Yep but he doesnt elaborate.He just demos and walks away.And dont give many demos.I am willing to try a hotter amperage.What would you recommend?But it is E7018 for sure he wants us running vertical cap pass on and all they keep are 1/8 rods.Thxs for the help!

If your running the 1/8" 7018 I'm thinking 115-130 as well. I do it around 115-120 myself. You have to think of this though, if your hotter you have to move quicker. One thing I've learned from bouncing around different machines, you can set them all at 120 but you have to be aware and figure out if that is actually 120, hotter, cooler. This is where knowing the weld pool and how fast the metal melts or how slowly, which all comes from hood time. What I did to practice my cap. Go out back where everybody throws their old scrap 3G plates. Pick a few out of there and bring them inside. Tack one up in the 3G and start running cap passes. Start on the farthest edge on the left or right and follow the edge. I use a weave pattern, like a Z but not so spread out, a tight Z if you will and pause on either side and come across the center quickly. Then do cap passes and cover up the whole plate, start at the bottom and go to the top.

When you run the cap on these throw out plates concentrate on making the width consistant. Don't draw lines to guide yourself, watch the weld pool and remember where you were at the last weld pool. When I first started I would do a count, pause 1-2-3, pause 1-2-3. Stop and look at it, looks to wide shorten the count. That worked well when I first started and you'll eventually loose it as you get better and start to notice weld pool over slag pool. I've told several guys about my little training sessions with scrap weld plates on the cap and they have not listened.....some are still trying to do a good cap pass after several months. While your playing with the cap pass, turn up your machine 10-15 or 20 amps. See how it runs, check the spatter on the plate and tap it with your chipping hammer, see if it comes off with more difficulty. Then turn your machine down 10-20 amps below see how it reacts. I would practice like this for about an hour or so each day, using scrap plates. Got real good at running cap passes straight up and dead even on width. I'd run a plate out and if I screwed up it would get covered with cap passes on both sides. Turning the machine up and down and even going crazy and bumping it up to 155 amps with a 1/8" 7018 will give you an idea on how it will react, what's the metal do? how is the slag? how is the spatter? All things that will help you learn.

When you find the right setting your slag should want to peel right off by itself, your weld spatter should brush off or you should be able to slide your chipping hammer across and it will fall off. If your to hot you'll have to beat the spatter off or it won't come off, the slag will make you think your gonna need dynamite. On your filler passes. Your gonna want your final filler pass just a tiny bit above flush on your plate, maybe 1/16th of an inch before you do your cap pass. Then you can start a zig zag and pause on the left, quick through center and then pause on the right and repeat. I thought about the video's myself but what it comes down to is tons of hood time. What I can't stress enough to some of the guys I go to school with, pay attention, watch the weld, watch your arm, hand movements. Watch your rod angle, not only up and down but side to side on the bevel. A little to much to the left and the next thing you have is undercut and a worthless plate. Listen to the arc, play around on a plate and long arc it, see how the sound changes, what do you notice about the weld when you long arc a 7018 rod?? There is something that happens when you try and long arc a 7018, that I will leave you to learn about. Then once you see all the things not to do, what it should sound like when it's not right you'll have a better understanding of what is right. Doe's this make sense??

Good luck to ya and keep at it!

Shawn

First he had us run on one side of a 4in wide 6in long plate with stringers using E6010 rods.Second he had us run other side stringers with E7018 rods.Third he had us to run one side stringers overlapping with e6010.Fourth he had us do the same with e7018.5th practice t-joints flat position running 3 passes with e7018 and that was all as far as hands on my first semester which was the summer semester.Basically at that point i was out of the metal the school furnished me which was 6 plates 4in wide and 6in long.I Spent the rest of that semester just continously running beads on top of each other on 1 T-joint over and over.The summer semester was only like 3 months long and i was out of metal and on that  since midways through the semester and doing that 1 t-joint over and over.He keep saying metal should be coming anytime he put order in for it.Id ask every week "is the metal in?" but never came.Everything seemed cool until some students from previous semesters was coming in that graduated and receive their certificates and practicing after failing welding test they suppose to already have learned before graduating.Then i realized something aint righ there i got no metal,& previous graduates failing weld test after completing the course.This semester i started going to local steel distributor and purchasing metal to practice on.About a handful of fellow students has also started doing this themselves since they really want to learn also.If we hadnt we'd been out of metal 1/3-2/3's of this semester.We get carbon steel sheets 8in wide 4ft long for $15 of some scrap metal the distributor had alot left over from a past deal.At start of this semester halfway through the first week after first 2 days of sitting around waiting for the instructor to come out and give me some guidence on what to be practicing on and never happening i went to him and asked can you demo something i can be practicing on?He demo'ed the verticle up.Been working on it since and damn the semester is over.I got this week left to practice on that cap before out for the holidays then return for 3rd semester.If i dont get that cap this week im gonna have to walk away from it without certification and just jump to mig and also possibly stick pipe next semester so i can get some practice in on other processes.I'm afraid if i just stick to this stick verticle up and failing i might waste too much college time when i should be learning other processes.

I tried the verticle stringers a couple times and they looked awfull.My weave cap was looking halfway decent so jumped right back to it hoping to get it down quicker that starting over learning stringers verticle up.I think your advice might have been very helpful since i always have undercut so maybe im not pausing quite long enough and just need to look closely and learn how to tell when it has filled by watching the puddle before moving to the other side.Thxs for your help!

E6010 runs great on roots when on electrode negative.

The keyhole is very easy to control.... easier than DCEP.  Internal undercut is also easier to prevent.

Lincoln "Welding Pressure Pipe Lines & Piping Systems" literature states "Welding DC- on the root pass will not be harmful to either mechanical or metallurgical properties."

It also lists specific recommended procedures for DC- on roots.

I can attest is has excellent operator appeal.... given a choice, I prefer DC- on roots.