How to Run a Bead of Weld

Video Transcript

" Hello! My name is Mac and on behalf of expertvillage.com I am going to give you some tips and techniques on welding. Now I would like to talk to you about running a stringer bead or a bead of weld. After striking an arc a student will just simply move in the direction of travel that is most convenient to that person. A left-handed welder would strike an arc on his right side and move towards the left. A right-handed welder would strike an arc on his left and move towards the right. This is so that the puddle stays in front of the welder’s eyes at all times and he can see what he is doing. We do not use any circular motions or zig-zags or whips in an order or up or down or anything like that. We just simply want to hold a proper arc length all the time, move in a straight line and make a bead of weld approximately one and a half times the outside diameter at the end of the electrode. Straight forward burn the electrode off, feed it into the puddle as you go, watch your speed of travel, fuel for your speed of travel with your hands. Do not rely on your eyes to tell you how fast you are going. You want a nice uniform bead of weld. Even height, even width, nice cosmetic looking bead of weld. When you are done, chip this slag off of it, and take a look at it. Do more, separate them with about a three eighths of an inch and run more beads of weld consecutively practice it, practice it over and over until you can do it well."