Mig weld penetration.

[MAC702]

The bead will be a mixture of the parent metals and the filler metal (wire.)

With the TIG and Oxy/Fuel processes, you can weld without filler in some circumstances. The bead is very small because you aren't adding anything.

[Jeelock]

Gotcha. Thanx Mac.

[Sberry]

I see someone hit on fusion vs penetration. Penetration is mainly a function of joint design. I leave gap for small wire feed a lot of the time, melting the edges and in to a c hole sort of and filling between the pieces. I noticed it in welding school, some never seemed to watch for the melting.

[Sberry]

[Sberry]

Ok, did the pics post? This was sposed to be pic 1. This was the face. This and first 2 pics above are the same joint. Welded from one side and I intentionally leave a little booger so the set up could be seen. Pic 3rd pic is the backside showing full penetration. Pic 4 is fusion, a simple fillet with it all melted together. I will see if I can find the root pics which was 3 beads from the machine setup, very first bead was from the chart and this second was my set. The last pic above was plate fit for full pen, simply left a gap to fill and the edges melt easy.
at the time didn't really mean these to be poster shots, just simple demo and test to see what kind of power the machine had.

[weldaway]

To the OP. Your picture as stated towards the beginning shows that the two pieces are welded together with good penetration on each end, but the weld was bridged! I would agree that with the amps you have you would need to shrink the size, but then focus on making sure you see the two pieces at a 90 melting where they meet. That joint penetration makes for a strong weld. In watching people stack dimes, it looks like there was time spent whipping the gun, which is fine, but the heat and strength is in the outside edges. Do not take that as a jab! Just a piece of advice as asked for. For home use what you have is perfectly fine.
To clarify in case I did not make sense. The weld in a more perfect world would look more like a triangle, but with a radius at the end of the penetration. When I say triangle keep in mind it is simply for visualizing. PM me if I can help explain anything further! Happy welding sir.

[Sberry]

The pic with the end grain shot needs a little work. Not much I weld needs to be perfect but melting my way out is a habit. I believe one of the other guys comment on it. Needs a narrower bead with less more refined movement to organize the grain structure. This should have scale removed but this is super fused.

[Sberry]

The beads in question from the cross section could go in to the root in more orderly rounded fashion with energy in a bit smaller more profile bead. More true fillet. I see the right hand side of that coupon looked better, bet the plate may have warmed from the first bead.

[Sberry]

I try to run a rod or 2 or even a little wire when I can just for the practice. I went out to a job, was by myself maybe and first thing got off to burning some holes in it. Had a dirtyu hood, maybe needed glasses machine running like crap and some weird spot and I aint ran a rod for months,,, ha. . The machine ran ok when I fired it up but by the time it needed to work didnt run so well. I fix it up, clean my glasses and get some fresh rods and was a different story, ran a couple beads fixing the machine nd made a world of difference.

[Sberry]

Where guys get real good is when they have a chanceto practice by running the same joints over and over. I was working for a major outfit builds big bridges. The crew they put together really refined the procedyure and was aoo out of position full pen tested stuff hanging off the edge but we do some of the same joints over and over and the quality got so good they send the guys from AWS down on occasion to take a look. Innershield didnt have to stop and change a rod so could really fill consistant for long time. On some pipe joints know where they gonna pull the samples. Can organize some of the grain structure to some extent in a place where its gonna be tested.