More welding practice..... ugh!

[VaughnT]

As this is a family-oriented site, let me just say that there's a big difference between a bead welder and a blob welder.  I'm of the latter group!

 

My latest excursion into the dark arts was about as frustrating as I can stand.

 

 

After beating the snot out of my godzilla guillotine during an adze-making exercise, I decided to ramp up production on another guillotine.  

 

I should have known better than to think it would go smoothly.

 

Some days my blobs actually look rather bead-like and I'm genuinely impressed with myself.  Today was not one of those days.

 

What does it mean when the blob won't stick to one piece of the assembly but bores right in to the other?  I've never seen such a thing before!  All the weld zones were cleaned of rust and dirt, but apparently there was still some residual Pam on the base plate.  

 

I solved the problem by holding the 7018 really steady and slap burning through half a rod for every half-inch of blob I put down.

 

Now I need to buy a really good carbide burr and a Dremel so I can go back through all those blobs and carve them to look like a stack of nickels.

[ausfire]

That's a pretty heavy lump of steel you have there, Vaughn. Don't know what kind of welder you have, but I would have to have mine turned up to the max and probably need two or three runs to tie that monster down.
And what's that thing on the extreme left of the photo. You been making cannon???

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

The "canon" looks like the back of a Wilton bullet vise.

Some things that helped my beads when I was starting.

A good lens in my helmet. Once I could actually see the puddle it was amazing how much better I could weld. If you cannot see the puddle, you are welding blind.

Slow down, once you can see the puddle you can see when it is time to move the rod.

7018 has a nonconductive flux, so stuff that rod in there. On those welds you want to bump the rod against the sides. As you weave back and forth you hold on the sides until you see the puddle flow into them, whip across the center, and then hold against the opposite side until the puddle flows into it. Your amps will be right when the rod is flush with the end, and the flux is forming a cup around it after you stop welding.

I would say the bead should be double the width of the rod for what you are doing. If you need more, lay a bead halfway below the first one, and then above the second one.

Also 7018 needs to be bone dry for best results. It can be baked to dry it out if you suspect it has moisture in the flux.

7018 is my favorite rod when I stick weld.

When all else fails have someone who is a better welder watch you to see what you are doing wrong.

[VaughnT]

My lens could be a problem.  I have bad eyes and one of those auto-off helmets, but I've never really gotten the drift of how to set the thing so I don't burn my eyeballs with IR or UV nastiness.  I'll have to experiment on that, I guess.

 

Seeing the puddle?  Can't really do that with the stick in the way.  Everyone tells me that "if is slags, it drags", and since I have to try watching where I'm going, keeping the stick in the crotch, that puts the stick right in the way of the puddle.  If I watch from the other side of the stick, I can't see where I'm driving.

 

Or am I doing something wrong?

 

Amps seem right because I always get the rod recessed in a cup of flux.  I could have had some moisture issues, though.  I guess I'll have to warm the rods under my forge for a few minutes before trying to cover these nasty blobs.

 

And, yea, that's the back end of my bench vise. :)

[jmccustomknives]

Invest in a good auto darkening helmut. That will help more than you can imagine. Years ago I had an older (70+) come in my store wanting a shade 7 lens for arc welding because he couldn't see. After speaking with him I suggested the auto. A few weeks later he came back in. He said he couldn't believe the difference that hood made. Second, get some quality rods. Lincoln Excalibur is a very popular rod among welders due to the ease of starting and maintaining the arc. If you don't mind dropping the extra coin, the Messer 80Tac was our old "farmers" rod because even old shaky hands could weld up a pretty bead. Don't overlook the 7014 either.

[John McPherson]

Three more suggestions: clean, preheat, & tilt.

 

(1) ALWAYS grind it down to shiny bare metal at least 1/2" beyond the weld zone, not just wire brush the surface. Degrease as needed.

 

(2) Anything more than 1/4" thick benefits from a couple hundred degree preheat, especially in a cold shop. 7018 rods are designed to be stored in a vacuum, or at 250F, and used within 30 minutes of being pulled from the rod oven. Anything less is sub-optimal. Kitchen vacuum sealers are a great way to store an opened box of rod in small units.

 

(3) Last, set up your welding table with some props so that you can always weld flat: despite the orientation of the base metal, root down, cap up. You may have to do a few run-thrus to get the set up right. Some folks use sand boxes, or jigs & fixtures, heck, even a few chunks of scrap lumber will work.

 

Oh, and if you use magnets to tack up, pull them off before running a full bead. They tend to cause arc blow and wander.

 

Cheater lenses inside the hood are a lifesaver for those of us on the downhill side of 50.

 

 

 

And may I say that I am HATING this last upgrade. I have to go back and edit every post to put paragraphs back in.

[arftist]

Doesn't look like you are running DC electrode positive to me. Looks like AC or DC electrode negative. 

 

Second, damp 7018 as mentioned is bad news. Try 1 hour in your kitchen oven at 250 F. A couple minuts by the forge will not help much. 

 

Next, You MUST see the puddle to stick weld. Adjust your position or technique or whatever you must do to ALWAYS see the puddle.

 

Third, as John said, tip the work so gravity is helping you. + 1 on the preheat advice as well. 

The only thing I disagree with his advice; set it so the bead runs uphill at least 15 degrees or so for 7018. While 7018 is an all position rod, it wants to go uphill, and doesn't much like flat. 

 

Plus one on the excaliber rods. Most rods these days are made in Xxxxa these days and are hard to use, even for those of us with hundreds of empty 50# boxes behind us. 

 

Plus one on grinding to bare metal also. 

 

When I worked in a production shop, running a wirefeed fed by a 55 gallon drum, I always knew it was time for new lenses when my welds looked like crap.

 

Finally, do you know what the curved thing is made from? Doesn't look like A-36. Need to know what metals you have to weld them properly. 

 

Edit, I find I need about 2.5 magnifying reading glasses under my hood to weld at all these days. 

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Arftist brought up a main point I completely overlooked. 7018 is run DC reverse polarity.

Your lens may not be getting dark enough so you can see the puddle. You should see the liquid metal flowing. When you swing through to the side you should see the puddle volume increasing then flow into the base material. When that happens you swing through to the other side. Proper angle of the rod is also important. You should be pointing the rod tip where you want the flow to happen. The wrist movement is a rotation , rather than a side to side.

Do you have a community college nearby? Many have night welding courses, that is where my Dan and I started learning.

Lincoln Electric has a very good welding course book that you may want to see about obtaining a copy of.

[Frosty]

I believe the welding is covered well enough. My only suggestion is to angle the dies at 45* rather than perpendicular to the vertical support. That way you can cut a 10' long bar in the middle or fuller it full length without the vertical support interfering. The way yours is now the dies are 90* from what most folk place them so you'd only be able to cut a few inches from a bar.

 

In polite society we call those chicken track welds rather than the professionally correct and industry standard chicken . . . Eh-hem, "poo" welds. Not picking on you, we all started right about there.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[John McPherson]

Frosty, my take on the offset C supporting the upper guide was that he can do unlimited work in either direction: either put a central fuller along a broadsword or draw out a billet into a broadsword. I had no issue with the design, just the 'chicken poo' welds.

 

[Frosty]

Right you are John I was looking at it wrong. My bad, I should've looked more closely, I think the curved frame fooled me. It's all in my head. <sigh>

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[DSW]

Feed the pigeon more and squeeze it harder... LOL

 

 

I find box store 7018AC very hard to read the puddle with compared to a good quality 7018 like Excalibur. The molten flux on 7018AC covers the puddle more and isn't as easy to differentiate between the two as is Excalibur. Down side of course is that if you only have an AC stick machine, you are kind of limited to what rods your machine will run. In that case, 7014 is a good choice, and if you can find some in a small quantity, and can weld the project either in the flat, or horizontal fillet position, 7024 can make you look like you have welded professionally for years. Get the settings right, and drag the rod on the material at the right travel speed, and it's almost impossible not to make a nice looking weld with 7024.

[arkie]

Vaughn, folks here have given you some very good advice on your welding technique.  There is no substitute for seeing the real thing.

 

If you have a welding shop nearby, drop in with some donuts close to quitting time, take your hood and some rods with you and ask one of the welders if they will run a good bead for you so you can see it real time.  You are not trying to steal business or get a freebie, but just want to see a good puddle as it's run.

 

Second, go over to weldingtipsandtricks.com.  Jody has several excellent videos on running stick beads.  Some really good tips also.  I like to run some of his videos from time to time to remember what a good puddle looks like!!!!

[VaughnT]

Looks like I'm in for more practice.  I was using the guillotine to neck down some stock yesterday and noticed that my dies weren't lining up like they were.  Turns out that the weld holding the arch to the base decided to unstick itself.

I'm thinking that a complete overhaul of the design is in order.  While the collars are working well, the mystery metal that makes up the base and arch could be too problematic to get around with my limited knowledge of welding.  I have some 3/8" flat mild that I could use for a base, and some 1/2"x1" mild that could be bent around to make a new arch.

Trying times, indeed!

[arkie]

Vaughn,

One item that was not addressed in your welding predicament is steel type.  I don't know what or where you acquired the steel, but if you happened to use some scrap AR400 steel instead of regular mild A36, then that may be part of the problem.  AR400 is a hard steel commonly used in blades, buckets, etc. on earth moving equipment.  I thought maybe you ran across some of that as scrap for your tool.  That steel definitely requires preheat and lots of amps to burn in a good bead.  Also, there are of course, other steel alloys that are harder and more difficult to weld than A36, which we blacksmiths may run across when digging through scrap piles.

[VaughnT]

Arkie, there's no telling what alloy I might have.  I got this metal in a box of stuff I bought when a factory went out of business and was auctioning off all their stuff.  I got my main shop table from them....  1.5" solid steel top with a 100# Wilton vise bolted to it..... I won't make you cry by telling you how much I paid for it!  

That's why I think I'm going to redo the whole mess.  I had hoped I could use some of this scrap that just happened to be the right size for the project, but I there's way to much bad juju going on.  Best to start with some H13 die stock that I can get plenty of replacements for and some nice mild steel for the body....

[arkie]

Don't let the bad juju take control!!!

"Forge" your own destiny.....