Welding Tips and Tricks

Its me again

Welding myself a tube frame for a tools shelves.

I bought today 1kg 3.2 6013 rods and started the job. Welding goes good. I am runinng on 110 amperage(Cant get more rood burns like firework and burns holes) and cant get lower must make good penatration weld. And the welds look god.

Buth the rods are giving me trouble.

When I weld and then stop to arange new tubes it wont start until a knock electrode few times on metal.


Electrode core is consumed faster than coated flux and when electrode cools down coated flux is 2mm longer than a electore core. So I hawe to hammer it o the tube frame few times to get it arching again.


What I am doing bad? Wha electodes act like that?

Is my welding technique bad? Or bad amperage? Or bad electrodes? Or what?

No problem.

Keep an old coarse file handy. Drag the file across the tip of the rod before you restart, to clear the flux and present bare metal to restrike.

When you break the arc, on any rod, melted flux cools over the tip, and you need to clear it before it will re-strike reliably.

Steve S

are you saying to me that this phenomenon is a normal isue

It happens always? Is there a way to stop this?

A coarse file seems like good idea buth that takes time...its much less time consuming to grab electrode holder kammer few times on metal until it strarts to arch and then to weld

Yes, this happens all the time, when burning less than the entire rod in one go. It's normal.

Mount an old file on a block of wood, maybe with epoxy, so it's not grounded, and, rather than smack the rod repeatedly, drag it across the file once. Problem solved.

Steve S

and I was thinking that it was a problem with bad welding technique

It makes sense, if you think about it this way:

You have to knock the slag off your weld; You have the same slag on the end of your rod, and you need to bust it off. That's why hammering the rod works. The dedicated file makes it quick, easy, and reliable. On a wood block, you can lay it on the bench, and drag once quicker than beating the rod (and you won't bust off extra flux, which can make the restart tough!)

Steve S

Qwerty12.

Tanks for sharing about 'starting the arc'.

As a parallel issue, it is important to only start that arc within the joint to be welded.
Accidentally depositing 'ark strikes' on the base metal next to the joint, is a defect to nearly all welding codes and specifications.

Alexa

A paving brick is also a great tip cleaner! And you won't arc out on it! LOL!

Alexa wrote:Qwerty12.

Tanks for sharing about 'starting the arc'.

As a parallel issue, it is important to only start that arc within the joint to be welded.
Accidentally depositing 'ark strikes' on the base metal next to the joint, is a defect to nearly all welding codes and specifications.

Alexa

Sory...did not understood you. bad english speaker


So...should i start arc in the begining of the weld or near the weld and than mowe rod to the weld begining?

Qwerty12.

I was only referring to the defect called 'arc strike'. This is an error of starting the arc outside of area that will be eventually welded. This will leave surface damage to the base metal. Depending upon the alloy and/or wall thickness, it may mean additional costs of repair and testing.

If you start the arc within the area that will be eventually welded, then there is no 'arc strike' damage.

Alexa

Thakns werry much.