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A veteran at the union hall in Pittsburgh told me my tack welds were too cold for 3/4 inch plate.
He said to crank the heat up 10 amps and watch the puddle, not the arc. Anyone else get a simple tip that fixed a stubborn problem?
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holly_williams20d ago
Listen to that guy. Watching the puddle is everything. It tells you if you're getting proper fusion. I was running beads that looked okay but kept failing bend tests. An old timer told me the same thing, watch the puddle spread. Fixed it overnight.
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eva_garcia5620d ago
My first welding class at the community college stressed that puddle watch. The instructor would fail you if you looked at the arc instead.
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julia_burns91d ago
Yeah, that's the real trick. The arc is just the light show, but the puddle is the actual work happening. If you watch the puddle spread behind the rod, you can steer it and control your penetration. It feels weird at first, but your hands learn to follow what your eyes see in that molten metal.
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