Any welders out there? I'm learning SMAW and having a lot

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>>1173184

Horizontal position welds for reference. I think I'm moving too fast and not straight enough, but much better than the vertical position. Same settings

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Another horizontal position butt joint weld for reference. Seemed pretty sturdy

>>1173184
>5/16 rods
Fucking hell, man. Try 1/8th or something.

Vertical up except when doing TIG is all about sweeping correctly.
Heed the gospel of our welder lord St. Jody.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QxT7JUjs94

>>1173184
Looks like you're going down rather than up. With stick in general but especially with 7018, going down can cause slag to run ahead of the bead and prevent fusion. If you go fast enough you can overcome it (easy enough with 6010/11), but 7018 produces a large amount of tough slag and doesn't penetrate very deeply.

>>1173221
>>1173220

going up.

I'm really having a problem of the base material melting through which is why i'm moving too fast i think.

I'll try thinner rods

>>1173184
>5/16 7018
I'm calling shenanigans. That is a corn dog sized electrode used for ship building and you run those at around 400 amps.

>>1173184
you must mean 5/32 because anything over 1/4 rod is only flat and horizontal postion and 5/32 should be closer to 160 amps
>>1173209
your getting porosity because of the arc length hold a tighter arc and go slower also with vertical a bigger plate is easier to practice on because that angle iron cant hold much heat by the time your at the top its going to be red hot

>>1173225
>>1173223
5/32's is correct. my mistake. always work in metric
\can you point out the porosity?

>>1173226
on the right side of
>>1173209
that pic where you ground flat the head of the beads you can see the holes

>>1173230
thanks, i'll pick up a half inch plate at the scrap yard to practice on.

>>1173226
You're probably getting porosity at the start if you're striking where you start. Strike your arc 1/2" ahead of your starting point and backstep into it. 7018 rods need to heat up a bit before the flux starts working properly. Also when you get to the end keep going and roll the electrode around the corner to fill in that gap.
You should probably get some 3/32 rods for this type of material.

>>1173184
drop 20 amps, use a shorter arc, slow the fuck down, most importantly get your eyes on the puddle. you can't weld verticals by muscle memory.

you're probably pointing the rod uphill too much as well, it's so bad i can't say for sure.

>>1173185
that <<<<< pattern says you're tilting the rod too far over.

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>>1173184
Those rods and amperage settings are too much for the material thickness. Like others have said get some other rods in 3/32 or 1/8, try running 3/32 around 80-100 ish and 1/8 around 110-130. Get some scrap 1/4 or thicker and run bead after bead overlapping each other in various positions until you get better at it. Make sure your material is relatively clean, brush or grind off excessive rust, wipe away liquids/oils. You need to slow down and keep the rod closer to the material, this is known as "arc length" keep it in there tight.

Also like others have said watch a bunch of vids about stick welding, I know it's helped me watching what others do online and in person.

I'm going to take this opportunity to show off some uphill weave mig I did recently, I still suck ass at stick uphill weave

Vertical is one of the hardest positions and with some rods it's almost impossible.

I've never been able to do open root with 6013.

>>1173184
its all about arc length and travel speed. stay at the front of the puddle and maintain a tight arc dont go to fast or too slow.

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Any input on these horizontal side to side welds? I know I need to work on keeping a straight line. I think I need to change up how I hold the electrode.

>>1175893
120 amps, 1/8th inch 7018, half inch plate.