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i follow weld joint. it is as straight as joint. not much call to weld on a surface with no line, groove, corner and to follow line
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some people just are better than others at torch cutting they move not only straight but smooth speed of motion. some welders are like star athletes (just better at it) they weld like they are a machine. welds straight and even (like machine did it)

 

Are you just running stringers for practice? If so put you a soap stone line down if you need a visual to follow.

 

The problem often isn't in trying to find a line to follow, it's more about hand steadiness in following the line or joint.

 

I have a natural shake so to speak. I've slowly learned to use it to my advantage, but not trying to bear down and eliminate it. Instead I relax and allow it to help a little with my weave. When I try and eliminate my shake, I actually make it worse and my bead shows it. When I relax my welding improves. When I was a punkin the old hands told me that I should have a loose enough grip on the stinger, that someone should be able to slap it out of my hand.

Edit...I assumed you meant stick welding, although I'm not completely sure now. Ha

 

Is this welding on table ? Position welding ? If you are on table resting arm on a piece of channel or 2x4 may help. Always do a dry run to see how to position your body , arm, hand, to be comfortable. If position welding, you can tack something to the material where you can rest your arm on.

 

I am just a beginner like you so take this for what it is worth. When I started learning to strike an arc and run some consistent beads I had tons of trouble with both. I finally started trying placing the rod in the stinger at different angles after I noticed on the 1000 videos I watched that many different angles were used by good welders. I finally found an angle that allowed my wrist to remain comfortable all the way along the bead as the electrode shortened. I did not have to force my wrist into position as the bead got longer and rod shorter. For me this made all the difference in both striking an arc and running more consistent beads. This was probably said lots of times in the videos, I don't know, or is basic welding 101 but it took me a long time to appreciate it.

gg

 

Mig or flux core here, not stick. Welding on a small table. I'm sort of OK if I can use my left hand as a brace but can't always do that. Maybe the particular joint hangs over the edge of the table or it's up high enough my brace hand is also in the air. I hadn't thought about tacking a rod to the piece then cutting it off and grinding it flat. I'll try to remember that.

My idea is a magnetic bottomed vertical (wood or metal) with a number of holes in it where I can stick a rod through at whatever height I need and use that as a brace/guide. That won't help if I'm not on the table but at least it's something. Beads over maybe a couple inches are killer for me both in terms of keeping it straight and keeping an even width.

 

You must learn to use the Force young Skywalker.

 

some good tips here so far.

one which helps me is dry run the joint with your two handed "grip"......... if you can't move smoothly along the joint then reposition and do more dry runs.

often times if you start in a slightly uncomfortable position then you finish in a comfortable position.

if you have ever shot pool, billiards etc you know how your mid to end of joint hand position will feel.

just some thoughts : )

 

Body position is key get as comfortable as you can before striking an arc and do shorter weld runs

 

"Shorter weld runs".....I have a question about that. I tried it on a recent piece but when I finished the full length, it looked like crap due to the bunch of short runs. So I had to grind. Is there any way to smoothly blend or feather in the start of the next run into the end of the first? Or is that just how it is and nothing can be done other than learn to do a long run.

 

Blending your restarts takes a little practice but once you get it it will look good

 

Any suggestions on how to do it? Or just practice?

 

Mostly practice and grind the weld back to start new weld not a lot just enough to get smooth start

 

JD1,

In all honesty I've got to tell you that your idea for an "adjustable support rod" to rest your hand on is (IMPO) a bad idea. It will simply become a crutch for you that besides limiting your range of smooth motion will hold you back from realizing your full potential (and versatility) at laying down long, smooth, high quality beads.

You need to learn to weld with only one hand on the gun. Trying to use your off-hand to steady the gun is seriously counter productive. Beside just burning that hand up (which is a lot of times the reason people have to stop welding before they've gone as far as they need to go or could have gone), more often than not it will only allow you to go only a short distance before it'll put you in a physical bind that'll cause you to have to stop the arc so you can reposition your hands.

Welding one handed is no where near as hard as most people seem to want to assume it is. Believe me it doesn't take any kind of super human strength or skill to do it. All though there's definetly some "tips and tricks" to doing it, it's much more of a mental game than any thing else.

Some of those "tips and tricks".....

As poster "hillbillyfab" has already alluded to in post #5, don't bear down or tense up in an effort to hold absolutely steady because that just makes things way worse (not to mention being extremely tiring over the course of the day). You need to keep your hand, fore and upper arm just as relaxed as possible and carry the weight of the gun in your shoulder and upper back.

Learning to use the trigger lock function is absolutely essential. If you have to hold the trigger down continuously while laying a bead it works against you in two ways. One, it causes some of the muscles in your forearm to have to remain tensed up and secondly it causes you to have to hold on to the gun tighter and in a limited number of ways. It'll rob you of at least 50% of the smooth range of motion of your wrist joint.

And a side note concerning "trigger lock".... If you ever run into some one who tells you that "trigger lock" is just for lazy, inexperienced welders who really don't know what they're doing well, do your self a favor and take every thing else they try and tell you about welding with a large degree of skepticism. Better yet, if circumstances allow, just tell them to go away because they're a f*ck'n idiot.

 

I wondered if that "crutch" idea might not be the case. However, as I mentioned, it seems like some physical and/or nerve deterioration will prevent me from one-handing a nice looking weld bead. Also, I checked and my gun (Lincoln Magnum 100L) doesn't have a trigger lock. I'd try it if it did.

 

JD1,

Unless you've got something like the onset of Parkinson's or MS I think you're worries are unfounded. I'm 58 (which in it's self kind of implies a certain level of physical and/or nerve deterioration) and I can do it.

Concerning "Trigger Lock"... the trigger lock I'm talking about is an electronic function the on/off switch for which is usually found on the wire feeder unit. The exact way it works varies some depending mostly it seems on which company manufactured it.

For instance... On the ESAB units I've been using the past year with the trigger lock function switched on nothing happens when you first pull the trigger. It's only when you let go of it that things start to happen. And then the arc stays on until you depress the trigger again.

On the Miller Machines I've used in the past the way it worked was that with trigger lock switched on you had to pull the trigger (which immediately caused it to start welding) and then keep the trigger depressed for at least 3 seconds (but no more than 7 seconds) before being able to let go of it and be able to keep welding. If you didn't time it just right and let go off the trigger in that 4 second window between 3 and 7 seconds after starting it wouldn't stay engaged. That may sound complicated but it's really not that hard to get use to doing (kind of by instinct).

 

Curious. I'll inspect my Lincoln manual and if needed email Lincoln and ask.

 

JD1,

Just tell me which Lincoln machine (or power source / feeder combination) you're using and it will be easy to look it up online and see if you've got a trigger lock function on it. I looked up your Magnum 100L gun and after seeing that it was only rated for a 40% duty cycle @ 100 amps I'd have to think that you've maybe only got a smaller more basic machine that's not going to have a lot of the extra bells and whistles like a trigger lock function. Also a lot of times, "trigger lock" is an optional feature that you have to pay a little extra for to get. I've seen quite a few feeders over the years that had the place on the panel marked for it but didn't actually have the switch for it installed.

Also some times they kind of "hide it" from you and don't have it labeled very clearly. A good example of that being the case is these ESAB 304 mobile feeders I'd been using the past year. The toggle switch for trigger lock on/off is the top one in the upper right inside the drive roll compartment. The toggle switch is marked with a pair of vertical lines with an arrowhead at opposite ends for "off" and a pair of vertical lines with arrowheads at both ends for "on". I've been puzzling over that bit of pictographic labeling for the past year and am still just as clueless as to why they would do it that way.

 

Nothing in the manual about it so I emailed Lincoln. Here's their response: "The SP135 Plus does not have trigger interlock capabilities." The trigger on the gun is annoyingly touchy. I can't count how many times I've had to break or cut off an inch or two when my glove bumped it.

 

There's not much hope you're ever going to find a trigger interlock function on that class of basic wire welding machine.