they look pretty good to me.  on the ends, you might want to start letting off the pedal about 3 or 4 dabs from the end.  if you need practice you can just start an inch from the end and practice tapering amps and adding a tad more filler metal on the very end while you taper amps....good job tho

good point Martin.  I think the spray transfer lessens the need to stay on leading edge.  I will be doing cut and etch video pretty soon so I will pay close attention that..I am not sure inductance is set by trim....I  think trim is more arc length

those settings seem close enough to work although you might bump up to 24v.  could be too long a stickout or gun angle. 

Matt Hayden

hey thanks for the info. good to know I am making some progress

3/32" 2% lanthanated.  A 1/16" might be a better choice for a butt joint in this thickness but it can be done with either size.

That particular fab shop took great pains to separate carbon from stainless work. Even to the extent they built a wall and color coded all tools. Red for carbon and green for ss.

Always more to learn.

Aluminum seems to want to take more filler rod than steel but I think the technique varies from one situation to another.  there are times when I push quite a bit of filler rod into the puddle.  Other times I use the light tapping action.  It depend a lot on size of filler rod used and joint type.

For example, on a thin butt weld, much less filler is added than for a thicker fillet weld.

hope this helps

worm hole tracks can be tough to diagnose.  Sometimes its moisture in the flux so a slightly longer stickout can help in letting it heat up more before depositing into the puddle.  That also brings up the point that keeping a spool on the machine for a long time be a problem as the flux can absorb moisture.  going up or down a half a bit on voltage seems to work sometimes.  But when you correct the issue, you are never really 100% sure what did the trick.  thats my experience anyway.