How do these welds look?

KraftwerkMk1Jetta · Oct 5, 2008

Been practicing a bit with the Lincoln flux core welder I have access to. I just used a piece of sheet metal and some tubing clamped togther to practice doing some beads. How do they look? Is there anything I'm doing wrong or could do to improve?

not the best pic, sorry

JCByrd24 · Oct 5, 2008

What does the backside of the sheet look like... there should be a pretty evident heat affected zone (HAZ), otherwise it is a cold weld. The front is hard to tell from the pic but looks alright, especially for flux core.

KraftwerkMk1Jetta · Oct 5, 2008

JCByrd24 said:
What does the backside of the sheet look like... there should be a pretty evident heat affected zone (HAZ), otherwise it is a cold weld. The front is hard to tell from the pic but looks alright, especially for flux core.

Hmm, thats a good question, I dont think i even looked at the back at the sheet metal afterward, but I will now. How do you avoid a "cold weld"? Move slower, turn the amps up?

BillK · Oct 5, 2008

jetta,
See what happens if you try to break off the part you welded. Bend it down until it breaks. That will show you how your welds are doing. Looks to me like you need a little more penetration, the weld are just sort of sitting on top of the metal instead of being melted into the metal. But once again ... break it off and see what it looks like.

OctaneMotorsports · Oct 5, 2008

Kraftwerk, this thread is useless without pics (of your MK1!).

Welds look decent, I'm no expert myself, but they look decent as long as you are getting penetration. As mentioned, look on the back, you should be able to see where you welded above it. Otherwise the weld is just sitting on the metal and gluing the parts together rather than fusing them together.

kf4zht · Oct 5, 2008

They look ok from the top, maybe turn the heat up a little.

Pictures from the bottom would help, along with a bend till it breaks test.

What gauges of metal are you using. It is easier when first starting out to weld the same thicknesses. Later you can move on to dealing with welding thin to thick.

nissan_crawler · Oct 5, 2008

looks a little cold to me.

akdiesel · Oct 5, 2008

If you are just joining sheet metal to a thicker metal it looks fine to me. Turning up the heat may just burn holes in the thiner metal. Maybe spend more time on the thicker metal instead of turning up the heat.

JeepsAreBuilt · Oct 5, 2008

The welds dont look bad to me, especially if you are just learning to weld ? It looks like there is not very much porosity in the welds, which is very good for flux core wire feed welding. Are you cleaning the areas where you weld, removing rust and paint ? If not, this will greatly improve your welds. It looks like you are moving your gun to the left and right as you pull back down the welds ? For sheetmetal, I dont think that is necessary. I would start my weld with a "burn in" by doing a circular motion then pull back down nice and evenly.

KraftwerkMk1Jetta · Oct 6, 2008

The tubing is and sheet metal I used are about the same gauge. I've been wire wheeling the areas before I weld them. I will def have to check underneath the to see what it looks like. I was using a semi-circle "pattern" when I moved the the weld puddle along.

as requested earlier, here are some pics my Mk1 Jetta :beer:

KraftwerkMk1Jetta · Oct 6, 2008

Here is the backside of the sheet metal:

rickairmedic · Oct 6, 2008

Well you deffinately got penetration on the sheetmetal now the fun part the BFH test put it in a vise and take a BFH to it till it fails and see if the welds fail or if the metal around the welds fail

.

Rick

KraftwerkMk1Jetta · Oct 6, 2008

I will try that!

senlow · Oct 6, 2008

KraftwerkMk1Jetta said:
as requested earlier, here are some pics my Mk1 Jetta

That is a sweet looking Jetta. The A1 body Jetta is one of my favorite cars.

dodgeram2500 · Oct 7, 2008

Hey MK1, I'm a big Jetta fan, I've owned 2 MK2's and one MK 3's...all diesels.
Anyway, I'm also a welder...

Your weld on the left is the worst...look at all the spatter below it and a little bit of porosity on the right side of the bead. Porosity is air/other contaminants in the weld... = no good. Porosity can be caused by: not enough gas, holding your stinger too far away from what you're trying to weld, contaminants in the gas line (such as condensation or air if the welder has been sitting for a while).

Middle weld: grr....still too much spatter!

Right weld: Best of the three. Note that more weld is on the sheet metal than the box tubing. You want the same on both. Aim your wire up a little bit so that its pointing above the gap between the two pieces of metal...gravity will even it out. This weld looks the smoothest i.e. there is less ripples which means your speed was more even. Could just be the picture though.

You know you have a perfect weld when you don't have to chip the slag off...it peels off on its own.

Hope I helped....and nice Jetta! It's in good shape!

KraftwerkMk1Jetta · Oct 7, 2008

dodgeram2500 said:
Your weld on the left is the worst...look at all the spatter below it and a little bit of porosity on the right side of the bead. Porosity is air/other contaminants in the weld... = no good. Porosity can be caused by: not enough gas, holding your stinger too far away from what you're trying to weld, contaminants in the gas line (such as condensation or air if the welder has been sitting for a while).

Middle weld: grr....still too much spatter!

Right weld: Best of the three. Note that more weld is on the sheet metal than the box tubing. You want the same on both. Aim your wire up a little bit so that its pointing above the gap between the two pieces of metal...gravity will even it out. This weld looks the smoothest i.e. there is less ripples which means your speed was more even. Could just be the picture though.

You know you have a perfect weld when you don't have to chip the slag off...it peels off on its own.

Hope I helped....and nice Jetta! It's in good shape!

thanks for all the comments on my car guys. It should be in good shape, I've rebuilt nearly the entire thing including new paint and a motor swap :lol_hitti

Anyway, back to the welding. Remember, I'm using flux core, so there's no gas. I always thought the spatter was just part of using flux core, that it spatters more than if it was shielded with gas like a MIG.

dodgeram2500 · Oct 8, 2008

Sorry, I thought you were using flux core with CO2. Good penetration though, and thats the main thing.

pirana · Oct 19, 2008

As far as cleaning the metal for welding it's a lot easier to remove mill scale with a grinder than trying to buff with a wire wheel. You usuall have to really bear down on the metal when using wire. For thin plate/tubing I prefer useing hard wire.

e-tek · Oct 25, 2008

OK, forgive my positve outlook, but for a flux core weld it looks....INCREDIBLE! It's all the way through, it's VERY SMOOTH for flux core, a beginner... and anyone for that matter and very evenly distrbuted.
I posted some flux cored welding on another site and it looked like absolute **** - and the replies weren't as harsh as these - lighten up!

KraftwerkMk1Jetta · Oct 26, 2008

e-tek said:
OK, forgive my positve outlook, but for a flux core weld it looks....INCREDIBLE! It's all the way through, it's VERY SMOOTH for flux core, a beginner... and anyone for that matter and very evenly distrbuted.
I posted some flux cored welding on another site and it looked like absolute **** - and the replies weren't as harsh as these - lighten up!

haha, thanks man :thumbup:

How do these welds look?

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