Do these welds look sound?

[Noidea87]

I'm still trying to figure out my restarts, and my machine seemed to be struggling to get a smooth arc (110V) on this 3/16" stuff. I had to reduce my stick out a lot from what I normal run and it seemed to be a lot more sensitive to the stick out when cranked almost to max.

Do these welds look pretty sound?

[Oscar]

Hard to tell when the camera is 2-3 feet away. Get a close up about 4-8 inches away from the welds from all angles, with natural ambient light (don't use camera flash as it usually produces too much shadows).

[Welder Dave]

Looks a little cold from what you can see but 3/16" is a stretch for a 110 volt machine. If it's just a BBQ is probably OK. Some preheat would help.

[farmersammm]

Generally, a small 115v welder will do 3/16, but you have to watch your duty cycle. YES I SAID DUTY CYCLE

By your comments, you do have a good sense of what's going on in your welds. You realized you had to decrease stickout............which increases amps. I'd daresay that the reduced stickout started to occur, or was needed, the longer you ran the welder. I had a Hobart 140, and it did the same thing. Run it hard, and ya had to reduce stickout to keep the puddle good, and fluid.

Before we go any further............Lincoln flux core will run cooler than Blue Demon flux core. If you're pushing a machine to its limits, go with the hotter wire. The same can be said for stick consumables.......if you actually have a good grasp of what's goin' on under the hood.

Back to duty cycle...........the machine doesn't have to heat up, and burn to the ground, to see the effects of duty cycle. Most machines......the ones less than the "better" ones.......tend to produce reduced output as they heat up. It's not a big deal if you're aware of it, and either compensate, or take a break to let it cool down. I've lived with these small machines.

I can't weld like I used to, but I still have a fairly good sense of what's goin' on. You need to quit oscillating your gun............drag it, and gently weave it from side to side. Don't do dollops, or whip it. I see whipping in your beads.

I couldn't find plain ol' fillet welds on my pic files for 3/16 (probably got some on my backup drive, but that involves a bit of searching), but I found some cap welds that were done with 3/16 stock.........both the tubing, and the cap.

I like to take a square piece of stock for the cap.......same size as the tubing.........bevel the tubing....and weld the square piece to the top of the tubing. I then round the corners later. This was done with .030 flux core. Probably the same as you're using. Settings were in the range of a 115v machine............on the low end.

Anyways, back to the technique........................You can see that I drag the puddle, and I don't whip it, or try to make dollops. Anytime you go back into the puddle with this kind of wire, you lose the heat you're putting into the base metal......you're spreading your heat. Drag it, and keep it just ahead of the slag, or freezing leading edge of the puddle.....never go back into that puddle.....just drag it along.

I think you're on track.

[farmersammm]

And..........there's always an "and"....................if you're having heat problems, and your welder won't put out the amps you need...........MAKE THAT BEAD SMALLER. You don't need a big honkin' bead to do the job. Tighten up your puddle, and conserve heat........makes for hotter, better welds.

[FlyFishn]

Another thought - check the circuit you are powering the welder from. Ensure that you are getting good voltage under load at the machine. If you have a 15 amp circuit and it is feeding all the lights in the shop in addition to the welder - you likely have an issue.

If you can dedicate a circuit solely to the welder you will get better voltage by nature of not loading the circuit with other loads.

Also keep the wire on the big side feeding the welder. If you have to use an extension cord, for example, use a 12 or 10 gauge instead of a 14 or 16 gauge. The wire in the wall, if it is a 15 amp circuit, is likely 14 gauge. A 20 amp circuit is likely 12 gauge. If you have to extend with an extension cord size up the wire.

I have been using an 80 amp flux core welder for a long time and I have found, especially on heavier (on its scale of things it will weld - I have done 1/4" with it, but 3/16" is technically the upper end of what it should do) welding the circuit it is running on makes a giant difference. I used to run on a 15 amp circuit that fed a garage. Then I got smart and ran an extension cord to another circuit (12g) so I wasn't loading the circuit the welder was on with other things like lights, fan, compressor. That made a really big difference. Since then I have a 30 amp circuit (120/240) that I have been using for the machines. It is a blessing. It will run the flux core machine no problem. It will run the stick machine up to about 125 amps without trouble. I have laid a bead at 175 amps just to try, but it blew the breaker fairly quick. Anything under 110 amps or so I don't have any trouble with at the rate I'm going.

The point is - the circuit your machine is on will make a difference also. Good luck with it.

[Welder Dave]

Generally, a small 115v welder will do 3/16, but you have to watch your duty cycle. YES I SAID DUTY CYCLE

By your comments, you do have a good sense of what's going on in your welds. You realized you had to decrease stickout............which increases amps. I'd daresay that the reduced stickout started to occur, or was needed, the longer you ran the welder. I had a Hobart 140, and it did the same thing. Run it hard, and ya had to reduce stickout to keep the puddle good, and fluid.

Before we go any further............Lincoln flux core will run cooler than Blue Demon flux core. If you're pushing a machine to its limits, go with the hotter wire. The same can be said for stick consumables.......if you actually have a good grasp of what's goin' on under the hood.

Back to duty cycle...........the machine doesn't have to heat up, and burn to the ground, to see the effects of duty cycle. Most machines......the ones less than the "better" ones.......tend to produce reduced output as they heat up. It's not a big deal if you're aware of it, and either compensate, or take a break to let it cool down. I've lived with these small machines.

I can't weld like I used to, but I still have a fairly good sense of what's goin' on. You need to quit oscillating your gun............drag it, and gently weave it from side to side. Don't do dollops, or whip it. I see whipping in your beads.

I couldn't find plain ol' fillet welds on my pic files for 3/16 (probably got some on my backup drive, but that involves a bit of searching), but I found some cap welds that were done with 3/16 stock.........both the tubing, and the cap.

I like to take a square piece of stock for the cap.......same size as the tubing.........bevel the tubing....and weld the square piece to the top of the tubing. I then round the corners later. This was done with .030 flux core. Probably the same as you're using. Settings were in the range of a 115v machine............on the low end.

Anyways, back to the technique........................You can see that I drag the puddle, and I don't whip it, or try to make dollops. Anytime you go back into the puddle with this kind of wire, you lose the heat you're putting into the base metal......you're spreading your heat. Drag it, and keep it just ahead of the slag, or freezing leading edge of the puddle.....never go back into that puddle.....just drag it along.

I think you're on track.

Looks like solid wire to me but don't know for sure or even what machine was used. All this info would be very useful as would closer pics. of the welds. Solid wire you generally push on flat and horizontal welds.

As far as capping tubing, the easiest way I find is to cut the cap smaller and put a fillet weld around it. It gives a nice rounded corner and takes less grinding to make it look like 1 piece.

[Noidea87]

Thanks a lot for the replies. I did find that the stick out needed to be reduced the longer I welded, and it definitely got better after the machine sat for a few minutes between welds. As far as my whipping pattern, should I not do any with flux core? I was dragging and trying to just rock back and forth to let the puddle hit both edges, but I did realize I was probably waving a little too fast for a lot of it. On the inside weld that you can't see here, I slowed the back and forth down a lot and the welds looked much better I wish I would have gotten a picture. I thought if I just tried a straight bead with no weave at all the puddle wouldn't be big enough to cover the joint, and I'd need multiple passes. Should I have done that anyway?

I did end up capping the tubing. I cut some squares out that hung over slightly around the top of the tube, then placed them on the top and marked the excess. Then I cut the excess off with an angle grinder, tacked the cap on and smoothed it out with a flap disc, then welded it fully. Those welds were pretty ugly so they got ground down.

The breaker in my garage is a 20 amp, and I did pop it once. I had been welding about 6 inch sections before stopping, but the one time I went about 9 -10 inches the breaker popped. It was hard to weld that far with the flux core anyway because it was getting very smokey at that point. I really need to pick up some gas, but I need to use this wire first. I'm using Lincoln Innershield 030. The machine was set up at 254 WS and 18.8 v

[Welder Dave]

It is flux-core so needs to be pulled. A slight slow weave to widen the bead should be OK.

[weldaholic]

Correct me if I'm wrong, I was once before , but you know the rest of the story Anyway if I remember we pushed the gun when mig welding ,and dragged when using dual shield .

[weldaholic]

Generally, a small 115v welder will do 3/16, but you have to watch your duty cycle. YES I SAID DUTY CYCLE

By your comments, you do have a good sense of what's going on in your welds. You realized you had to decrease stickout............which increases amps. I'd daresay that the reduced stickout started to occur, or was needed, the longer you ran the welder. I had a Hobart 140, and it did the same thing. Run it hard, and ya had to reduce stickout to keep the puddle good, and fluid.

Before we go any further............Lincoln flux core will run cooler than Blue Demon flux core. If you're pushing a machine to its limits, go with the hotter wire. The same can be said for stick consumables.......if you actually have a good grasp of what's goin' on under the hood.

Back to duty cycle...........the machine doesn't have to heat up, and burn to the ground, to see the effects of duty cycle. Most machines......the ones less than the "better" ones.......tend to produce reduced output as they heat up. It's not a big deal if you're aware of it, and either compensate, or take a break to let it cool down. I've lived with these small machines.

I can't weld like I used to, but I still have a fairly good sense of what's goin' on. You need to quit oscillating your gun............drag it, and gently weave it from side to side. Don't do dollops, or whip it. I see whipping in your beads.

I couldn't find plain ol' fillet welds on my pic files for 3/16 (probably got some on my backup drive, but that involves a bit of searching), but I found some cap welds that were done with 3/16 stock.........both the tubing, and the cap.

I like to take a square piece of stock for the cap.......same size as the tubing.........bevel the tubing....and weld the square piece to the top of the tubing. I then round the corners later. This was done with .030 flux core. Probably the same as you're using. Settings were in the range of a 115v machine............on the low end.

Anyways, back to the technique........................You can see that I drag the puddle, and I don't whip it, or try to make dollops. Anytime you go back into the puddle with this kind of wire, you lose the heat you're putting into the base metal......you're spreading your heat. Drag it, and keep it just ahead of the slag, or freezing leading edge of the puddle.....never go back into that puddle.....just drag it along.

I think you're on track.

Would you say the Blue Demon Flux core is a better wire then the Lincoln flux core. I need to buy some wire when I have used up this 2 lb spool of the Lincoln flux core that came with my Lincoln Pro 180 welder . I have asked on another thread about Blue Demon, didn't hear anything too negative. Its certainly cheaper then some of the name brands.

[FlyFishn]

The breaker in my garage is a 20 amp, and I did pop it once. I had been welding about 6 inch sections before stopping, but the one time I went about 9 -10 inches the breaker popped.

You need to know what the line voltage is at the machine under load. Whether or not the breaker pops is irrelevant to what voltage the machine is running at. If you are breaking the breaker that means that you are drawing enough current over its limit for long enough to get it to pop. It does mean, also, that you are loading the circuit a lot. That, in turn, means that there is voltage drop. What it doesn't say is how much. If your voltage is sagging from, say, 118 volts line to 83 volts under load - ya got a problem and your weld heat will suffer.

The closer to line voltage you can keep the welder, under load, the more heat you will have. The only 2 ways to keep the voltage up are:
1. Wire size - bigger is better (the voltage drop is what is important here, even though wire size recommendations are based on amperage - the larger the wire the less voltage drop for the same load)
2. Take off other loads on the same circuit

If your line voltage is weak at the service entrance then you have an issue with the supply from the power company. Aside from that, if everything is operating OK the above are what you can do. If things are not operating OK, well... there are any number of problems - bad circuit breaker, bad connectors/outlets/plugs, bad junctions, chewed thru wiring, corroded wiring, etc. Start with the voltage check and see where that leads you.

If you don't have a multimeter that can see AC line voltages now would be a good time to get one.