I finally stopped fighting the 6010 root pass and started letting it rip

Spent 2 years babying the arc and tying myself in knots with tight arcs and slow travel in Gary, Indiana. A foreman watched me struggle and said "just jam it in there and walk away," so I tried it on a 6-inch schedule 80 and the penetration was way cleaner. Anyone else find that stepping back from perfect technique actually fixed their welds?

2 comments

2 Comments

victor_adams24d ago

Tbh I read a welding forum thread last month where this old timer from Ohio said the exact same thing, something about "the rod knows where it wants to go if you let it." I tried it on a 2 inch line at a plant in Chicago, kept the arc long and just pushed forward at a steady clip, and the bead laid in way flatter than my usual tight whip. The spatter was worse for sure, but the cleaning time was half of what I normally dealt with. I think we overthink the angles and the pauses, when really the 6010 just needs a confident hand and a fast move.

rileynelson22d ago

Remember watching a buddy of mine run beads on a grain bin out in Iowa, he never even looked at his angles, just locked his elbow and went, told me the rod drags itself if you trust it... and @victor_adams is right about that confident hand thing, his welds came out straighter than anything I've done with all my fussing.