After getting a high success rate of arc welding initiation, you should move on to the basic parts of actual welding. Once thing that you need to do once the arc is struck is keep the arc held fairly close. The distance you should have should not be any greater than the diameter of the metal part of the electrode. This is hard at first. Keep in mind that no one is standing over your shoulder to give you an exact measurement of your arc distance and you have a lot of forgiveness right now. So if you get a little long or a little short (likely too long than too short), it’s not a disaster.
The tendency is as soon as you think the arc welding is struck you will likely want to rush forward stringing along little globs of metal. But you need to hold the welding rod steady and move forward slowly as the metal flows out WIDER than the electrode. It’ll begin to burn down as the puddle develops and you’ll need to constantly push the welding rod down on the metal. When you first start to weld, you can see the puddle at the front edge of the puddle. The puddle itself is divided into two parts. These parts are very difficult at the beginning to differentiate.
If the rod angle and arc length is held correctly, there will be a part of the puddle that seems to swirl around to the back edge of the puddle while the primary part directly under the arc is slightly different in color. If you cannot see these or have difficulty seeing the puddle at all, change to a lighter shade on your helmet until you can see the difference. The swirling part of the puddle is actually the molten slag that is rising and separating from the weld puddle.
The slag can both protect and destroy the weld. When forced to the rear, it acts as a protective barrier. When forced in front of the puddle due to improper rod angle, it can get trapped underneath, along the sides or in the puddle itself.
