Fillet 'o Fish

So now that I've got a bit of practice under my belt just laying down weld beads on top of a flat piece of bar stock, I decided that it's high time I put down an actual weld between two pieces of metal. So I fired up the welder with a 3/32 6013, tacked two pieces of bar together, and squirted some metal at the joint.

Well, it's not a complete failure, but it's far from good. I had a cold start, then things started flowing nicely, before I ended up running out of rod at the end. It felt like I was struggling to fill up the weld fillet so I decided to bump up to 1/8 6013 next.

But first there was the simple matter of giving the weld a quick break test to see if I was getting good fusion. I put an adjustable wrench on the plate and gave it a bend and... didn't even budge. I clamped it in my vise, gave it a hefty gronk and... nothing. I set it on the concrete floor and beat on it with my 4lb hammer and, well...

Yeah the concrete floor took more of a beating than the weld did. I did manage to get a slight bend between the plates, but that was about it.

So, I decided that rather than smashing a hole in my floor, I'd simply do another weld on the other side of the joint and then I'd grind it off and start over.

The 1/8 6013 definitely seemed more suited for this 1/4 inch bar stock, and the weld laid down nicely after another annoyingly cold start.

So then came the task of separating the two pieces so I could reuse these coupons to make another weld. I got out my angle grinder, spun on a death wheel, and made some sparks, putting a nice deep notch in both welds.

I beat on the plate, and it didn't budge.

So I swapped to a grinding disc and ground down the weld fillet until it was flush with the plate on both sides.

I beat on the plate, and it didn't budge.

I put the death wheel back on and notched into the root of the joint.

I beat on the plate, and it didn't budge.

Finally, it was time to bring out the big guns.

As the saying goes: The fastest way to remove metal in the shop is with a band saw.

With that taken care of, I ground down the surfaces nice and flush again, and went at laying down another bead.

This cold start issue is really turning into a pain in the ass.

I decided to switch things up a little and lay down a bead on the other side using some 3/32 7014.

This rod usually runs in kind of the same ballpark as the 1/8 6013 in terms of amps, but apparently 100A was a bit on the hot side. I learned this when I tried dialing it up to 110A and things got much worse, and the electrode was glowing red at the end of the weld. Oops.

So I dialed it down to 90A and covered up my sin with a few extra passes.

No trouble with cold starts on these, this really is a very pleasant rod to run.

After that, I switched back to the 1/8 6013 and laid a few passes over the weld I did on the other side.

I still had trouble with cold starts (which I went back and filled in afterwards) but aside from that these are some pretty nice welds. There's a technique for dealing with the cold starts, I just need to practice doing it some more.

I definitely don't think these two plates will be coming apart without a little love from the band saw though, but that's a problem for future-me to deal with. Maybe after I buy a table attachment for my portaband.