but they have to be worn under the headband/clamp.

 

[Paul-n]

Harder stuff 1.5mm !

Hi all

Time to get down to the hard stuff 1.5mm , first some plate , welds look flat enough and I am getting good penetration ? kept saying to myself 1/2 at a time let it cool etc about 5/6 blow through's for a 20 odd welds is that good or bad ?

I assume when I make a hole I wait for it to cool take the slag off and then make a weld on one side of the hole then repeat take slag off ....etc

Moved onto some 35mm x 35mm x 1.5mm box very short pieces about 2.5" which allowed me look into the join at the penetration ,on the flat outside faces the start is not good and one face I wandered off and had to restart.

On the inside edge I had no idea and the weld is very poor , on the outside edge I went to fast I think ?

I did notice now that the slag is getting harder to knock off , is that a symptom of a problem ?

regards Paul

 

[shenion]

Ah, been there.

Thin metal is different. Look at near every tutorial and they are using 3.2mm rods. I've seen a few mention doing thin sheet, but nothing on thin metal fillets.

Butt joints on thin metal is not that bad. Just need to move faster. You can lay the rod down a bit to decrease penetration.

Thin fillets with small rods are different. You have seen the mantra in all the tutorials "the arc length should be about the rod diameter". Well, it does and does not apply to small rods.

Are you still using 2.4mm rods? You may be down below the current they work well.

If you look at the end of a used smaller rod (2.4mm is about where this starts), you will see it is hollow. The flux extends past the rod. There is the arc length but you cant see it.

So you need to drag the rod. Thus the rod is buried in the slag. Smaller rods have more slag than metal being out down. Run them at higher currents and they burn enough slag and it stays fluid long enough to work. At lower currents, the slag cools real quick so you need to keep the rod underneath the slag.

It is a light drag and because the arc length is shorter than you probably have been using, you need to up the current a bit. There is a definite change in how the slag flows. A bit steeper angle will keep most of the slag behind the weld.

I have picts posted that look worse than yours. I was using 1.6mm rods where there is far more slag than metal being out down. Here is one:

Arc looked good when welding but there is no fusion on the low side. That was 1.6mm rods on 1.2mm steel.

Your welds have the same problem. The low side of the fillet has slag inclusions. Current is probably a bit low. It is easier to up the current and move faster on a fillet with a light drag.

A light drag you can feel it when you hit some hardened slag. I then pull a slight longer arc to up the heat and burn through the slag. There is a lot more feel needed on thin metal and harder to see.

Notice the weld pool is one side or the other. The arc will be pulled to the hotter side. Once it moves to one side, the arc is pulled to the hot side and the slag cools on the other. Dragging the rod reduces the chance of the arc pulling to one side.

You will see the rod work differently. The flux on side of the rod in the direction of travel will touch the metal. The opposite side will burn more and the flux flows mostly in one direction.

Yes, the slag will be hard to get off when the welds go wrong. The smoother the weld, the easier it comes off.

For thin metal, see if you can find some 7014 rods. They are a dream to use on thin metal. Here is the same on 1.2mm metal using 1.6mm 7014 rods:

Hope this helps Kudos to TIG Paul on showing me the drag technique. I had the same problems and he showed me the light

 

[Paul-n]

Scott

Thanks for this , as you say slag is either side of the weld but not the same looking slag as you normally get.

My 6013's say 40-70 amps I think these were done about 60-65 ish , it seems counter intuative to up the current when you seem to be on the verge of blowing through.

I did ask about 7014's when I bought the 6013's but my supplier I think did not stock them , will ring around.

Your last weld is a really beauty , I still cannot see the weld pool and so it is weld and hope it is the right place.

regards Paul

 

[shenion]

7014's are odd. They are becoming more popular as they weld like 7018's but do not need to be used immediately or kept in a rod oven. I have never seen 7018's in less then 2.4mm (and that was rare).

I have only found 7014's 2mm or smaller stocked in the 1/2 lb hobbyist packs or 50lb boxes. So either you pay a near what a 5lb box costs for 1/2 lb or you buy more than you would need for years.

Yes, the weld pool is hard to see with 6013's. With practice you can see how the pool is growing by how the flux is bubbling. I have gotten better but still get a few slag inclusions on thinner stuff. Just hard to see; larger rods you could do almost blind.

That last photo was my first try with the 7014's. Have done ones with no spatter at all. They are easy to weld with but the slag is often abear to get off. I used a wire wheel on the picture above. Just did not want to let go of the edges of the weld.

 

[Paul-n]

Hi there

Well more practice trying to reduce the current , laying the rod further back and doing a circular weave all seem to help a bit.

Pic 1 1.5mm x 35mm box laying beads as long as possible did first few then swapped sides

Pic 2 other side of above did a few then swapped over again and finially finished on this side again

Pic 3 whoah getting somewhere I think 25mm square 1.5mm chrome plated [ the red is a reflection of my hands ] I think this looks a lot better than first attempts above.

Pic 4 back to the inside weld , still poor but not quite as bad as before , I could hear the noise the weld makes when it had penetrated the other side , but there are no holes visible.

I was welding the the rod maybe only 30' from horizontal and felt I could also feel the rod sort of pulsing as it touched the plate ? or was that nerves ?

The rods are now getting harder to start as the current goes down , first time is ok then they are hard , I think I saw somewhere that someone had a file on the welding table and they filed the end of a used rod to help it strike

Really all my starts are poor I think I need to go back over them and circle a bit before setting off down the bead ?

regards Paul

 

[shenion]

The last one is too cold, you need to up the amps.