[AdrianH]

Continuing to practice with college evening class welding so try and get as much time as possible, sticking to the 6013 budget rods same as used by the college.
I bought some more metal to cut up and practice with and here is this morning little go, two sides of a vertical fillet. The first side I had slag in the start of the weld, the second side better start. each fillet length is taking about 4 to 5 3.2mm rods. I can not seem to get it looking smoother yet. The flux is heavy and it is difficult to see the difference between the flux and the metal under the arc.

Would appreciate any comments, such as do you think I am travelling up two fast, not enough side to side pause?

Appreciate it would be better to use 6010 rods but down to cost and what is used on the course.

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First Pass not the problem at the base.

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just showing some slag covering.

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Second of the vertical fillet welds.

I tried using two lines of french chalk to act as guides, but the lines soon disappear when welding.

Adrian

[plantwelder]

First off you need to get comfortable, or you'll never get an even run. Find a way of propping yourself. Then keep your electrode close to 90 degrees to your direction of travel, no more than 5 degrees either side of this. Lastly, hold the edges longer, the middle will take care of itself. Are you doing a root run and cap? If so, drop your current about 5 amps on the dap, as everything is already warm from the root run. For me, it would be root at 115 dcen, cap 110 dcen, depending on machine, of course.

[AdrianH]

Hi thanks for the response, I do have some trouble keeping the 90 degrees, or around 85 to 90 degrees as I am moving up. I am not running root and cap but rather running an upward triangle (Christmas tree?). A picked this up from a book by A. C Davis from volume two called the practice of welding, there is no one showing me what to do as such, so trying to read and then put into practice, the getting correct is not always there yet.

This is a section from the book, just to show what I am trying to follow.

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I am also struggling with how much up to go for the point of the triangle, at first , and on the pictures I was only lifting say 3mm, the width of a rod and I found it hard to see what was weld and not. I visited a company and the welder showed my his vertical up. he said he would initially just do stringers, but when he showed my the same technique as above he was higher, only since coming back did I notice the 12mm section in the picture.

I am propping myself the best I can also use an adjustable height stool to sit on.
Running the rods DCEP ESAB 46.30 electrodes, sometimes I get sections that look good, but mostly as in the pictures.
Would the DCEN put more heat into the metal and cause more penetration as it is I am going into the base metal by around 1.5mm, would it cause the weld to drop more? I am willing to give it a try.

I have to keep the leg length to around 6mm, no less and not more then 8mm for the test piece, convex profile, but not by much.

I keep looking for a video using similar and the closest I got was a ChuckE using an inverted 'T'.

Practising again tomorrow.

Adrian

[ldbtx]

Here's a video Jody did on vertical up. It's 6011 rather than 6013, but it can't hurt. Good luck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f_UUo9i7IY

[plantwelder]

Running DCEN the electrode burns noticeably slower with 6013's. The reason for keeping the apex of your Christmas tree higher is so you don't make a slag trap in the root. You can make the deposit a little more convex by holding the apex a bit longer. Try to read the pool rather than relying on "timing patterns". If your angle and arc length vary throughout the run, so will the appearance of your weld.

[AdrianH]

I will keep practising, I have tried a vertical bead and at the moment it is not flat enough. So I need to get down to one technique and practice it, just finding the correct one for me. Sometimes I can get a smooth profile sometimes not more of a stepped finish.
I have picked up some 6010 rods but need to keep off using them for this lot.

I am trying to find a local 'active stick welder' to give me advice whilst watching what I do, finding it hard as there are not that many that do stick here, mostly MIG.
I will get there and thank you all for comments.

Cheers

Adrian