Aldi arc welder novice's first attempt

I have had a chance today to play with my Aldi arc welder that is currently on offer in their stores.

The following pics were using 80 amps, 2.5mm 6013 rods on 3mm thick 50mm box section. All help and constructive criticism is appreciated. The rods are Aldi specials too and branded powercraft as is the welder. Needless to say I need a lot more practice.



Prior to this, the only arc experience I've had is about an hour on a mate's welder a few months back. It was a Wolf model also of 160 amp capacity but its about twice the size of the current Aldi offering. I think wolf/powercraft/omega are the same company.

From memory I found it much easier to maintain an arc with his welder compared to mine Mine also makes a hell of a racket and the case vibrates much more.

It looks to me like I'm traveling too fast. The best bit on there would seem to me to be the first third of the bottom run on the second set of images. At this point the rod was only about three inches or so long so it was easier to control.

I had a go with the 2mm rods on the suggested power setting for the welder on 2mm box section but I had real trouble trying to get them to strike and maintain an arc and I gave up.I would particulary welcome suggestions for power settings and rod diameters for different thicknesses of metal from anyone else with a similar welder.I found it a bit of a stuggle to maintain the arc but it did seem to improve as I practiced even if the resultant weld didn't seem to get any better.

I think flange jockey's job is still safe for the time being

I smell like a bonfire now as well

Looking good so far, it's hard to keep the arc length consistent while feeding the electrode in though eh?
We've all struggled with that part of it.

Somewhere on the Miller site is a welding defects section, by comparing your pics with the ones on there you may gain some valuable knowledge.

looks from my deduction that you arc length is too long, a tip a short arc thats good produces a crackle, A long arc (too long) sounds like escaping steam.....Short arcs are always best, and your need that discipline in positional..

Its a job to recommend amps, as it depends on travel speed and arc length, I would be on the top end of amps just because, I can keep the face and arc length short, and travel very quick.... but then Iv been doing this for some time.... but a good guide is if your traveling too quick you get slag inclusion's a narrow bead with pointed ripples, which I don't think you have..

I think you could be hotter, If you run too hot your start to notice undercut.... Its easy to crank up examine the weld then drop down If your beads wide with undercut.....

HTH

The slag looks odd for a 6013.
I would treat yourself to a box of branded rods from a welding supplier - i am sure they would give you a better looking weld.
Cheapo rods are a nightmare.
As Snowcat says, keep the end of the rod closer to the weld pool to minimise the arc length, this will also reduce the amount of spatter you are getting, and backstep slightly at the end of the run of weld to avoid the little crater or 'fart' when the weld bubbles as it cools!

Cheers for that. I am going to have another go tomorrow. I have seen a recommendation of 90 amps on 3mm plate with a 2.5mm rod on another thread in this forum so I will up the amps a bit. Snowcat, i think you are right about the arc length. At first I had trouble with the rod sticking so I kept the rod away from the piece and I also had to remind myself a few times during practice that the rod was being consumed and hence retreating from the workpiece.

On a good day I can do passable weld with mig on the flat after a bit of practice so I can sort of tell when the arc is working correctly with the arc welder. Its just a bit much at the moment to take it all in at once and adjust accordingly on the fly. More practice and experience will hopefully get me there.

Welderpaul,

I susect you are right about the welding rods they do look a bit cheap and nasty. I wonder how well and where they have been stored since they are from a supermarket.

Are there any recommended brands that are readily available?

Richiew said:

Welderpaul,


Are there any recommended brands that are readily available?

Click to expand...

Bohlers, ESAB, Fincords, Lincolns......(the list could go on) any Big brand will be decent.... heres Tip 2 once you find a brand you like, don't chop and change, I always use Bohlers or ESABs, most guys who weld for a living have there own preference, its not that ones miles better than the other its just you get used to the way that brand behaves how many amps it needs.....chop and change and you make work for yourself....

I would go for more than 90 amps for 3mm plate - but as a beginner a lower amperage will give you more time to lay the bead.
Generally the higher the amps are, the flatter and better looking the weld is - and obviously better penetration.
Also easier to blow big holes tho!
As Snowy says, most welders have their preference and stick(!) religiously to it.

http://www.tpub.com/content/construction/14250/css/14250_143.htm

The drawing on this site might help identifying "areas for improvement"
All in all the weld doesn't look too bad for a beginner test run with an Aldi welder

i got one of these welders yesterday and my welds are nowere near half as good as yours. i also had a problem getting the 2mm rods active, maybe its the rods at fault? also the slag is hard to get off why is this?

The 2mm rods were a total no show for me. I thought it was my lack of technique or ignorance of correct settings.

I've also found the slag hard to remove in places. Most of it comes away fairly easily but theres some, usually on the top edges of the runs that doesn't seem to want to shift. You can see it on the last pic on the bottom run. I was hammering and wire brushing that for a minute or two and still some remained. I think I will concentrate on getting a better weld bead first and hope the problem resolves itself through that. Perhaps a smoother weld bead will give the slag less opportunity to stick to it.

Dutchman,

Cheers for that link, those illustrations are really clear.

You guys that have just bought these stick welders should take a look at Flange Jockey's 'shop work' thread, that man is something else! Some of the posts have parameters listed so you may pick up a few pointers .
Oh, and don't get too disheartened when you see his welds, don't forget, it's what he does for a living

Well I had another go today and tried upping the amps a little bit and managed to blow through a couple of times so I backed the power back down. I did a bit of reading last night and concentrated on getting my rod angle to the work piece correct as well as trying to reduce the arc length. I was going in at a bit too shallow an angle yesterday. I ended up quite aggressively feeding the rod into the pool compared to yesterday too.

I've reduced the length of the runs by half but i'm still using the same amount of rod so amount of steel going down is doubled along the same distance as I thought the beads needed beefing up a bit.

My biggest problem is getting the weld pool to move across the piece, it doesn't really want to "run". I've had much better behaviour in the past with a mate's Wolf 160 welder and his machine mart welding rods. I ending up circling the electrode in the pool to agitate it to get it to move but it still prefered to stay behind the rod rather than be pulled along with it. I'm not sure if the problem lies with the operator, machine or electrodes so I'm going to have a go at changing one thing at a time to see where the problem lies. (Yes! Yes! I know a poor workman blames his tools but I want to cover all the variables and don't want to waste my time trying to improve on duff equipment.) I will be buying some new branded arc rods (Not Machine Mart) and if they don't help I'll try swapping the welder to see if there's any improvement.

On the positive side I've gone through about 40 electrodes this weekend and my striking is getting very good on the 2.5mm electrodes. I'm getting very confident there. I can strike, make an arc and move it to where I want to start the weld now with the illumination from the arc. Also the beads do look a bit better than the photos suggest. In the flesh they look a little less like an impression of an Ordnance Survey map of the Cairngorms. They look a bit more pronounced with a bit of height too.

Overall, I've learned a little this weekend and I haven't wasted my time. I'm happy enough with my limited progress.

That slag looks pretty hard to shift, when you get some new rods try a decent brand, the slag sometimes comes away on it's own producing a 'peeler' as shown in F/J's thread.
I've had a couple of slight peelers but nothing like he has, then again he knows what he's doing and I don't
Here's one or two of my 'crackers' (the slag cracked rather than peeled but it still fell off on it's own so I must have got something right )
Unfortunately I can't remember for definite what rods I used but they were probably Lincoln Electric 'Pantafix' cos I had just aquired rather a lot of those and wanted to see how they performed.

More of a 'slight lifter' than a 'peeler'

'Cracker'

Another 'cracker'

The same run as above.

Get the amps right, it'll do this, sorry about phone picture quality,

Nice peeler, what parameters was that one Paul?

Just a 2.5mm rutile E6013, BOC everyday electrode, DC electrode neg, about 90 amps,
it was just a cap on a gate post, I linished off to make it invisible!.

Those Aldi rods are terrible. I've managed to borrow some Murex rods from work and they are 100 times easier to work, easier to strike and the burn better. The differance is like night and day. Wel worth an investment if you have'nt already.

I went to the local welding supplies shop today and picked up 5kg of Bohlers for £15.99 plus vat, I had a choice between those or Murex and went for the German sounding name.

I may have a try later on this evening. Oh God!! I've got no excuses now......

I don't think that's a bad price Richie, some of the pros on here probably pay a lot less but then they buy them by the carton, not just one box at the time so you'd expect a better price on that sort of quantity.

Let's see some pics