Welding Tips and Tricks

any idea what setting I may have thats off?

Not really.

What settings are you using? What thickness are you welding? That will help a lot in determining if one or more is off...
(The more information you can give, the faster accurate answers will come.)

My gut reaction is, you're not nearly hot enough. We'll help you sort this out.

Welcome to the neighborhood!

Steve S

Looks like a ton of cold lap to me.

If you can, get the Miller app for your phone, good start settings. Like Steve said list your weld schedule and you will get answers quickly. Honestly, if that is welded as cold as I think it was, you fought it into an almost respectable bead, get your setting right you are probably a natural!

Post up the settings already. We're not mind (machine) readers.

Give yourself about 50% more heat (amperage) than what you were using there. DO NOT focus your arc on the center of that joint or you will peel back the edge of that tube end. Instead focus your arc on the tube that is running left to right in your photo. When it begins to puddle then you can start feeding it with filler wire. If you see the filler begining to grow vertically then giving it a blast of amperage from the peddle will cause it to wick out in all directions like butter melting in a pan. At that point you need to back off of the peddle. Now you can begin to focus your arc on the center of the joint BUT make sure that you do not point it at the unwelded center. Keep it over the puddle, feed wire, move forward and adjust amperage via your peddle as needed. This technique becomes more and more critical as you begin to weld thinner and thinner tubing. Thin aluminum is particularly unforgiving in this regard.