Stick welding thin wall SQ tube

[posixPilot]

Thanks, Jerky. That is good to know about long arcs, and I'm going to work on that a bit. I read somewhere yesterday that one method of controlling the heat is to actually dip into the puddle for a second to snub out the arc (like you said), and reduce the heat. Not sure how well that would work, but I might give it a try if I'm about to blow through.

Cheers
Mike

[bobwills]

Have you been grinding the metal first because you will get a better stronger weld with those 1/16 rods that might hold better for you. Ive never had any problems with welds breaking with 1/16" rods but ive always used 7018.

[welderdude]

@posixPilot How thin of a wall thickness is the 1/2'' tube?

[DaveO]

He mentioned he believes it to be 16 gauge. If I ever get two spare minutes to rub together I was going to find some and try to recreate conditions... Welderdude, are you thinking the same thing?

[posixPilot]

Have you been grinding the metal first because you will get a better stronger weld with those 1/16 rods

I haven't been grinding them ... honestly, with the tubing being 16ga, there's not much metal to begin with. I tried the 7014 1/16" rods again last night, and you would have laughed ... two perfect beads on either side of the joint with a layer of slag between them. But the 3/32" rods seem to not have this problem as much. As long as I move fast enough and the amps are low, I can make the joint without melting through.

@posixPilot How thin of a wall thickness is the 1/2'' tube?

Definitely 16ga. I've been running between 40 and 50A with the 3/32", with varying success. I turned the arc force down, as it promotes melting through when I hold the arc too short.

If I ever get two spare minutes to rub together I was going to find some and try to recreate conditions...

Dave, I appreciate the offer, but tonight I actually just welded the pieces to the gate I've been talking about. When I was practicing, I was running a tee joint with two pieces in parallel. What I realized today was that I was going to be tacking the bar across the sq tube, actually creating a lap joint. Since the weld area was really small, there was almost no way to generate enough heat to melt through, so I gave it 55amps and had no major problems. A couple of the joints did not fuse well, so I had to chip out the slag and try again, but I think all of them fused pretty well in the end.

Thanks
Mike

[welderdude]

@ DaveO. I some how missed that. I was thinking about trying it just for some practice, but its about 20 degrees here so the motivation isn't there. 16 gauge is just about 1/16'' thick so I bet I could do it with a 3/32 6013 or possibly a 3/32 7018. it would be a little tricky. I don't have anything smaller to try with.