An old welding trick from the 60s no one told us about

The secret to this is to turn your amperes right up, and weld for 2 seconds, pull away for 2 or 3 seconds, and just repeat.

I figured this out a long time ago.

By using a very hot arc, on thin sheet steel, your setting up a full penetration weld, with the time to melt into a small area, so the weld pool does not heat up and expand into a large are and get blown in by the arc force and gravity, and your balancing that with the weld pools cool down time, the slag remaining hot enough - it's still quite red - for an easy arc re-establisment, and reliquifaction of the slag, so it gets pushed aside for the weld metal deposition - from an already fairly hot rod tip....

Once you get the technique down pat from practice, it's easy to do emergency welding repairs to cracked bicycle frames, as well as functional structural welds on thin steel tubular structures etc...

This whole technique is timing the arc strikes to work with the heat input and heat dissipation and all the elements in this process.

Sort of like waltzing - 1, 2, 3 -- 1, 2, 3 etc.

1. Strike the arc and run the weld.

2. Stop the weld, lift the rod and allow the weld to cool just enough.

3. Position your rod back over the optimum starting position.

1. Strike the weld and weld for another second or so.

1. 2. 3. - 1. 2. 3. etc.