practice practice practice

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starting out:second bead:third bead:4th:5th:
Reply:the last bead was higher amps, lower wire speed.seems to be a better bead, but more spatter.
Reply:You are having issues with consistency as well as not being able to track straight. Your beads also get progressively shorter each time you do one..You don't list any settings, machine info or material thickness, so it's tough to give you any other info..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 have the settings written down somewhere. I'll post up when I find it As for tracking straight, I have a hard time seeing anything outside of the puddle. Even with the hood set at shade 10.
Reply:Are you pushing or dragging the weld? I get a lot of students who want to sit behind the gun and try to see thru the gun while welding. Unfortunately the arc messes with their x-ray vision, and it doesn't work well. You need to position yourself so you can look down the barrel of the gun while welding so you can see what is going on.If you can't see well, we need to work on that. 1st start off with making sure the cover lenses inside and out are cleaned well, or better yet replaced with new cover lenses. Smoke and crud build up on the lenses and they get scratched relatively easily. Next we need to find out if the shade is dark enough for what you are doing. This is easy if you have an AD hood with adjustable shades. With a fixed shade hood, you will need to change filters. Many times the glare of the arc actually blinds guys because the shade is too light. Going to a darker lens actually lets them see more, not less like they expect. Last would be how good your eyes are. If we haven't solved the vision problem with the 1st few steps, position, clean lenses and trying different shades, a trip to the eye doc for an eye exam is in order. Don't have him just check your "normal" vision, but also explain to him what you are doing and have him check your vision at say 15-18" as well. You may find your normal vision is just fine, but you may need cheaters or a close up prescription. It's not a bad idea to get your eyes checked regularly anyways. As far as a straight line, often we'll give them a piece of soap stone so they can draw a straight line to follow on blank plate until they get used to what is going on. Once they get the 1st bead down, then all they have to do is follow the one they did before. Your 1st bead wasn't too bad, but then you started to get off with bead #2. Bead 3 made it worse. You managed to get it sort of straightened out with bead 4, but then you went the other direction with number 5. I often see students with this same issue when they move on to joints. They say they can't really see where they are going, so they put the weld in the wrong spot, say too high or low on the upper or lower piece. If that's the case we need to go back to step one above and go thru all this again to find the issues and correct them.Also note "cheap" hoods are notorious for poor optics, especially AD hoods. You'd be surprised how many times simply giving someone my Miller hood will suddenly clear things up over say their HF cheapy. It also doesn't have to be a high dollar hood either. I often get the same response when I hand guys my old school, large window fixed shade Jackson as well. Surprising thing is than many can see really well with it, and it usually has a shade 13 lens in it. Color and clarity are super and it costs  1/10th what my Miller does..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:Close up vision is perfect,Pushing left to right(left handed) I will try leaning my head lower to the right. I may be too over top of everything.I will crank the hood to 13 too.Settings:Miller 211.030 solidC25@20CFH30A 110 outlet1/8 hot rolled (ground shiny)Bead settings in order(wire speed/amp(thickness)7/506/406/407/40(faster travel)7.5/40(more spatter)