New to Welding

[PompeyMatt17]

I'd be tempted with running slower (going on pics so far) rather than turning the voltage up to much because it's somewhat counter intuitive.

thanks Mark...that's exactly what I was thinking. for months now I've been blowing big holes so always been apprehensive of too long a contact time, but yesterday I made sure everything was clean, and every few welds I stopped and got the wire brush on it to get rid of the dumped flux and it made a hell of a difference. So that really helped on a confidence front.

 

[Dessieb2022]

thanks mate. I started on that, but was getting no penetration..so thought "what the hell it's only scrap".. whacked it up to 22v and didn't blow through!.. must have steel made of kryptonite !..I've got a spare pair of hours today to will try again as continuous with your settings

I would recommend watching 'making mistakes with Greg' on YouTube. Flux core needs to run slower to be effective. You can tell the difference in the colour of the slag.

 

[PompeyMatt17]

I would recommend watching 'making mistakes with Greg' on YouTube. Flux core needs to run slower to be effective. You can tell the difference in the colour of the slag.

another little nugget I've now learnt! definitely trying again today, thanks !

 

[PompeyMatt17]

so I had another go , of course making it hard for myself as I need to weld vertically on the sills.

New piece of metal

couple of spots to keep it in place

ran a continuous bead to see what affect gravity would have !

these were my settings throughout

had a few more runs at various speeds and these were the results I'm always missing the bottom as it's clamped into my Workmate

 

[Mark 2]

Do we know what current that is. Seems a tad low.

 

[PompeyMatt17]

Do we know what current that is. Seems a tad low.

its a 30 -130A so I"m not sure where that'll.. about 50A I guess ?

 

[Dessieb2022]

I'd try mid way on the settings for 2mm.
I'm only a novice btw but feel I did enough practicing on the same welder to get a feel for the settings for 1.5-3mm.