Cally91
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If you want brutally honest feedback then you've got it. 
Very inconsistent width, you need to keep your travel speed constant to get a nice, parallel bead.
The weld is weaving from side to side which has caused lack of fusion in places, you can see the voids where the edge hasn't fused to the steel properly.
Hold the torch in your dominant hand and rest the swan neck on your spare hand, that will make it a lot easier to control the torch.
It also looks like you've done an awful lot of stop/starts there, try running a long, continuous bead rather than short ones.
Welding box section side by side like that is one of the simplest joins to practice, you have an easy to see line to follow and also a nice channel to run the weld along.
If you haven't already got one, get an auto-darkening mask, it makes it so much easier.
Good effort though, it won't be long before you're showing us some impressive results.
Very inconsistent width, you need to keep your travel speed constant to get a nice, parallel bead.
The weld is weaving from side to side which has caused lack of fusion in places, you can see the voids where the edge hasn't fused to the steel properly.
Hold the torch in your dominant hand and rest the swan neck on your spare hand, that will make it a lot easier to control the torch.
It also looks like you've done an awful lot of stop/starts there, try running a long, continuous bead rather than short ones.
Welding box section side by side like that is one of the simplest joins to practice, you have an easy to see line to follow and also a nice channel to run the weld along.
If you haven't already got one, get an auto-darkening mask, it makes it so much easier.
Good effort though, it won't be long before you're showing us some impressive results.
Cally91
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Thank you for your reply I like honesty as I'm sure most of us here are wanting to better out skills I've been cutting more smaller bits and welding them side by side playing really so thought I'd post them up kind of like a progress thread really 
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As Woz says really; also sometimes helpful to do a 'dry run' of the weld to make sure you can do the full run without running out of reach or hitting something with your hand meaning a stop/start.
I hunch over the weld a bit, torch in right hand, using left hand to either support the base of the swan neck or my other hand.
Concentrate on the edges of the weld pool to keep it at the same width, constantly, which will give a nice neat bead of the same width throughout.
Turn the juice up slightly, slow down a bit and you should get some better results. Make sure the torch is held at the correct angle, and 'push' the weld, not 'pull'. That is usually the reason behind lumpy fat welds.
Here's a pic of something i was welding recently, alright, its 50mm plate, but same principle; a consistent width to the welds.
I hunch over the weld a bit, torch in right hand, using left hand to either support the base of the swan neck or my other hand.
Concentrate on the edges of the weld pool to keep it at the same width, constantly, which will give a nice neat bead of the same width throughout.
Turn the juice up slightly, slow down a bit and you should get some better results. Make sure the torch is held at the correct angle, and 'push' the weld, not 'pull'. That is usually the reason behind lumpy fat welds.
Here's a pic of something i was welding recently, alright, its 50mm plate, but same principle; a consistent width to the welds.
Windy Miller
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50mm plate WP? What size machine did you use to weld that, and how wide was the bead?
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\Welded with a 500A machine; the capping run ends up at 40mm wide.
Cally91
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That's a big machine 8)
Windy Miller
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Blimey that's some machine!
So what does the whole process entail? I'm guessing a v with a gap and then some sort of root weld followed by loads more weld of some description?
I've never done more than about 10mm thick personally, so I'd be interested to know how it all works. Is there masses of heat distortion?
Sorry to the op for this thread hijack! Fascinating stuff though!
So what does the whole process entail? I'm guessing a v with a gap and then some sort of root weld followed by loads more weld of some description?
I've never done more than about 10mm thick personally, so I'd be interested to know how it all works. Is there masses of heat distortion?
Sorry to the op for this thread hijack! Fascinating stuff though!
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A V prep is flame-cut on both edges of the plate, on both sides to leave around 10mm untouched at the centre of the plate (Root face). These are positioned about 3-4mm apart from each other. The plates are braced with 100*100*10 SHS welded across them to reduce distortion. One root run on one side, turn over, two runs on the opposite side, turn over 4 runs on that side and so on. Doubling the number of runs of the previous side helps to reduce distortion. You literally pour the weld in! Maybe 8/10 runs per side.
Generally stuff that thick is part of a structure that is so heavy that is seldom distorts with the heat of welding. Care needs to be taken to keep the heat 'even' through the structure, same as welding thin car parts i guess. Quite often mark up the weld order, not just for controlling disortion, but also to keep the amount of handling/turning to a minimum.
The heat is tremedous, regularly melt aluminium welding gloves.
Generally stuff that thick is part of a structure that is so heavy that is seldom distorts with the heat of welding. Care needs to be taken to keep the heat 'even' through the structure, same as welding thin car parts i guess. Quite often mark up the weld order, not just for controlling disortion, but also to keep the amount of handling/turning to a minimum.
The heat is tremedous, regularly melt aluminium welding gloves.
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Sounds like it should be automated, can you get a motorised welding head that runs on a track? something similar to the bantam? cutting head (saw one a few years ago). maybe set-up time would be too long?.
Sub-arc
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There's been more hijacking going on in this thread than the 70's so I may as well continue. Sorry OP.
@Welderpaul. That 50mm plate job is a model for 2.4mm flux cored wire. Needs a bit of investment at the start but the time saved on reduced runs would cover it especially if that sort of job comes up a lot.
Had a customer here making excavator buckets and the FC wire worked really well.
4 roll wfu-serrated feed rolls-Co2 gas-Co2 heater-500amp tweco aircooled torch and adapted wfu to take the 20/25kg coils of wire(larger diam coils)
@Welderpaul. That 50mm plate job is a model for 2.4mm flux cored wire. Needs a bit of investment at the start but the time saved on reduced runs would cover it especially if that sort of job comes up a lot.
Had a customer here making excavator buckets and the FC wire worked really well.
4 roll wfu-serrated feed rolls-Co2 gas-Co2 heater-500amp tweco aircooled torch and adapted wfu to take the 20/25kg coils of wire(larger diam coils)
