Sid
Member
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- 269
Well I finally got to lay some beads today with the new welder. Having only ever having read about welding (ie never having seen an arc through a lens) I had no idea how it would go, but I do feel I've learnt a fair bit this afternoon.
I had an old piece of plate in the garage that I cleaned up (1/4 inch thick, or a little over 6mm if you prefer, and 50mm wide by 175 ish long).
I also decided to weld a small bar (5/16 by 1/2 (8mm X 12.7mm)) to the piece so as the earth clamp was further away from my beads. The first attempt at doing this was a failure. All of the material deposited was on the piece connected to the electrode. A quick clean up and another go (this time clamping the pieces together) and it stuck, although it looked like beginners pigeon poo weld :-)
Strange thing is, I turned it over and did the reverse side, and it looked pretty nice. (Used 60 amps). Looks much better than the photo shows. Pic1
It doesn't have proper penetration, but it held.
Should say, all of this was done with 2mm rods.
So to the first bead. Most of the day’s efforts were at 55 amps. Really surprised at how quickly the rod gets consumed. Not surprisingly the bead was not too straight. Having a full-length rod it's tricky stopping the movement from side to side, plus even with the mask set at a low shade (9) the side I was pulling towards was dark. I could only see in front of the rod if I was holding a longer arc, which was not recommended with these rods. Dragging was the recommendation, but the speed at which it all happens was surprising, and there was no dragging going on. I was just hanging on for the ride! Very little control on my part. Pic2
Doing this slightly wrong, I then tried to build up a weld pad working out to the edge. This picture shows three beads. The starts on the right are awful. Mostly this is not being able to make goods starts. Scratching didn't seem to work for me. With the tap method I tended to bounce back too far. I did discover (and I have read this before) that a hot electrode is much easier to start. I'm sure it's a confidence thing and will come with time. Pic3
I don't recall any dragging of the rod for these early beads, but once going there was a nice cross sectional shape to the beads, and that small ripple to the line. I didn't overlap the beads enough for this exercise (IMHO) and the beads go fat and thin a little.
Much of the rest of the afternoon I filled up one side of the plate. I continued to not overlap the beads enough, so there are valleys between them that don't like giving up the slag. The lines were not very straight and when I run across them they will almost certainly cause slag inclusions. Thing is rather than slowing down and thinking more so the next layer was easier, I wanted to get into the rhythm of laying beads and was keen to burn some rod :-)
Other than one bead, all of the beads were laid by pulling the rod towards myself. I thought I'd be straighter this way. Pic4 and 5
With the remaining daylight, I flipped the plate over and tried again. I was trying to concentrate on dragging the rod, and running straighter beads. I still failed to overlap the beads enough. The last small bead on the right was at 60 amps, and I was virtually pushing the rod into the plate. I thought it would stick, but it didn’t, and left a fairly tall narrow bead. Pic6 and 7
All in all, a fun afternoon. Surprised at just how hot the plate got after just one run. Still, checking how hot it was made me realise not to attempt picking up anything just welded too soon! I’m sure I will at some point though!
All comments welcome
Looking forward to tomorrow. 
Sid.
I had an old piece of plate in the garage that I cleaned up (1/4 inch thick, or a little over 6mm if you prefer, and 50mm wide by 175 ish long).
I also decided to weld a small bar (5/16 by 1/2 (8mm X 12.7mm)) to the piece so as the earth clamp was further away from my beads. The first attempt at doing this was a failure. All of the material deposited was on the piece connected to the electrode. A quick clean up and another go (this time clamping the pieces together) and it stuck, although it looked like beginners pigeon poo weld :-)
Strange thing is, I turned it over and did the reverse side, and it looked pretty nice. (Used 60 amps). Looks much better than the photo shows. Pic1
It doesn't have proper penetration, but it held.
Should say, all of this was done with 2mm rods.
So to the first bead. Most of the day’s efforts were at 55 amps. Really surprised at how quickly the rod gets consumed. Not surprisingly the bead was not too straight. Having a full-length rod it's tricky stopping the movement from side to side, plus even with the mask set at a low shade (9) the side I was pulling towards was dark. I could only see in front of the rod if I was holding a longer arc, which was not recommended with these rods. Dragging was the recommendation, but the speed at which it all happens was surprising, and there was no dragging going on. I was just hanging on for the ride! Very little control on my part. Pic2
Doing this slightly wrong, I then tried to build up a weld pad working out to the edge. This picture shows three beads. The starts on the right are awful. Mostly this is not being able to make goods starts. Scratching didn't seem to work for me. With the tap method I tended to bounce back too far. I did discover (and I have read this before) that a hot electrode is much easier to start. I'm sure it's a confidence thing and will come with time. Pic3
I don't recall any dragging of the rod for these early beads, but once going there was a nice cross sectional shape to the beads, and that small ripple to the line. I didn't overlap the beads enough for this exercise (IMHO) and the beads go fat and thin a little.
Much of the rest of the afternoon I filled up one side of the plate. I continued to not overlap the beads enough, so there are valleys between them that don't like giving up the slag. The lines were not very straight and when I run across them they will almost certainly cause slag inclusions. Thing is rather than slowing down and thinking more so the next layer was easier, I wanted to get into the rhythm of laying beads and was keen to burn some rod :-)
Other than one bead, all of the beads were laid by pulling the rod towards myself. I thought I'd be straighter this way. Pic4 and 5
With the remaining daylight, I flipped the plate over and tried again. I was trying to concentrate on dragging the rod, and running straighter beads. I still failed to overlap the beads enough. The last small bead on the right was at 60 amps, and I was virtually pushing the rod into the plate. I thought it would stick, but it didn’t, and left a fairly tall narrow bead. Pic6 and 7
All in all, a fun afternoon. Surprised at just how hot the plate got after just one run. Still, checking how hot it was made me realise not to attempt picking up anything just welded too soon! I’m sure I will at some point though!
All comments welcome
Looking forward to tomorrow. Sid.
