I did bevel the edges, with a bench grinder, just no photos. Usually I would have tacked both sides as well, but I just welded one side at a time since it was only an inch of travel.
I understand, and agree with the idea of tacking all corners and jumping back and forth between pieces to control temp though.
Before when I was welding on 110, it seemed like I could barely weld a piece that thick. Now on 220, I'm finding that blowing through the edges is no problem.
I'll probably end up drilling those holes out bigger as well, since the idea was to run a piece of rebar through to hold it up. They are too small 7/16" as is.