Bead placement issues....

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I'm curranty in my SMAW module in a AWS cert course.  I'm in the overhead position, welding 3/8th in A36 mild steel with E7018 and E6010 5/32 electodes.  The root passes are coming in fine, placement is fine.  #2 and #3 are ok too, my problems start when i get to #5.  Whatever i'm doing, by time i get up to #6, there is almost enough room for a 7th pass, so the beads are stacking up to much on one another.  When i go to lay down #5, i'm lined up ok, but when i'm finished, i'm almost completely covering #4, hence making i pretty big valley to fill, which is no good.   Are there any tips/ advice to proper placement in this situation?  (the problem is more with the E7018 than the E6010, BTW).Thanks!
Reply:Atten Moderators, i guess this should be moved to the other forum, General Welding discussion!  Move if need be!Thanks,Matt
Reply:Ok,  one word of advice that I found important, you must not exceed 3 times the electrodes diameter with your weaves.  On 5/32 this means, if 5/32" is like 0.15625", not including the flux, the maximum weave is .46875", which is just a little more than 7/16" and less than 1/2".   You should find the face opening of your joint to exceed 1/2".  Probablem is differnt folks do their passes in differnt, and I cant visualize your exact bead laydown.   So I apologize if im making assumptions incorrectly.  You will need to lay a two pass cap.  One on the left one on the right.  Will will really need the two fill passes below that to tend towards one side and then the other.  I hope this helps you.  Otherwise, anohter thing that might help you is if there is a valley in the center of your passes, slow down in the center, just a tad.  Hope this helps.  Good luckCHRIS
Reply:I forgot to mention, i'm running stringers.  But i see what you mean.  I'm working right to left (as i'm left handed), and doing 6passes.  These are fillet welds in the overhead position, so #3, and #6 are spose to penetrate into the top peice of metal, so basically the problem i'm having is #6 not coming in contact with the top peice.Thanks for the info,Matt
Reply:You may be dropping your hand a little .Its easy to do on the position you are welding.Take a little break between passes and consentrate on keeping atight arc gap.Stringers are what you are suppose to run ,doingthis type of test. Also ,i am right handed and i weld right to left,used to weld for 20 years left to right,until i took a pipe cert.class and the instructor told me to switch directions.He said you need to see where you are going not where you have been.Now DONTtry switching while doing this test,but try it next time you weld some scrap.I showed a Lefty at work this and she welds left to right now and says she can see whats going on a lot better.
Reply:Originally Posted by LowlyOilBurnerAtten Moderators, i guess this should be moved to the other forum, General Welding discussion!  Move if need be!Thanks,Matt
Reply:This may help a little. I have always tried to pay close attention to where the toes of the bead will fall when I weld in order to avoid creating "valleys" that may not fuse well. When I get to the cap, I try to make the toe of the weld I am running, tie in on the highest spot of the previus bead. I have a couple of illustrations on my website at http://www.weldinginspectionsvcs.com/beadSequence.htm and also this one which shows an actual cap. http://www.weldinginspectionsvcs.com/WeldCapProfile.htmHave a nice daygerald AustinLast edited by gaustin; 08-09-2005 at 10:12 PM.Have a nice dayhttp://www.weldingdata.com/