Please look at my crappy welds, looking for advice

[Noidea87]

I was practicing last night on some 1/8" running 030 lincoln Innershield trying my hand at lap joints and T joints. Obviously, I am just a hobby welder so go easy. The first weld was at the recommended settings and I tried to run a stringer bead, but it seemed kind of "globular" and raised up a little high. So I figured maybe too much wire feed? I bumped down from the machines recommended settings of 250 to 248 and ran some more. Which are the 2 welds to the right. I tried to do the little "e's" on the far right weld. I think I may have bumped from 18v to 17.8 as well for that one (I really need to take notes on my settings)


Next I tried a T joint





Another lap joint



This was the last welds of the night, a lap joint and a T joint.


I've read that you shouldn't try and weave with flux core, is that true? Every time I tried to run stringers the bead just seemed really fat like my WFS was too high, and when I turned it down it seemed to small. If I ran the recommended machine settings (or just under once the piece got heat in it) and made the little "e's" the weld seemed to at least look at lot better. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[ronsii]

Aaarg!!!! my eyes!!!!!!!


Just kidding they actually look good for starter welds

For the most part stringers is what you usually want but a 'little action' is sometimes needed, the big mistake I see guys doing is moving the torch around way too much or too fast/jittery... a nice even movement is what you want.

[TimmyTIG]

I don't think you need to do the little e thing with flux core. You could try going a little bit faster to get less build up. You could also try pushing instead of dragging. So, instead of going left to right, try going the other way with your angle pointing forward a bit. That first bead on the left in the top pic looks pretty good for fluxcore.

[MISSING LINK]

From what it looks like to me, is possibly a little bit less wire or a little bit more heat. Most times that I've run small wire like that it's been on a machine with tapped heat settings so I don't know what the actual voltage is. But I know when I run 1/16 diameter wire I'll find a good heat setting and then back the wire off until the weld flattens out. And as far as weaving it all depends on what you're trying to accomplish a small weave is okay a big giant Mississippi weave is not okay unless that's what you're going for.

[Noidea87]

Thanks guys, another question is that stuff at the toes of the weld evidence of undercut? or is that just slag that I missed?

[docwelder]

those welds aren't too crappy; i've seen worse from supposedly experienced pros. keep practicing using different travel speed and wire positioning and you'll get it.

[Welder Dave]

No weave and pull the bead so the flux doesn't get in the way. Looks like you need to practice keeping a consistent wire stick out and travel speed. You want a smoother bead and not a stack of times look with flux-core. Parts of the welds look good. The 4 things a good weld needs are Distance (arc length or wire stick out) Angle (angle of the gun or electrode) Speed (travel speed) and Heat (amps, controlled by wire speed with flux-core or Mig).

[John T]

Looks better than Moto...

I'd say it's looking good, Pal.

[Oscar]

I've read that you shouldn't try and weave with flux core, is that true? Every time I tried to run stringers the bead just seemed really fat like my WFS was too high, and when I turned it down it seemed to small. If I ran the recommended machine settings (or just under once the piece got heat in it) and made the little "e's" the weld seemed to at least look at lot better. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

IMO, a very slight weave is acceptable, but nothing like e's or any other excessive movement. If you have the deposition rate correct, meaning the amount of metal is what you desire for that joint, then you can add some voltage to flatten out the bead. Based on those pictures, it seems you are depositing a decent amount of metal per unit length. I think you just need some consistency and avoid excessive movements/patterns/weaves.

[Wheats]

+1 on running stringers straight with little to no movement/pattern. Decreasing your drag angle a bit might help flatten out your stringers. Looking good-keep posting!

[Weldalittle]

Thanks guys, another question is that stuff at the toes of the weld evidence of undercut? or is that just slag that I missed?

It's slag. Get yourself a wire wheel, it will make fast work of that slag.

[TimmyTIG]

You don't need to do any weaving on that type of joint. You can weave going uphill on some heavy plate.

[Noidea87]

I really appreciate all the advice. I got out there for a few minutes yesterday and threw some more beads down. This time I tried just dragging with no weave. This is 1/16" stuff. Here is a couple pictures of my best looking weld. The filet weld is mine, the lap weld on the bottom is when my wife came out in the garage and wanted to give it a try haha.

[Welder Dave]

Looks much more consistent. Try adjusting your volts just slightly up or down to see if you can reduce the spatter.

[JackMikk]

It doesn’t look so bad, but there is something to work on)

[Noidea87]

Anything in particular you can point out? One of my main concerns at this point is how to tell if I'm getting enough penetration, and how to adjust accordingly. I think I've figured out how to tell when my torch angle starts getting incorrect, or my stick out is wrong by the way the weld starts reacting, but knowing when to dial in my settings is difficult.

A lot of my fillet joints look a little concave, and I feel like they should be slightly convex? In that situation should I be increasing WFS slightly to through more wire into it and keep travel speed the same? Or is that a case where I should increase voltage slightly?

Also, do you guys typically make adjustments in like 0.5 v increments or less, WFS in tenths or halfs? I have noticed once I do one side of a piece and it's hot the next weld on the back seems to be better if I turn down the voltage from say 18v to 17.8 or so.

Here are some pictures of my gun holder I added to my table, this allowed me to try a vertical up and an overhead (damn that was tough)

Vertical up


Overhead. The start of this one is really bad because I had some arc starting issues and I was too close under the weld so I got slag all over me and jumped haha


I'm trying to dial in my overhead and vertical up, because eventually I'd like to weld my on rock sliders on my offroad truck. My next project is a picnic table for the back porch

Here is one of the better welds on the gun holder (this one was done flat, but I had to get the torch at a weird angle to get under the lip of my table top.

[ronsii]

You need more heat.. and a steadier hand a lot of those beads are just laying on top.

[Noidea87]

You need more heat.. and a steadier hand a lot of those beads are just laying on top.

Thanks for the input. How can you tell? Which beads specifically look cold, or is it pretty much all of them?

[Oscar]

Yea those recent ones were very inconsistent and looked cold (meaning the toes are not wet'ed in). So you'll never get good fusion/penetration with inconsistent welds. The way you tell is you cut/polish/etch your practice pieces before you go to weld on the actual project. I hope you already have a 2" air grinder with a coarse flap disc/maroon scotch brite/blue scotch brite roloc discs, and some form of acid to etch the cut.

[Oscar]

Thanks for the input. How can you tell? Which beads specifically look cold, or is it pretty much all of them?

Look at the toes of the weld beads. If they fall off sharply instead of gradually sloping into the base metal, it is usually a tell-tale sign, but make no mistake that it is not the only thing to look for. You can't make a super tiny bead with wet'ed out toes and think it's adequate. The throat and leg size of the welds (or reinforcement height) must be adequate as well.

[TimmyTIG]

Sounds like you need to do some research to see how a weld is supposed to look. Welding Tips and Tricks.com is a good place to start.

This guy is pretty good, too.

[Noidea87]

Thanks, Yeah I've been watching a lot of weld.com. I knew my latest welds didn't look that great, but I was curious about the previous one because I thought that one looked pretty good.

This one was from last night, but was done flat horizontal, all the others I was in a weird position or going up or down so I was having trouble with angle and stick out. I know on this one I have some inconsistencies with the width of the weld bead, but I thought I was getting a decent bead. I feel like my problem is my stick out starts varying (pulling away slightly) which causes the width of the bead to narrow.

[Welder Dave]

You control stick out. It doesn't vary on its own but if you have a wire feeding problem that cause the wire to get hung up could affect the bead.

[TimmyTIG]

You have to be like a machine, you have to be very deliberate about everything you do. You can't be wobbling all around with your gun waving all over the place. Prop your off elbow up on something so you can be steady, and then become a MACHINE!

Also, you have to be comfortable. If you're all in a bind, your weld will reflect that. The ABC's of welding:

Always
Be
Comfortable

[Noidea87]

oh yeah the stick out thing is me I know, I guess I worded that wrong. I have trouble keeping it steady