Your thoughts on my first welds

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About a year ago, my dad gave me his Lincoln AC-225. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get it to lay down a bead. I decided to buy a Hobart Stickmate AC/DC unit figuring maybe the old Lincoln was shot. It is >40 years old after all, and has not been maintained. Attached is a link to pictures of my first weld beads. I really love welding with this new Hobart unit. Not sure if my success is due to the DC current, or just more up to date equipment, but the difference is night and day. I was pretty proud of these for my first time with a stick welder. Please let me know what you thinkhttps://www.dropbox.com/sh/mbd47epxrhq274v/2bOkPTZw-KMiller Multimatic 255
Reply:It's a start, but if I came over and made a good weld with the Lincoln, would I get a cookie and milk? It depends on the preparation you make, the rod you are using, the amperage setting, the manipulation, the lense clarity in your hood, etc., etc...Keep practicing whatever works at this point, it can only help because it takes long hours of dedicated practice to progress. City of L.A. Structural; Manual & Semi-Automatic;"Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore."Job 28:1,2Lincoln, Miller, Victor & ISV BibleDanny
Reply:Sure, if you schlepped all the way from SoCal to New England, I'd give you more than a cookie :-)But seriously, the only variable is the machine...same operator, same rods, etc. I have a feeling the old Lincoln needs some cleaning and refurb. I just don't think it was putting out enough juice. But its all good.
Reply:My first day in welding school they gave me three three inch by five inch plates and told me to surface them front and back. It is a great place to start. Run a bead then clean it and run another bead beside it that over laps the previous bead by half. With the three plates its about a million welds. HahaDo three plates with 6011 and three plates with 6013. Dcep on the 6011 and dcen with 6013. 1/8 rods on 1/4 inch plate. 90 amps on the 6011 and 105 with the 6013. Do a whip motion with the 6011 and a straight drag with the 6013.Once you get that done do it again on AC.  Once that is done do it again on dcep with 6010 and 7018. 6010 runs just like 6011 and 7018 runs just like 6013.Good luck and burn a lot of rods. Thats the only way to get it down
Reply:I like cookies and milk!  You can run a bead into the "fillet" area of a piece of c-channel for practice, and just keep running beads on top of each other, but only covering about half or a third of the last one put down. It saves on practice metal, and helps you to learn how to multi-pass.City of L.A. Structural; Manual & Semi-Automatic;"Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore."Job 28:1,2Lincoln, Miller, Victor & ISV BibleDanny
Reply:Material looks a bit thin to learn stick on. I'd suggest 1/4" or 3/8" material in general. You might find a foot long chunk of heavy angle iron set like a V with a couple pieces of scrap for feet, to be the most economical way to start off. This allows you to fill the V with weld material and get lots of practice running overlapping beads, without using up tons of material.  A decent sized chunk of heavy flat plate would work also. Keep in mind the practice piece will get hot. You'll need to either cool it down every 2 or 3 beads in water, or have several pieces so they can cool between beads. I usually tell students if they can pick up the piece with their bare hands, it's cool enough to run more beads. If you don't cool the material, it acts like you keep turning up you amps, and makes learning difficult.When posting up things like this it helps if you list as much info as possible. Rod size and type, material thickness, how many amps, and if you are running AC, DC+ or DC -.I usually suggest students start with 7014, 7024 or 7018 on average. 7014 and 7024 are drag rods. 7024 is the easiest to run, but it only runs flat beads. It will make you look like a pro in no time. 7014 is very similar, but it will run all position. Like 7024 when you get everything right it produces nice beads that have the slag curl up behind you so you hardly need to run a chipping hammer over the beads. 7018 can take a bit more practice. One issue with 7018 is that if the rods get real damp from poor storage, they will run like crap. I don't generally recommend them to guys who don't do a lot of welding, as if they aren't stored well, they are a PITA to work with many times. Keep the packages you buy small, so you don't have a lot of extra 7018 sitting around forever. It's a great rod and my favorite to run, but it might be one to wait on until you have a bit of practice under your belt.Looks like you are off to a good start..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:thanks for the feedback all.