Thread: Advice needed T-Joint

mate, it sounds like you've got a clue what's going on already. The issue is that the work is cold at the beginning and there's not enough heat to melt down into the corner. I suspect your arc is too long and this is letting the arc (and weld) wander to the top piece and letting slag run down into the void. It's unfortunate you haven't got the welder to experiment with any more, but what I would do is start off, pause as you were doing, but keep a nice short arc, right in the corner of the fillet. Once you're sure you're getting some penetration in the corner right at the start then weave a bit to broaden the puddle then move on as before. Your weld looks great otherwise. Cheers - Mick

Thanks for the response. I did try keeping the arc really short but what happens is the pool builds and the rod gets sumerged. The welder goes BZZZZZ and I have to slowly retract the rod which makes the arc longer. If I don't the rods sticks.

Also if I start right at the corner, it will burn through the corner. How do you guys avoid that? Cheers Mike

There's a couple of other recent threads worth reading if you haven't already:

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f160/a...chines-134757/

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f160/p...i-rods-124022/

these have some hints and things to try with different combinations.

2 things I would try apart from my previous suggestion is:

• strike your arc about say 0.5 to 1cm into your weld area, keep a very short arc in the heart of the fillet and quickly back track to your edge, then weld back over your start area and continue on as normal. This'll heat up the problem area without putting all the heat on the edge, and will also help to start filling the problematic corner.
• try reversing polarity and see if that makes any difference.

cheers

- Mick