E6010 Please Help!!! having hard time

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Hello everyone, I'm new member, I love welding I've been at it for about a year now, we've just started doing stick welding in class (I'm still in highschool) and I would say I'm pretty good with e7018 on ac and dc- the last couple weeks we have been using e6010 and it has been my first time using it, I would say I'm below average I can do multiple pass lapjoints and the look okay, but my t joints are terrible, I'm doing them in flat position right now, and making 3 passes, then my instructor wants me to weave on top of the 3 passes once he sees my joint, problem is I cannot get the hang of it.My weld beads look like garbage and are all over the place. I cannot make it look neat with the crescent moons or c's in the bead, the way he showed my how to use this rod was to jump forward then go back to the bead and I have been doing just that, also keeping my electrode angle at like 90 degrees to the plate not angled at all.I was hoping to get some tips from anyone here on some things I can change, it is very frustrating because all the other kids in the class are now moving on to other projects and their welds are much better than mine, its also saddening because I want to make this into my career and know I will never get a job with crummy welds.any help/ tips are greatly appreciated
Reply:what amps do you have your welder set at? try slowing down a little and when u dip out of the puddle wait a second til you see it darken then go back to the center of where you left if that makes sense to you, as for angle in the flat position i like a little bit of an angle 15* or so not much and it works fine for me.
Reply:Welcome to the forum hankhill!! Very few people pick up 6010 right away, it requires practice. Personally, the crescent moon or C is used for welding uphill with 5P (6010), not flat. Also as blubyu02 said, 15 degrees is the right angle for the rod towards the puddle. Try estabishing the puddle to the size you want and then moving the rod back out of the puddle 3/8ths of an inch (or so, 14 inch might work for you), then pushing up into the established puddle over and over again until the rod is gone, making a stack of weld. The only reason your pulling out of the puddle 3/8ths of an inch is to give the puddle time to harden and to preheat the metal (for penetration) before the next puddle. Lots of practice makes a good weld. Good luck with your efforts!Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.                                         -Cree Indian ProverbSA 200 LincolnVictor Torches
Reply:Practice tips aside for just a moment, don't lose heart. We all start out horrible. Relax, because even when you get worse than you are now, you have just learned another way -NOT- to make a weld puddle do what you want it to.Eventually, you will rule out enough ways of NOT making a good weld, that the right way,will become obvious...if you just don't quit.Last edited by tanglediver; 11-20-2010 at 11:11 PM.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:vision becomes criticaal here. as gizzardgutz says, you have to be able to see the puddle form and fill  as the rod heats the spot and then cool as the rod moves away for 1/2 second..too hot is worse than too cold when you are learning.. i could never whip successfully , as you are saying..then someone showed me to make small circles( they actually form a spiral as you move along..ah ha....
Reply:Have you tryed any other 60 series rods? When running a 6010 I have always used it in a C whip just like a 6011 rod the 6011 seems like it is an easier rod and alittle bite more forgiving to learn on verses a 6010. When I'm showing someone how to weld I always start them with a 6011 to they can learn the basics of rod control then the 6010 and then the 7018 and 7024.  What kind of machine are you running it on and what settings?Vantage 300 kubota ,miller 304 xmt ,lincoln ln 25 pro , ranger 305 G, plenty of other tools of the trade to make the sparks fly.
Reply:This is a piece of 1/4" plate that I cut off one side of my cnc/cutting table and welded on the other end. I plasma cut and plasma beveled the piece. It was welded with 3/32 E6010 5P+, one pass. This was a 28" long weld. I havent used 6010 for a bit now but I wanted to do this weld wtht one pass and have it get full penitration.JasonLincoln Idealarc 250 stick/tigThermal Dynamics Cutmaster 52Miller Bobcat 250Torchmate CNC tableThermal Arc Hefty 2Ironworkers Local 720