If I understand what your asking? I'd say Fast get that rod in their quik if by long arcing you mean, getting the rod lit and than gettin closer to your pipe you need to get in their quik.. I personally don't do it that way...lets say I'm going to weld to the left ...I would start a little left scratch to the right and weld back to the left (sorta) Your basically covering up were you first made contact with the work piece but you don't want to start so far away that you can't get back over it before it cools...if that makes sense? Thats how i do it anyway kinda harder to explain than it is to visualize
maybe that your just spending to much time on your starts? Its really just a get it lit cover your tracks and get to moving uphill
hope that helps?!
I've been at this awhile but not as long as others,coming up on 20 years and will just say that murex rod to me is the absolute best for welding pipe,apparantly murex is out of business according to the local weld supplier.We have excalibur in our shop now and both the lead man and I do not particularly care for it because it has the porosity issues on the starts,the lead man likes to "restart" a rod that's partially been burnt but I NEVER restart a rod unless it's murex and even then if it's important I start with a fresh one.I've welded alot of joints with excalibur and haven't had a bad shot but,I don't get the warm fuzzy feeling from it because YOU HAVE TO CHECK the starts,murex I never worried about.I've found the 3/32 excalibur and atom arc to be about the same,porosity and it spits off more will nots.1/8 inch in both is better than 3/32 I think.
Since it sounds like your somewhat new to the game I'll give you a tip.Load your stinger with the rod pointing down toward the handle in the 45 degree slot(unless your using a worthless shortstub,then bend it down),coil up with elbow high ,strike your arc and drag down to the start point,you'll start kind of uncomfortable but as the rod is consumed you have the perfect rod angle(almost automatic) and it will get real comfortable about a half inch into the travel.With not much practice it is easy to achieve a complete bottom to top(6-12) bead without stopping,same goes for the other side of your coupon if your ambidextrious.Welding is a whole lot like burning with a torch the more comfortable you are the better the end product will be.
Make sure to get it filled out to about 1/16th from being full,perhaps your porosity if coming from trying to fill to much with not enough heat,get it full and burn a slick one on there with the width bead you want,grinding dust should be a non issue on a test coupon,something like t bar stiffners on a flat floor plate,or floor plate butt welds yes an issue where the dust is concentrated and thick.But an in position coupon I'd say no way,anything there is of no consequence and should burn to smithereens.