Vertical Stick Welding was Buying New MIG

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Been welding up a trailer using a cutdown house trailer frame.  I mentioned earlier that my vertical fillet welds using 7018 were not pretty, ie lumpy.  I took a sample of the steel, an 8"x3"x3/16" I-beam and set up a practice panel.  After an earlier suggestion to go to a smaller rod I ran some beads in the vertical position using 1/8" 6013, 7018, and 7018AC rods both with DCEN and DCEP  at 120-130 amps with varying arc force.Sorry I can't send pix, my ISP is too slow.  the 6013 made great beads vertical up and down, similar to the MIG beads at 105 amps and 0.030 wire.  No matter how I tried I couldn't get the 7018 not to run and actually got burn throughs a couple of times.  I tried vertical whipping, running down across and back up, and different arc force and never came up with a method of getting good welds with 7018.  I can do fine with 87018 flat and horizontal just not vertical.Any ideas?Steve
Reply:you could always drop down a rod size, 3/32 would be plenty big to weld this, at around 80 amps...btw turn the arc force all the way down or off if you can, it will help
Reply:Yeah 3/32 is all you want for that thickness if i was using 1/8 on that thickness i would be going vertical down
Reply:I was taught only to run uphill with 7018 in a weave motion. It's actually a Z. Hold the sides for a second and travel one rod length up. Once you get this down, you can just watch the puddle and you don't need to count or hold the sides as long or more or etc etc. We also run ours in DCEP
Reply:I have been playing around all afternoon putting down/up beads and I definitely noticed the beads getting better with the smaller rod and lower heat.
Reply:for 3/16 steel 120-130 amps is way too hot for vertical 1/8 ...try it at 100..or the 3/32 at 75...the heat rises and you need to  run cooler..
Reply:1/8 7018 should be 110-120 ish3/32 7018 75-90 is what i run depending on what I'm doing and on what.
Reply:Lots of good advice - thanks to all.My (incorrect) inclination was to run a bigger rod and more heat and tun the rod fast which wasn't working.  Probably another problem I am dealing with is that this metal itself is kind of gnarly ans seems harder to weld than new unused stuff.  It is partially covered with what is probably a tar based undercoating in some areas and is just plain rusted in others while some of it is painted.  I've tried to clean the area to be welded as good as I can but at time the puddle or rod spits back at me.  I have also used mineral spirits and naptha which don't always help.I am thinking that my final weld on the trailer will be a really good one,
Reply:3/32 6011, vertical uphill,weave or zig zag.  It's a "fast freeze" rod that's made to burn through paint,rust or what have you.  Good luck.                                               Steve