I got this Pocket Mig Welder about 10 years ago at a Swap Meet for $35. I wanted to learn how to weld with it. I don't weld too often because I don't have anything to weld. I try it out once or twice every couple of years to see if I can make a tack weld and such if I need to make a repair. Today I decided to play around with it. These are these results. I started on the bottom left where I had two pieces of metal joined. I started tacking a few spots first then tried making lines. The right side is where I ended up. I wasn't trying to make a straight line except where I was trying to join the two pieces together. I grinded the black paint off the large black piece which is 1/8 inch thick. The smaller piece on the the bottom left is thinner. The front of the welder is where the settings were. The Argon was about 40 psi, and the tank has a little over 1500 psi's. I believe the wire is # 30 or 35.
Welds
- Thread starter Levaughn
- Start date
welder4956
Well-known member
I'm not a fan of the 110V MIG welders due to their limited range of use. That said, I would use one on thin metal if it was somewhere that 240V power was not available.
Looks like you have 4 voltage output settings from the rocker switches on the front: 1-Min, 1-Max, 2-Min and 2-Max. Wire feed speed is controlled by the knob at the top of the front panel. In your photo voltage is set on 2-Max and wire feed speed is about middle of the range.
Try moving the wire feed speed up to about 2/3 of the range and see if that helps the weld appearance.
Also, mark some straight lines on your practice piece using a grinder or soapstone and try to follow the line. If there is not enough light to follow the line, try a lighter lens shade. A shade 9 would be fine for this low current machine.
Looks like you have 4 voltage output settings from the rocker switches on the front: 1-Min, 1-Max, 2-Min and 2-Max. Wire feed speed is controlled by the knob at the top of the front panel. In your photo voltage is set on 2-Max and wire feed speed is about middle of the range.
Try moving the wire feed speed up to about 2/3 of the range and see if that helps the weld appearance.
Also, mark some straight lines on your practice piece using a grinder or soapstone and try to follow the line. If there is not enough light to follow the line, try a lighter lens shade. A shade 9 would be fine for this low current machine.
Jack Ryan
Well-known member
It's pretty hard to see a progression there. You need to start somewhere with known settings, and then move to a new spot with new settings and run another bead.
Don't try to join stuff yet, just try to make a straight line at a consistent speed with a consistent arc length - any more variables than that is too much to deal with.
Most of what I see was done with too much wire speed for the voltage, or not enough voltage for the wire speed - same thing really.
When you say "Argon" I assume you mean an Argon/CO2 mix. In the US, that mix is nearly always C25 (25% CO2) - elsewhere it is almost never that but another mix, or a tri-mix. You could use 100% CO2 as well (C1 or C100).
You should be setting the gas flow (CFH), not the pressure (PSI). Are you setting 40 CFH? I think that is a bit high - 30 is plenty.
Perhaps a picture of your regulator would make it clearer.
Jack
Jswain
Well-known member
It only has a few adjustments so it will be easy to dial in. Both switches on max(high & 2). Turn the wire speed dial down until the wire wants to start burning back to the tip, then turn it up until it starts popping because it's feeding too fast, somewhere in between those two will leave a nice smooth sizzle.
I rarely weld outside but almost always use 12-20cfh gas coverage so you could probably turn yours down a lot, as long as it isn't windy. Turn it down until you see some bubbles forming in the weld, then turn it up until they are gone + a little bit.
Clean, shiny metal. Make sure all the ground connections are clean/tight on the welder. Ground also touching clean shiny metal.
X2 on don't try and joint 2 pieces until you get some solid beads down, it will just make learning harder. Clip your wire with the same stick out every time before you start(for good habits) start with good tacks. Then some 1" welds, 2" etc. pull the nozzle off and clean it out every now and then.
And then once you're happy with the results, start joining 2 pieces together
I rarely weld outside but almost always use 12-20cfh gas coverage so you could probably turn yours down a lot, as long as it isn't windy. Turn it down until you see some bubbles forming in the weld, then turn it up until they are gone + a little bit.
Clean, shiny metal. Make sure all the ground connections are clean/tight on the welder. Ground also touching clean shiny metal.
X2 on don't try and joint 2 pieces until you get some solid beads down, it will just make learning harder. Clip your wire with the same stick out every time before you start(for good habits) start with good tacks. Then some 1" welds, 2" etc. pull the nozzle off and clean it out every now and then.
And then once you're happy with the results, start joining 2 pieces together
I do see progress, but you need more practice. As others mentioned, not hot enough or moving too fast. The attempts on the left also look like they could have been hampered by a bad connection between the ground and workpiece or the mig gun itself to the machine.
Grind flat, try again. Rinse, lather, repeat until serviceable quality is achieved. If you know someone who is a competent welder, an hour of his/her time would vastly accelerate your progress.
Grind flat, try again. Rinse, lather, repeat until serviceable quality is achieved. If you know someone who is a competent welder, an hour of his/her time would vastly accelerate your progress.
Prospecter
Well-known member
This is my situation, too. Thanks for posing the questions.
txvwnut
Well-known member
.035 is probably too heavy of wire for that machine. Step down to .025 and weld nothing thicker than 1/8" and I bet you'll see it get a little better. I'm not a fan of 110 wire welders and every one for those pocket mig type units I've seen were either in a dumpster or a corner of a shop as reminder to never do that again.
Thanks for the advice. I stand corrected. I meant to say the thicker piece is 1/16 inch. I would like a 220 volt welder, but my house isn't wired for it, plus my brother has a better welder if I need to weld thicker metal. I just want to learn on this one.
gahrajmahal
Well-known member
I used to have one of those myself and could never get it dialed in quite right. That being said, I was able to make nice plug welds with it on sheet metal. Punch 1/4” diameter holes, clamp the two pieces together tightly then draw a puddle in the hole. I’d go to a welding retail store and buy some wire from them, possibly taking your unit in with you. Also, with 110 v make sure you are plugged directly into an outlet and not using an extension cord. You will drop voltage and you need every volt you can get.
I had loads of stick welding experience prior to getting that mig welder.
I had loads of stick welding experience prior to getting that mig welder.
Watch welding videos on Youtube. I like Jody at Welding Tips and Tricks. I would bet he has episodes on just what you are trying to do. (I don't have a MIG, so I can't advise you directly).
All I have ever owned was a 120 volt MIG. I have built trailers and done all sorts of repairs with it and it has worked well. I will admit that most of my welding stops at 1/4", but occasionally have welded thicker stock.
I replaced it with a Miller 211 and have yet to run it on 240 volt. I welded some 1" plate together with my little Miller. I did V it well and made multiple passes, but I have no doubt the weld will hold.
Unless you are welding extremity thick metal you can do a lot with a 120 volt MIG. Granted, some are better than others, so just tossing all 120 volt aside as a blanket statement is a bit extreme. Plus, it also depends on what the machine will get used for.
I have a little Italian made 110v mig welder I bought 30+ years ago to do body work with. It will weld sheet metal ok. I ended up putting a better ground conductor and clamp on it to improve things as well as beefing up connections inside the unit and adding a better regulator. Its biggest draw back is duty cycle. It doesnt matter how good you get it running, you can only weld so much before you stop. I even added a fan inside to help it along. I still have it and use it on rare occasion.
The welds in the upper part of the picture are looking better. You need to work on how fast or slow you are moving and the movement of the stinger. YouTube has many good videos.
Generally, with wire feed you want to push the wire and not drag it. Plus you need to do a side to side weaving motion, or a looping motion. The motion can depend on what you are welding, position, that type of thing, but generally a continuous looping motion works most welding.
Thanks. I was pushing but going in a straight line.The welds in the upper part of the picture are looking better. You need to work on how fast or slow you are moving and the movement of the stinger. YouTube has many good videos.
Generally, with wire feed you want to push the wire and not drag it. Plus you need to do a side to side weaving motion, or a looping motion. The motion can depend on what you are welding, position, that type of thing, but generally a continuous looping motion works most welding.
Jswain
Well-known member
Definitely an improvement. Watch some YouTube videos, drink some beer, and get some trigger time.
Keep it up with the straight beads on a single piece of steel.
You can mark your piece of steel with a soapstone to stick to a straight line, you could also mark hash marks in it every 1/4" or so to work on travel speed.
Keep it up with the straight beads on a single piece of steel.
You can mark your piece of steel with a soapstone to stick to a straight line, you could also mark hash marks in it every 1/4" or so to work on travel speed.
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fitter30
Well-known member
Welding is proper set up and practice every day. Good welders weld everyday. Before i decided to get my 6" pipe certs stick was welding Tuesday and Thursday night for 2 - 3 hours. Thursday was better than Tuesday. To get my certs welded Monday thru Thursday 3 hours a night. All winter long.
CraigStu
Well-known member
You don't mention your welding position. I use tig but I think your mig would be similar. When I want a really great weld I sit in a chair, at a table so my forearms can rest on the edge. This way my body and arms are rock solid. For 1-2" welds I just pivot my arms a bit where they rest on the table edge so my hands can move sideways. I am right handed so I weld right to left w/ the torch in my right hand. Of course there are times when I have to weld in different directions but I will gladly spend 5 minutes figuring out a way to move, and maybe support, my work so I can weld L to R. For a longer weld I may figure a way for my arms to slide along the table edge but that is hard to make happen smoothly. My little welding cart has a 24"x24" piece of steel as a top that is the perfect height for my elbows to rest on the edge while standing. I do maybe 80% of my welding standing but for important stuff I rig a way to sit.
I have a 110/220 welder, but I've never used the 220. I got it to repair some rusted sheet metal on a car. Welding sheet metal I've found is very frustrating compared to thicker metal LOL.
I also used it to weld in some suspension components.
Welding is really fun I think you'll get addicted to it. I would by no means call myself a welder... but I can repair things now that I would never have been able to before.
It also opens up a lot of options to fix or modify things that you wouldn't have thought of before.
My example... I was torquing a sway bar bolt and the threads completely stripped.
I ran new threads but there wasn't much bolt left... but I did it anyway. Went down to a smaller size nut and when torquing it again... it stripped again.
If I hadn't done welding before, I would have been completely stuck. I would have had to trailer the car somewhere to get someone to fix it.
But... I had. So I cut out the stud, got a new stud, welded that little sucker in there and fixed it.
Was the weld pretty? No... but it is functional and I didn't have to spend hundreds of dollars to have someone else do the exact same thing I did... maybe with some prettier welds
I also used it to weld in some suspension components.
Welding is really fun I think you'll get addicted to it. I would by no means call myself a welder... but I can repair things now that I would never have been able to before.
It also opens up a lot of options to fix or modify things that you wouldn't have thought of before.
My example... I was torquing a sway bar bolt and the threads completely stripped.
I ran new threads but there wasn't much bolt left... but I did it anyway. Went down to a smaller size nut and when torquing it again... it stripped again.
If I hadn't done welding before, I would have been completely stuck. I would have had to trailer the car somewhere to get someone to fix it.
But... I had. So I cut out the stud, got a new stud, welded that little sucker in there and fixed it.
Was the weld pretty? No... but it is functional and I didn't have to spend hundreds of dollars to have someone else do the exact same thing I did... maybe with some prettier welds
I've always been leery of welding (especially while learning) with cheap or no-name welders. There's no telling how accurate or consistent they are. Someone learning could be pulling out their hair, getting pissed off, and lose interest...all because the machine is ****. I've seen it a couple times now.
I generally clamp the object that I'm trying to weld down to a board. I'm left handed. While holding the trigger, I grab my left wrist with my right hand for steadiness. I don't really have anything to weld but just like to lay down some welds to see how I'm progressing. I will eventually construct a small table so I can ride my arm against it when welding.
Jacko264
Well-known member
With good gauntlets left hand on trigger and right hand holding the torch just behind the nozzle or even the nozzle
Graham
Graham
I am right handed, but I grab the gun with my left hand close to the handle, and run the trigger with my right hand. My left hand does most of the control of the gun, but both hands work together. Of course I wear a good pair of heavy welding gloves.
Sort of like this, but my left hand would be resting on the work,
But it really depends on where and what I am welding. Some times I have my LH pointer finger sitting on the work, and my LH thumb against the gun.
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jmiller_2308
Well-known member
Welding is fun so if you can find a way to make that welder work for you or perhaps step up and get something better I'm sure you will enjoy having it in your tool box. I'd suggest looking for a community education class on welding. They aren't generally too expensive, you get some hands on experience with guided help, and you get to use their metal while you learn. The community education class I took also allowed me to try out stick, tig, gas, and brazing. They also gave a quick introduction to metallurgy which is really important when understanding the welding process.
One thing I didn't see mentioned above is for you to look at your welding wire and make sure it is still good. You weld so infrequently it may be possible that the wire spool may not be in the best shape. If the wire is corroded or somehow sticking to the spool it will feed poorly and result in the wire jerking in and out of the machine.
I started with a Pocket Mig and in my opinion my machine was really only useful for small emergency welding of thin metal. My machine had a really low duty cycle that really limited how much I could weld at a time. My machine took .025 and .030 so I suspect that is what you will be limited to. My machine simply was not hot enough for much anything other than thin metal and I got the blobs on top like you are getting more often then an actual weld of the metal. My machine would not feed consistently but rather jerked at the feed spool.
I did manage to build a smoker with the pocket Mig but it was a chore that took a lot of effort with some rather dubious results that I eventually go back and fix now that I have more experience and a better welder.
One thing I didn't see mentioned above is for you to look at your welding wire and make sure it is still good. You weld so infrequently it may be possible that the wire spool may not be in the best shape. If the wire is corroded or somehow sticking to the spool it will feed poorly and result in the wire jerking in and out of the machine.
I started with a Pocket Mig and in my opinion my machine was really only useful for small emergency welding of thin metal. My machine had a really low duty cycle that really limited how much I could weld at a time. My machine took .025 and .030 so I suspect that is what you will be limited to. My machine simply was not hot enough for much anything other than thin metal and I got the blobs on top like you are getting more often then an actual weld of the metal. My machine would not feed consistently but rather jerked at the feed spool.
I did manage to build a smoker with the pocket Mig but it was a chore that took a lot of effort with some rather dubious results that I eventually go back and fix now that I have more experience and a better welder.
Jazz1
Well-known member
Depending on your age you may need more light on the area you welding. I have LED light on my hood
The older you get the more light required to see welding through shield…optometrist pointed this out to me some years ago.
The older you get the more light required to see welding through shield…optometrist pointed this out to me some years ago.
andyvh1959
Well-known member
HEY!!! How in the hell dod you get in my shop and grab my welding practice pieces!!
Friend of mine is a professional welder, he said much of the same as said above:
1. Lighting, get the best light you can into the work zone
2. Position, practice getting the weld zone in the best position for you
3. Setup, take the time to properly set up the work to get the best results
4. Proper gear, a really good helmet (not the cheapest HF helmet), proper gauntlet gloves
5. Good gas, I gotta get rid of my 30+ yr old CO2 bottle and step up to blended CO2/Argon
6. Prepped material, clean, no oxidation, edge prep on the metal
Friend of mine is a professional welder, he said much of the same as said above:
1. Lighting, get the best light you can into the work zone
2. Position, practice getting the weld zone in the best position for you
3. Setup, take the time to properly set up the work to get the best results
4. Proper gear, a really good helmet (not the cheapest HF helmet), proper gauntlet gloves
5. Good gas, I gotta get rid of my 30+ yr old CO2 bottle and step up to blended CO2/Argon
6. Prepped material, clean, no oxidation, edge prep on the metal
ZRX61
Well-known member
7. Bucket of water next to the welding bench for when you set yourself on fire... or to plunge your foot into when a piece of hot slag falls in your boot... or to extinguish the fire that is threatening to burn your shop down.
CraigStu
Well-known member
Absolutely. At 70 or so I needed better light. I have also found myself adjusting the auto darkening level in my helmet depending on welding amps. A week or so ago I was welding 3/16 and 1/4 steel at about 150amps. 3 days ago I was welding 3/32 SS filler wire together to make a loop. I had to really adjust the the darkening level because all I could see was the tig 'flame' and no clue where the wire ends were.
Jazz1
Well-known member
I’ve had an Air Liquide 110 welder for 20 years, no issues but im doing body work and never weld over 3/16” so the 110 is suitable. I get some welding tips from junior although i got him started with welding im a rank amateur to his skill set.
#1 son making me a gas tank for hot rod a few weeks out of trade school and a few years later as journeyman boilermaker
#1 son making me a gas tank for hot rod a few weeks out of trade school and a few years later as journeyman boilermaker
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CraigStu
Well-known member
OP your beads are fine so now start welding one piece to another. Once you get used to what you can do, even at a basic new guy level, things will pop up to use your new skill. Last year I helped build a support for the 9 mailboxes on our dead end street. Ended up w/ a 2x8 about 14ft long (to allow for more houses) to attach boxes to. Each box would be screwed to it's own 2x8 at 90 deg to the 14footer. A guy said how do we do all the drilling on your drill press so all the holes line up at the end of the street. Piece one was a 1/8x1x16 w/ holes drilled in it and a piece of 1/8x1 angle welded on one end. We laid the angle against the 14ft and drilled our holes through it through the wood. Piece 2 was similar since we needed the boxes to all be on the same plane at their doors so we don't take out our mirrors driving by the others to get to ours. We had our hole template steel and reused it w/ a bit of adjustment. Cut the angle off and welded it onto the other end which we had left a little long on purpose. This was dirt simple welding but it was so much better than screwing around w/ a tape measure and a marker and a hand drill at the end of the road.
csp
Well-known member
Remove the mill scale from your steel and you will see improvements. MIG doesn't like dirty steel or mill scale. It will absolutely weld steel with mill scale, but it's much better when bare, shiny steel.