Welding Tips and Tricks

I have been building a project for my Volunteer FD In which I am a member of. I used 6011 and 7018 rods. I have watched jody's videos on stick welding and noticed how easy the slag comes off. well mine doesn't come off that easy at all. I am using Radnor 7018s ac/dc+ 110-150 amps recommended. I have an old miller bobcat 225 g AC/DC machine. When I get done welding the slag is dark brown and takes a jack hammer to get it off. I have not kept these rods in an over they have just been open in my shop I think I am running at about 130-140 amps but cant be sure since my machine is so old. I would really like my slag to come off like it does in the videos . Anyone got any ideas

Welcome. Make sure your base metal is shiny and clean. If it's got mill flake or rust on it the impurities can make it hard to get the slag off. There is also a chance your arc length may be long. Send a few pics of a finished weld. There are a few other things that can make it hard to get off and a picture would eliminate some of the possibilities.

Welcome aboard. Could be you're running a bit too hot. I had that problem with my Bobcat 225. Seems like some of them tend to run a bit hotter than the dial indicates. Just play around with the amperage until you find the best balance between a good bead and easy slag removal.

Welcome to the forum.

I will get some pictures over the week end and try to post them on here . I have always been just a farm dobber welder but I would really like to be able to do a better quality work . I have tried to learn from jodies videos and have learned quite a lot but need some more practice. There is a welding school about 20 miles from me that I would like to attend I think it would help me greatly. You may be right about being to hot. I seem to have a really long puddle. I am keeping a tight arc, I really pay attention to that like Jodie teaches . I am going to stack some beads this week end and play with my amperage. Is there that much difference in lets say 20 amps of range like these rods I am using say 110-150 amps. So is that range the sweet spot or will be 120 to 125 amps be the sweet spot and you just have to find a tight sweet spot range. My machine is like an 88-89 model and I had to copy the amp ranges down on paper and then write them back on the machine with a paint pen so I know the numbers are right on the machine but I don't know if the numbers actually match the output. Is there any way to measure the amp output on the machine?

Some adjustment knobs and controls can be 10 - 15 amps off of what they say they are. Small adjustments are key sometimes only 1-5 amps can make a lot of differance. There are a lot of variables that affect this travel speed, quality of material, and size of bead in relation to size of rod. I personally use a lot of 3/32 7018 at 75-95 amps depending on thickness of material position of weld and what I'm welding on. You may find if you run a smaller diameter rod that it will give you time to slow down a bit and focouse your attention on things like bead width and control because you will be adding material at a slower deposition rate. A good thing if you need more control till you get more comfortable.

well from what you just said I am pretty sure I am way too hot, cause I think the slag is baking into the weld and I am moving pretty fast to keep from burning through. the slag is rock hard and really dark brown. I will definitely get some pictures this week end. One thing for sure I think I got good penetration.