Just a thought, try to start with a 70 series rod like the common 7018, it goes down way easier than that 6013 your using, those things still scare me, in my opinion they burn quick and violently, the 7018 or i think its a 7022, burns really slow giving you a better chance to watch the puddle like bill explained, i used the 7022 once, with that rod its impossible to mess the weld up ,good for practice, then once you get comfortable, move back to that 6013, a trick an old retired pipefitter taught me is when your doing multiple bass welds like on 1/4 " pipe is to run the root pass in 6013, then grind most of that pass out, then come back with a 7018 and burn out the rest , then continue with your final passes, also they taught us on flat plate, to use the bare end of the rod to gap your pieces, then tack it with the 6013, it burns quick and deep giving a good tack weld to minimize warpage, then make a good run with a 7018 to fill the gaps, and one of the most common places for a weld to crack is at your starting points,when you finish a rod , then continue the weld with a new rod, wach the starting point, cause youre gonna get a cold overlap at that point, you want to start a little ahead of your last bead, then loop back to the crown of the last bead, then get a good burn there, then continue. hope this helps some