Is it a 75 amp machine? If it is you will find it hard to generate a good weld puddle on anything but thin sheet. I had a 75 amp and it was nice for sheet metal, but unpredictable on anything much more than 1/16". If you are real careful about it you can lay multiple beads down for added strength. However, it's tough to put those narrow beads down exactly overlapping each other. I looks amost as though the puddle was just not flowing very well from the jpeg. I'm sure some of the more experienced will provide some answers to this post.

keep a steady hand and watch where you're going. center the wire right where the 2 pieces meet. slow and steady is the key to self-shielded flux core.

It's a little bumpy on top but that's a trivial complaint and will fix itself with practice.
The top edge looks like you might be burying a little slag, break it apart to get the real story. If it breaks in the weld bead you've done fine. If it breaks down one edge (often in some foamy looking stuff) you need to get more heat on that surface to improve fusion there.
Bill

Keep practicing at controlling your travel speed until the bead is uniform. Then re-evaluate the finished weld.

Having the ability to maintain a consistent travel speed will make it a little easier to correct any technique related items.

Get comfortable and USE TWO HANDS. Start with short beads and before making the weld, make sure you can travel the distance of the intended weld length.

It is also important to maintain the same length of wire sticking out from the contact to while welding. Changes in the wire stickout will change the characteristics of the arc.

For around the house purposes, the welds that you show in the pictures would be fine. There is nothing wrong with them for most applications and over time they will improve as you weld more.

Have a nice day and have fun

Gerald Austin
http://www.weldinginspectionsvcs.com

Thanks for the ideas.

I can tell by the bead, it's not going perfectly straight, steady hands will help that. Right now, I'm still getting over the initial "wow, i'm melting steel" feeling, once that passes, I should be able to concentrate a little better.

bzzzzzzzz,
To lay down another bead, do I just start in the same place and "re-melt" the bead already there?

Right now, I'm doing a 'drag' method, and peeking over top of the gun, and I'm able to see pretty well, using a auto-darkening hood. I read that when using flux-core, it helps sometimes to use a light on the workpiece to see through the smoke/slag. Would this help any do you think?

Thanks again,
PJ

One item missed by most is that you should never weld over the as-received surface of hot-rolled carbon steels. With a grinder or abrasive flap disk, remove the mill scale to bright metal then fit-up and weld. You'll be surprised how much better the weld bead will look. This is especially important when using GMAW in the "short arc" mode. The only other tip is to make sure your weaving is uniform, i.e., move to the same place with each excursion. This is easy on the upper side as you move to the edge of the top plate. You can practice by scribing a line on the bottom plate at a distance equal to the thickness of the top plate. Then simply oscillate between the line and the top edge of the plate. The only thing you have to worry about then is the proper travel to make the weld very uniform, without melting off the top edge too much. Good Luck!