stick welding 1/16" steel to 3/16" steel

by Bob
(San Clemente, CA)

I find when I weld 1/16" steel tubing to 3/16" flat steel I usually blow a hole through the tube. Any tips on how to prevent that? I set the welder on AC on 65 amps. That seems to work when butt welding 1/16 tubing to 1/16 tubing but not when I add the 3/16 plate. Would it be easier to oxy-acet gas weld this?

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One way is to weld a bead around it first only on the plate without melting the tube...then the thicker plate is preheated and the next bead usually goes much better.

another way is to angle the rod almost straight into the plate so that the majority of heat is transferred to the thick plate and just let the puddle run up to the thinner tube.

still another method is to keep and extra rod in the other hand and feed it into the tube side to cool it off.