Here's a piece I've done(simple joint welding) and was seeking for advice/tips from you guys(except hotrex)...




....and the side view of the begain(1st pic) and the end(2nd pic):

 

more heat

 

You need to bevel (sp?) that thick of metal... and move slower. If dont right you should have to make a pass on the back side. Is that 6011?

 

Welder is set to max heat setting...

Need to bevel? How do you do that? 6011? The local metal supplyer says it's Mild Steel so idk...

 

grind the joint to resemble a v

 

If you are using 6011 (a very common electrode used on mild steel) than make sure you are running AC on your power source (welder) Also try shortening up your arc (move the tip of the rod a little closer to the base metal), and slow down a bit. What type of power source are you using?

 

When you are butt welding make sure that you leave a gap 1/2 or equal to the thickness of the metal that you are welding. This method usually works well on metal up to 3/16". Thicker than that and you are usually better off beveling the edges.
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What method type of welder you using?

 

ooo, that explains bevel....I'm using a mig with flux core wiring right now as I'm looking for a gas cylinder.

 

Bevel it, and be sure and push with the gun and not drag it. Crank the amps up as high as it will go and slow the wire feed down as much as you can. When you have it set just right it should sound like bacon frying.

But about the best advice is clean your metal, watch the puddle, and take your time., I'm no expert but have been welding more than your average person for the past 5 years. 4 of those was with a little mig, and I could do pretty decent but never make a bead that looked really nice. Well I bought a tig a while back and after using it you find out how important watching the puddle is and going slow, after a few weeks using that I went back to the mig. Welds looked darn nice, almost better than my tig welds at the time. Once you start watching the puddle you can tell exactly what is going on.

Later
Randy

 

push huh?