Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi Folks, first post, long time reader/ listener.

I’m trying to weld some round bar to flat plate to be used as hooks/ etc in the shop to hold angle grinders and other not too heavy things. I’ve read a bunch of solutions using modifications of the joint to make them fillets, beveling, and back welding. Does this mean that the round stalk can’t be directly welded to the plate, even if it is for only light work ( only a few angle grinders could fall to their death if it breaks)?

Thanks much, glad to be on the forum with a bunch of very knowledgeable and helpful guys/ gals,

Dave

It can definitely be welded to the plate. Just gotta focus more of the heat on the round bar. I have some .065 brackets welded to .125 wall tube, and .25 rod to the .125 tube at work that I have my angle grinder and accessories. There's probably better ways, but I like to still set the machine for the thicker of the two metals, strike up on that side and wash over to the thinner metal and then back over. Have yet to have any problems.

It’s prett hard to weld materials that thin with stick. I’d recommend trying 6013 in a 1/16 or 3/32 if you can get it that small.
Is your machine DC? Have you considered getting a scratch start tig rig to use off of your stick welder?

I would suggest drilling a hole, stick the rod thru to flush, and weld it hot from the back side, grind flush if need be, when you weld from the back, use aluminum chill blocks to keep from burning thru, you could even chamfer the hole slightly for more weld fill in

Thanks a bunch guys. Machine is multiprocess DC. Can do stick, mig, tig- it’s just that I really like stick method Best and the one that I could use the most practice on. I started out using settings for round stock and very interestingly, the round bar got eaten away before I blew through on the 1/16 plate. I could use thicker, but I just happen to have a lot of 1/16 plate- it’s what I find the most when I dumpster dive at the local metal distributor. I’ve messed around with many setting permutations and still the rod gets chewed up, even down to 40 amps. I have tried 6010,6011, 6013, 7018- all with pretty much the same results. This afternoon I tried 6013 in a 1/16 diameter. There were a couple areas that looked like a good flat fillet, but most were irregular deposits with melting of the rod and rare blow through on the plate. There is a definite tendency to long arc, so there is often a lot of porosity. I’m sure I could get ‘er done using mig or tig, but I’m too stubborn to leave this problem unsolved using SMAW. I did try some hacks- welding the rod as a two sided butt joint between two flat plates, putting the rod in the trough of small angle iron and weld horizontal on both sides of rod and turning that over on the plate and use fillets on both sides of the angle iron to the plate, and one attempt at using holes through the plate and welding from the back- all of which worked better than just putting the rod on top of the plate and welding away. I’ll give the above suggestions a try tomorrow. Thanks again,

Dave