Welding Tips and Tricks

This is a portion of a 1/8" steel butt weld. This is as shiny as I can get it to look. It is hot rolled steel. I ground it clean and shiny on both sides. I made sure my table and grounding area were freshly ground. I tried the argon on 15 and 20. I have pre and post flow. (Wish I had the settings). No draft in the shop. Freshly ground tungston. Wiped it down with acetone. Does this look good cause it sure isn't like Jody's with the blue/gold color in it. Do you get the blue/ gold weld with cold rolled only? As always thank you for the help! Scroll down a hair to see weld.

Sorry bro.
Blue gold color comes on stainless.

Your stuck with steel, and your using er70s2?

http://welding-tv.com/2013/11/12/tig-steel-drill/

Yes ER70S2. So thats a good look for steel? Thx!

There isn't a much better color then that.

You got a picture of the whole weld??

Yeah Stainless is the pretty looking one....If your looking for color on mild steel prepare to be disappointed! lol. Tig welding stainless can come out silver, yellow, blue, pink, and purple. Looks cool anyways till ya brush it

I think media blasted stainless looks the coolest after its welded. It gives the whole part a nice uniform finish

Ak. The rest of the weld is the same color but colder to the right. The weld started as a small mound then flat then slightly concaved. A couple questions for you though:
1) should a mild steel weld be slightly concaved?
2) what should the back of the weld look like to be sure you have good penetration? I welded a lap joint and at the beginning of the weld and into the middle you can just barely see the heat made it to the back of the metal. At the end of the weld the back pushed out about an eighth of an inch. I like just barely seeing a change in the back of the metal. Is that good or should I always try for the hump on the back?
I really appreciate the help. I've only been welding for about 4-5 hours total and I am teaching myself on aluminum and mild steel. Having a great time though.

Blaze659 wrote:Ak. The rest of the weld is the same color but colder to the right. The weld started as a small mound then flat then slightly concaved. A couple questions for you though:
1) should a mild steel weld be slightly concaved?
2) what should the back of the weld look like to be sure you have good penetration? I welded a lap joint and at the beginning of the weld and into the middle you can just barely see the heat made it to the back of the metal. At the end of the weld the back pushed out about an eighth of an inch. I like just barely seeing a change in the back of the metal. Is that good or should I always try for the hump on the back?
I really appreciate the help. I've only been welding for about 4-5 hours total and I am teaching myself on aluminum and mild steel. Having a great time though.

As far as a concave weld, its kinda had for me to put a big weld on DC.
About the best practice for welding is the tig steel drill.

I do it a lot on Alum.

http://welding-tv.com/2013/11/12/tig-steel-drill/