Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi, I have been stick welding on and off for a few weeks now, and have been getting consistently concave welds. If i decrease my travel speed i get wider welds with the same concave profile. Heres a pic of a run i did about 5 mins ago. Im not sure if this is too concave, and my travel speed might be off. The weld is 8cm long, on 65x5mm flat stock. After pulling this bead i have around 4inches of rod left in the stinger, meaning at this travel speed, one of these rods is good for a 12cm weld at this profile in the pictures shown.

To sum it up, it looks like I am running too fast to me, but at the same time, my welds are short......and if i decrease my travel speed I am just getting wider beads with heaps of concave still. What do you guys think of those beads? They look like about 90% of my welds. Are they satisfactory, or are they too concave. If so how would I go on adding more metal without the bead widening? All the boys at work pull slightly convex welds, and somehow longer welds than me on the same rod and material. If they are fine, just tell me to stop overthinking and man up. On another note, heres a little bead pulled with my CIG 150 Weldskill running gasless wire (0.8mm). If i oscilate it builds the weld up like in the pic (cursive e), so i thought i would try with the stick. It just creates wider, dime stacked welds, but they are still concave!!!! I might be running too hot, but at 85A/3/32 6013 on 5mm im pretty sure thats too cold.....Interesting to note though, a 3/32 6013 (satincraft 13) at 85A gets more peno running a fillet on 5mm plate than the CIG 150 gas/gasless running 135A. Bashing a few welds i did earlier at 150A on a mates rossi on 6mm flat stock (t joint, one side welded) with 100% co2, i found a 6013 @ 95A still produced a more sound weld.... (well at least out of the 5 coupons of each i tested) All 5 samples i tested were stringers, no weave. I wonder why 6013 rods cop so much hate when in reality they are more sound than a slightly cold but perfect looking mig weld.

Running too hot on stick can give you a flatter bead profile than you might like. Most times you may need to lay several beads to build it up on a big weld. On 1/2 in plate T joint I might lay 3 stringers in there to fill it out and avoid concavity. Or go to a larger rod. If your welder can give you the amps you need. Rule of thumb never travel more distance than the length of rod you burn. I.E. 4 in of rod = less than 4 in of weld bead.

I found out the hard way the other day, why running a rod too hot can be more negative than positive. Put it short, i have limited experience welding anything structural as i'm a 2nd class sheetie by job, i assumed i could just turn up a 1/8 7014 to 145A and just weave the bastard instead of running it at a normal 125A and running 3 passes. Well, the lug on a lifting device i repaired didn't last long.....the weld looked fantastic, but it was concave, and weak. Ill definitely get out of the habit of trying to run small rods too hot, and try to fill a large void in a single pass.....

And that my friend is called "experience".
Not the most pleasant way to learn, but bloody effective.

Concave? I don't see it. Two pictures are clearly convex, and the third is flat to "just" convex.

I don't see what you're so concerned about. All look to be in "acceptable" range.

Steve S

Otto Nobedder wrote:Concave? I don't see it. Two pictures are clearly convex, and the third is flat to "just" convex.

I don't see what you're so concerned about. All look to be in "acceptable" range.

Steve S

Cheers, i know not much of the stick welding, a couple of people at work have been calling me out on my welds so i thought id ask.

Vincenzio,
Do you have access to a welding gauge?
Getting a flat edge across your weld will show up any glaring defects.
Being the quiet shrinking violet type you are, are you sure your work mates aren't collectively winding you up?
Has been known to happen.

Manny a welder has been humbled by the mighty fillet gauge. It will even the playing field at work for 10$ you can slap that gauge on the freshest weld of you mates and the crowd goes quiet.