Shadowing Practice: WELDING DEFECTS!! Porosity, Arc Strikes, Undercut - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hola, buenos dias.
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Bienvenidos para weld .com.
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Oh, wait, sorry.
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Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of weld .com.
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Today we're gonna talk about discontinuities.
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So it's gonna be the first video of a series
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and we're just gonna go through and take you step by step and we're gonna address different weld discontinuities, how to avoid them, what they are,
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common mistakes involved with them.
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Note that a welding discontinuity does not automatically call for a rejection okay
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so while all defects are discontinuities not all discontinuities are well defects
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so depending on
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which code book you're working with you are a lot of a certain amount of undercut per linear inch
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you're allowed a certain amount of porosity per diameter and linear inch
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so there's just different things and it all depends on
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which code you're working with i don't want to get into the specifics of it
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because if i say one thing somebody's going to say well that's not how it is in my code
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and this is just a general weld discontinuities how to identify them
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and then how to avoid them in the future
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so we're going to go ahead
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and get right into it probably the most we're going to address the three most common today
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which is undercut porosity and arc strikes
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so we're going to start there they're pretty basic we're going to show you how to avoid them
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and what exactly what they are okay
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so the first one we're going to talk about is undercut
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so undercuts pretty common what that is it's an eroded edge along the toe of one
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if not both of the toes of the weld so essentially what
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that does is
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if i have undercut on both sides of this material this material is 3 8 thick
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and i have a 16th undercut on each side i've basically deducted a 16th from the thickness of this material
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so i have that's roughly uh 6 16ths
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now i'm down to 516 thickness the plate is no longer 3 8 of an inch thick don't know what
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that is a metric for you folks across the pond
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I do apologize camera guys got
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you covered he's gonna put some notes here maybe here somewhere
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he'll put some notes in what can cause undercut is improper travel speed
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so if I travel down this joint too fast I can get undercut
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and that's because I'm not giving that rod or that electrode time to fill in another thing is poor work angle.
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Ideally, what I want to have is half of my weld on the vertical part of this plate
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and half of it on the horizontal part of this plate.
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Now, I want to maintain an even angle between the two, so 45 is roughly where I want to be.
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If I start getting too far one way or the other, I'm bound to get undercut.
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I'm going to show you that here in a second.
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If I have a travel angle, or I'm sorry, a work angle that's too high, I'm going to get undercut along this top edge.
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So another thing that can cause undercut is if my arc length is too long.
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So ideally I want to keep my arc length no more than the diameter of this electrode.
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So if I have eighth inch electrode, I don't want to be any more than an eighth inch off the edge of that puddle.
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I like to stay close to the puddle.
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That's just me personally.
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It's just a habit I've developed, but you don't want to go any further than one eighth.
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You start getting outside of that area, you're going to start getting undercut.
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You have to think as I pull this rod further away from this plate, my voltage is going to increase.
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Okay, this is a constant current process.
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Stick welding is a constant current process.
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If I pull back far enough, the voltage becomes my variable.
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Okay, it'll increase when I pull back too far.
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It'll decrease when I get in too close.
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Because that additional voltage, it's going to start cutting away in the sides and it's not going to fill in properly.
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So we'll go ahead and we'll put all those together and we'll see if we can whip you up some undercut.
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So as you can see the work angle that I have here is improper.
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It's way too high.
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It's a lot higher than what I need.
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If you want to bring this down you can bring it down to about a 45 degree angle
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and that should be about where you want it.
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This weld we're doing everything wrong.
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Okay travel speed is too high, work angle is incorrect, amperage is set up you know a little bit above normal just
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so I can produce that undercut so I can show those that don't know exactly what it is what to look for.
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But because the angle, the speed, I ended up with that undercut on that top edge, which is where I wanted it.
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You know, if I was welding vertical, you know, you could get undercut on the left
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or the right -hand side just because you're not spending enough time on the sides.
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But here, it's going to be more prevalent on the vertical piece
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or the top leg or the top toe of that weld that you're going to put in there.
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Another thing you see in here because that excessive arc length
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when I pulled back is I had excessive spatter on the workpiece as well
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so that's just kind of like molten metal that's that's popping off
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or because the puddle's too hot you know it's kind of bouncing out there's too much energy in there
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and this stuff's going to spray all over the place.
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You want to get rid of that also you don't want to leave
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that on your plates especially if you know you're getting and weld inspections, you know, the inspectors are gonna look for that.
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Go ahead, take your time, clean up your plate.
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Next thing we're gonna talk about is arc strikes.
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So arc strikes happen for mainly one reason.
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and possibly two arc strikes are typically caused due to carelessness recklessness
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you're not paying attention accidentally touch the work piece you know with a live electrode
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and you scrape down there it's discontinuity
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you want to avoid arc strikes in your weld material
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they can cause micro cracks outside of the welding area especially
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if on a building or a structure that's cyclically loaded
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that little micro structure those little cracks in there they can start propagating through the weld metal or the base metal.
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So you don't want arc strikes on your material.
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It's going to be up to the inspector whether he's going to have you cut that piece out,
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remove it, repair it, whatever the case may be.
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So you want to avoid arc strikes.
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The biggest thing that I see that causes arc strikes, like I said, is carelessness.
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But when students are first, well, students and experienced welders, when they strike the arc and they get stuck,
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they want to fight the rod back and forth
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and just kind of pop it off
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there you know versus just disconnecting the stinger letting the electrode sit there for a second cool off
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and then snap it what happens is once this becomes stuck
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and I start moving back and forth I don't know
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when it's gonna break free this thing breaks free
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and then I get arc strike all the way across my plate way outside of my welding zone
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that's what you want to try to avoid all right next we're going to talk about piracy
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or tiny little weld bubbles that are in your weld what can cause porosity is
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if you're welding and it is too windy outside so
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if you're using a gas metal arc welding process outside
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and it's too windy
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you can get porosity using flux core outside up to a certain amount of miles per hour of the wind
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you can get porosity that way
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if you're not using the appropriate cubic feet per hour of shielding gas for gas metal arc welding process
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you can get porosity hydrocarbons such as wd -40 or paint or anything like that that is on the base material
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If you don't clean that off, that can cause porosity as well.
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So we're going to go ahead and get into it and show you exactly what porosity looks like.
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So we're welding along normal.
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Now Man Cub's going to hit the weld zone with a
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little bit of compressed air to simulate a big gust of wind coming through or welding outside.
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So as you can see, everything's pretty unruly.
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No gas coverage, getting porosity, trailing the weld.
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It's not a good condition.
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Very blustery day under here.
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All right guys, so that's pretty much porosity in a nutshell.
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You can get porosity with pretty much any welding process that you do.
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It's all about gas coverage and shielding that weld pool, keeping everything nice and clean in that area, taking off any mill scale,
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dirt, debris, hydrocarbons, oils, solvents, anything like that.
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Fluxicore arc welding is also prone to wormhole porosity,
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so that's a different type of porosity you typically don't get with shielded metal arc welding or gas metal arc welding.
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Go ahead and check out our previous video, How to Avoid Wormholes, if that's something you're experiencing.
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That pretty much concludes this episode.
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Like I said, it's the first of a series.
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So I hope you guys learned something.
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Make sure you like and subscribe to the channel.
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Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
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Make sure you hit that little bell button down here.
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You'll get new notifications every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 5 .30 Eastern Standard Time when we release new videos.
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And until next time, make every weld better than your last.
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Take three. And action.
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What the .
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Did you guys see that?
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That's what I got to put up with.
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Hello again.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “WELDING DEFECTS!! Porosity, Arc Strikes, Undercut”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: arc, weld, undercut, welding, porosity. This video has 139 sentences and 1686 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:29. The speaker talks fast, about 199 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| angle noun | /ˈæŋ.ɡəl/ | A figure formed by two rays which start from a common point (a plane angle) or by three planes that intersect (a solid angle). |
| shield noun | /ˈʃild/ | A broad piece of defensive armor, held in hand, formerly in general use in war, for the protection of the body. |
| eighth adjective | /eɪtθ/ | The ordinal form of the number eight. |
| vertical adjective | /ˈvɝ.tɪ.kəl/ | Standing, pointing, or moving straight up or down; parallel to the local direction of gravity; along the direction of a plumb line; perpendicular to something… |
| voltage noun | /ˈvəʊltɪd͡ʒ/ | The difference in electrostatic potential between two points in space, especially between live and neutral conductors or the earth. |
| thick adjective | /θɪk/ | Relatively great in extent from one surface to the opposite in its smallest solid dimension. |
| crack noun | /kɹæk/ | A thin and usually jagged space opened in a previously solid material. |
| roughly adverb | /ˈɹʌf.li/ | In a rough manner; without kindness, softness, or gentleness. |
| inspector noun | /ɪnˈspɛk.tɚ/ | A person employed to inspect something. |
| depend verb | /dɪˈpɛnd/ | To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition |
| excessive adjective | /ɪkˈsɛsɪv/ | Exceeding the usual bounds of something; too much (of amount); extravagant; immoderate. |
| linear adjective | /ˈlɪn.i.əɹ/ | Having the form of a line; straight or roughly straight; following a direct course. |
| diameter noun | /daɪˈæmɪdɚ/ | Any straight line between two points on the circumference of a circle that passes through the center of the circle; a chord that passes through the center of… |
| microwave noun | /ˈmaɪkɹoʊˌweɪv/ | An electromagnetic wave with wavelength between that of infrared light and radio waves. |
| ideally adverb | /aɪˈdi.ə.li/ | In an ideal way; perfectly. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go ahead verb | /ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/ | To proceed with; to begin. |
| pull back verb | To retreat. | |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| clean up verb | To make an area or a thing clean; to pick up a mess; to tidy. | |
| come through verb | To come into a room or other space through a door or passageway. | |
| cool off verb | To decrease in temperature, activity, or temper. | |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| move back verb | To reschedule (something) to a later date or time. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Today we're gonna talk about discontinuities.
- It'll decrease when I get in too close.
- It's a lot higher than what I need.
- This weld we're doing everything wrong.
- Did you guys see that?
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 59 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: eighth /eɪtθ/, thick /θɪk/, thickness /ˈθɪknəs/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shield /ˈʃild/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, inspection /ɪnˈspɛkʃən/, notification /ˌnoʊtɪfɪˈkeɪʃn̩/, rejection /ɹɪˈd͡ʒɛkʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: diameter /daɪˈæmɪdɚ/, ideally /aɪˈdi.ə.li/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, accidentally /ˌæk.sɪˈdɛnt(ə)li/, apologize /əˈpɑləˌd͡ʒaɪz/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like angle, shield, eighth.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.