Newby Q: Where do you look?

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Hi...Still having fun with my stick welding practice and enclosed a couple pics.  Hope they come through.Quick question:  While welding, do folks look at and concentrate on the weld puddle or do you look in the direction of the seam where you want the rod to go?I seem to do one or the other and if I concentrate on one thing too long, the other goes wrong.  That is, if I concentrate on the weld pool, it comes out looking OK but, I end-up going off-course and make wavy welds.  When I look at where the rod is supposed to go, I get straight welds but, they are uneven thickness.Thanks for any help...Ray Attached Images
Reply:thanks for posting pics.... as for being able to watch everything? that comes with burning more and more and more and more and more and more rods...nothing fancy, just a few hot glue guns for metalwww.sicfabrications.com
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Reply:I may be splitting frog hairs but.... Originally Posted by Ray CHi... Hi! Still having fun with my stick welding practice and enclosed a couple pics.  Hope they come through. Yep, they did.Quick question:  While welding, do folks look at and concentrate on the weld puddle or do you look in the direction of the seam where you want the rod to go? Yes.I seem to do one or the other and if I concentrate on one thing too long, the other goes wrong.  That is, if I concentrate on the weld pool, it comes out looking OK but, I end-up going off-course and make wavy welds.  When I look at where the rod is supposed to go, I get straight welds but, they are uneven thickness.That's right.Thanks for any help...De nada.Ray
Reply:Originally Posted by welder_onethanks for posting pics.... as for being able to watch everything? that comes with burning more and more and more and more and more and more rods...
Reply:Originally Posted by Ray CAnybody know what kind of sheet metal I should use for holding 10 or 15 gallons of diesel?
Reply:Originally Posted by DSWSheetmetal is tough to stick weld. You'll have better luck with thicker material than you actually need for the diesel. Also you will quickly find that even though your welds LOOK solid, with all the start/stop points you'll have a few leaks where the diesel seeps out.
Reply:On your fuel tank if you use thick enough material, maybe 12 ga, and weld with 3/32 rod it should be fine.  I think migging the tank would be the worst since it is considered a cold process and it would be prone to leaks at the starts/stops and tig would require to have very clean material.  I weld on large oil tanks in the refineries and never have any leaks on my stick welds, so I believe with th proper technique you could acheive a leak proof tank.