Critiques needed on my welding

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Hello guys,I just started welding out of my home 2 weeks ago.  I have no prior training of welding of any sort and most of my knowledge is obtained from reading and watching youtube videos so please excuse my lack of proper terminology and techniques of welds. My setup is hobart handler 140 running on 110v and c25 gas. Wire is steel .030.  Below are the front and back of the 16 gauge metal in which i laid the beads on and I did followed the spec from the hobart machine as to setting the wire speed and voltage but it seems to be too hot as I'm easily melting the edge of the steel plates and beads are penetrated and visible in the underside of the plates.  I have tried to turn down the voltage and made some adjustment to the wire speed but it didn't give me any better result.  Please give me some tips and any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. 1st photo is the top of 16 gauge steel plate (cleaned prior to welding)2nd photo is the bottom of ththe plate uncleaned Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2 Attached ImagesLast edited by jdmstop; 12-20-2013 at 09:29 PM.
Reply:Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2 Attached Images
Reply:Not bad at all.Try a tee joint or butt joint on some 3/16" plate.  Try some motions with those oceans and report back.Miller Dynasty 200DXMiller Spectrum 250DMiller Millermatic 200Bunch of old blue dinosaurs....
Reply:1/16" on the edge will be difficult without a fair amount of skill. 1/16" back say 1/2" or so from the edge is much easier.I'd guess if the settings were close, you may need to speed up some. Most new welders go too fast, but I have had guys who just can't get it in gear on occasion and like to weld too slow.The back in some places shows too much penetration. One "problem" I often see new guys have is all they want to do is weld and weld... Nothing wrong with that, but they forget that the extra heat builds up in the material and will cause them issues. It often acts as if the machine is set higher than it really is. I suggest students at the tech school regularly cool their practice pieces. If you can touch a piece with your bare hands, it's cool enough to run another bead. If not, especially with thin material like 1/16", it's too hot and you need to either set the piece aside to cool and use a different piece, or dunk it in water to cool it.Another thing I often see is guys always want to do circles or an cursive "e" pattern. With thinner stock, it causes you to spend more time in the puddle and thus causes you to pump more heat into the piece. 1/16' and less I often suggest straight stringers, or possibly a C or Z shape motion if any at all. I usually don't have guys run circles unless they have an issue going too fast. Circles slow them down so they take their time. Another thing I frequently see new guys doing is dragging the bead with solid wire and gas. If you push the bead, you don't put as much heat into the weld and it helps with thinner stock. Most guys want to drag because they can't see well if they push. In reality they really need to get their head out front of the gun and look down the barrel vs trying to look thru the nozzle and gun..030 will work on 1/16", but you may find .023 wire a better choice for 1/16" and less especially with smaller machines. You deposit less wire, and can fine tune your settings a bit more. Also you can fine tune your "heat" by how far you hold the gun from the work. Closer to the work, the "hotter" the weld will be, everything else being equal. The farther away the gun is, the colder the weld. Most guys tend to want to hold the gun too far away, but I have seen guys who tend to hold the gun very close. With thinner stuff, backing off just a tad can help a bit.I'd try these suggestions 1st before tweaking the settings too much. 1: push vs drag. 2: run straight stringers vs circles, or if needed like on fillets, a C or Z pattern. 3: increase your travel speed. 4:  weld farther away from the edge on thinner stock. 5: increase you  distance from gun tip to work slightly. 6: You may find .023 wire easier to work with on thinner steel, if you run out of wire it may pay to drop down to .023 wire for the next roll.We have students start out like you are doing and run plain beads on flat plate to get down the basics and learn consistency. You beads look very consistent, they are just a bit too hot. next are overlapping beads 1/2 on 1/2 off the last one. This lets you learn to aim and doesn't use up a ton of materials while learning. Next is lap joints, You have more material to act as a heat sink and you just have one edge to worry about. On 1/16" and smaller these can be tough. Next are T joints. Now you have one thin edge to work with. Next are outside corners, and finally but joints which are the hardest of all, especially with thin materials.  1/16" is about the thinnest I'd start out someone new on. 14 ga would be a slightly better choice for your machine. and give you a little more leeway on heat control. You are off to a good start, Keep it up.Jon 3/16' is way too heavy for that little machine. 1/8" would be a better choice to match the maximum output on that little HH140. It's easy to make "pretty" beads on heavier plate, but that really doesn't teach a student much. 14 ga is a nice compromise with a small 110v machine, Thinner than 1/8" so it's a bit easier to run, but still thin enough they have to learn some control..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 so much for the feedback guysDSW-  You are right, I was using the push method with cursive "e" pattern.  Also, I did not wait for the metal to cool off prior to running another beads thus causing the metal to warp pretty badly.  Now I understand after reading your comment that perhaps it is the reason why the weld beads penetrated to even underneath the work piece.  However, is it normal or okay to have beads penetrated to the underside of the work piece?   As of now, I just have the .030 wires, I will also get some .023 and try it out later on thinner materials.   As far as practice overlapping half on/half off, what do you mean by this?  Thanks again guys
Reply:A tiny bit of burn thru is ok, and tougher to avoid as you go thinner and thinner. When you are dealing with material 1/8" and over with bigger machines, having burn thru is something you try to avoid in general. It can get tough when you move on to but joints. There you want some burn thru on the edge so it looks like you have a slight bead on both sides. The back "bead" is usually smaller than the one you actually weld. This shows you have 100% penetration. With thicker materials you may have to gap the pieces to get full penetration, or bevel and make more than one pass. With stuff less than 1/8", you usually try and keep things tight and adjust the machine to limit penetration. There can be a fine line between to little penetration and too much.As far as 1/2 on 1/2 off, here's a quick pict I grabbed from someone elses thread.Notice how each bead lays partially on top of the one above it. The beads are run so you aim at the toe of the weld and over lap the previous one by 50%. This can be tough with thin material when trying to avoid too much heat. You may have to stop and cool between each bead possibly..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:I applaud you for jumping right into learning how to weld.  You sure picked a tough material to practice on. 16g sheet metal will require you to use a pretty low heat setting and a fairly low wire feed speed, yet you will have to move relatively quicker than you would on thicker metal.  If you can get ahold of some 3/16" coupons or scraps, you will find a much more forgiving puddle to learn to manipulate.  I agree that you should probably just run straight stringers or maybe a slight weave back and forth with the electrode.  This will keep your temp in the puddle a little cooler while you move, preventing burn through a bit more.  Practice makes perfect, so just keep burning metal and you will develop an eye for what the puddle is doing.  Good luck and post us some pics of your progress.
Reply:Quit screwing around an make something.Bubble gumTooth pixDuct tapeBlack glueGBMF hammerScrew gun --bad battery (see above)
Reply:It's obvious you can weld. Go build something.If "something" becomes critical, ask for advice. Have fun bro !Bubble gumTooth pixDuct tapeBlack glueGBMF hammerScrew gun --bad battery (see above)
Reply:Hi guys,I have been practicing on different thickness of steel and finally feel comfortable in building a small project (dice) using 1/8 inch 2x2 steel.  I did a small joint weld below to test the setting and here is how it looks.  I used the small push circle motion.  I will hopefully finish drilling the holes before I weld all sides together. Thanks for all the feedback guys.  It really had helped a lot. Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2 Attached Images
Reply:Not bad. There's a bit more weld on the corner than I'd prefer, but overall from what I can see the consistency is quite good for someone new.  I find on outside corners like this circles tend to deposit a bit more material then I like unless I'm moving super fast. Instead I prefer just a tiny bit of side to side motion if I feel the need to make sure I get both sides wetted in on 1/8", but the vast majority of the time I just run straight down the middle pushing the bead. This is usually using bigger .035 wire on 1/8" at the tech school, so if you are running smaller wire, it's possible to get away with a bit more motion..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