mig welding technique

[sberry]

Here are some from a snow plow re-skin, 1/4 angle to 16 ga sheet, these are shot in position they were welded at, very hot, fast, speedy, the ultimate quality of the weld, grain structure etc, even penetration, the amount, is pretty moot, the operator took about 5 minutes to weld this whole project on.

 

[sberry]

This could be tuned to reduce a little splatter, was a quick deal, did wiggle some, this is small wire. I am looking for some general pics from a trailer job from used materials,,, lots of gaping gappers, with skilled operator can see how much can be filled in a pass, faster to weld than fit closely.

 

[Denee007]

This is a neat thread! I look forward to pulling my mig welder out. Welding is kind of like sewing in an abstract way! lol I've been watch Jody Collier on Welding Tips and tricks~ he's funny and offers some videos which really help! ; )

http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/tig-welding-repair.html

 

[Beaumont67]

MIG Welding Tutorial
http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/tutorial.htm

 

[steel 35]

What about those of us who own both?

I have a Miller EconoTIG, Lincoln SP-100 MIG, and Lincoln AC-225 tombstone stick welder.

That would be called inbreeding. Its ok lots of people do it.

And Zts mig looks like my 500. dollar score......Still holding my breath for lessons though

 

[btamkel]

millermatic 180, miller252, 250dx, bobcat250

 

[waggie]

^^^ Absolutely! I found the same to be true.

I'd also add, for folks just starting out with TIG, that when learning TIG, learn on aluminum first.

I also started with o/a and learning to tig was a breath. Although, o/a was really frustrating.

i'm still chasing that elusive bead with my mig welder, and i have had lessons with Paul. We live in the same town. What I got out of the mig lessons with him was (in no particular order):

1. patience. Paul migs like he's being paid by the hour. Slow and steady.

2. watch the puddle. we all know by now of the cursive "e" method. I think part of the reason why paul migs slow and steady is because he's watching the puddle (hint: lower the voltage and compensate with wire speed). While you're focusing on writing that "e" don't forget to keep your eye on the puddle following the arc.

3. listen to the sizzling bacon sound. If you're hearing a steady sizzling bacon sound, your welder setting is correct. Otherwise, adjust your machine and/or torch speed. (for me, usually i'm moving too quickly due to setting my machine too hot)

4. pull the bead.

5. practice, practice and more practice. When you get frustrated, take a break, then resume practice. I bet Paul's first mig weld wasn't as pretty as the one he did yesterday.

that's all i can think of off the top of my sleepy head.

 

[waggie]

Welding is kind of like sewing in an abstract way! lol

This!

welding IS just like sewing, except sewing is more difficult. The main function of sewing is joining pieces of fabric, just as welding. One of the major difference between a welder and a seamstress is this aesthetics. We often hear from new and experienced welders proclaim: "that weld will hold, it ain't going anywhere!" when they made a particularly fugly weld. Yes, metal melted, re-hardened and is now forever fused together. But it looks like bird poo! Even a beginning seamstress will not settle for simply joining pieces of fabric. It is possible to join two pieces of fabric together with stitches looking like snail trails, but even beginning seamstress will not accept that.

Most people (non-welders/non-GJ'er... etc) accept poor welds. They don't even notice until the ugly welds fail. But everyone have high standards for seamstresses, even if it were just hemming pant legs.

boy, this turned into a philosophical rant/reflection on sewing and welding Back to welding...

 

[zmotorsports]

Here are a few from this past weekends work.

Mike.

These welds were on 3/16" plate and 2"x3" tube with .120" wall thickness. Miller MM251 welder, C25 gas, .030" solid wire. Settings were 16.4 v/235imp for the 3/16" and 16.0 v/ 200ipm for the .120" thick steel. Gun angle at approx. 15-20 degrees pulling the puddle, torch manipulation in cursive "e" pattern.

This was a small clasp for the toggle clamp to grab. I turned the settings down a little as this was fairly thin material. 15.5 volts/155imp settings.

 

[koditten]

Yummy! It's almost a shame to cover those welds with paint.

KO

 

[SM Racing]

One of my welding instructors said not to make a "Loop" or cursive "e" because it tends to wash the impurities back into the puddle. If you are moving ahead with a "c" motion you will continue to push those impurities to the front of the puddle. That being said I have tried all of the aforementioned techniques and they all work fine for all but the most stringent vessel or high pressure pipe welding (anything requiring x-ray inspection)

Lots of great info in this thread. It is up to you to learn what technique works best for you and your situation. One technique will not work in all situation, so learn all of them well and you will be a great welder.

 

[zmotorsports]

Yummy! It's almost a shame to cover those welds with paint.

KO

Thank you. My son was very flattering when he told me he just wanted to clearcoat his tire carrier.

One of my welding instructors said not to make a "Loop" or cursive "e" because it tends to wash the impurities back into the puddle. If you are moving ahead with a "c" motion you will continue to push those impurities to the front of the puddle. That being said I have tried all of the aforementioned techniques and they all work fine for all but the most stringent vessel or high pressure pipe welding (anything requiring x-ray inspection)

Lots of great info in this thread. It is up to you to learn what technique works best for you and your situation. One technique will not work in all situation, so learn all of them well and you will be a great welder.

I thought we had covered this enough time in this post itself let alone numerous other ones. I am not even going to waste time with a response as you can read back through the many, many, many welding posts on this forum that all seem to get sidetracked and killed by the keyboard professors rather than helping the person who asked the question.

Mike.

 

[koditten]

One of my welding instructors said not to make a "Loop" or cursive "e" because it tends to wash the impurities back into the puddle. If you are moving ahead with a "c" motion you will continue to push those impurities to the front of the puddle. That being said I have tried all of the aforementioned techniques and they all work fine for all but the most stringent vessel or high pressure pipe welding (anything requiring x-ray inspection)

Lots of great info in this thread. It is up to you to learn what technique works best for you and your situation. One technique will not work in all situation, so learn all of them well and you will be a great welder.

This is one of those things were too much info is really not benifitting . If you are mig welding, you are most likely not subjecting your welds to x-ray documentation. There are other types of welding that are more appropriate to this application. In most cases, I say most, Mig welding is used for fusing mild steel together.

As long as you have enough heat, those impurities will literally be vaporized.

If you are welding mild steel, there is already impurities that are present and style of welding is not really going to matter. If you are better at pushing the weld, pulling the weld or doing the cursive thing, go ahead and do it.

I like to push my weld, but I know that is not always going to give me the undercut. I know this and have to take that into account.

Don't get me wrong, its good to know about the impurities getting washed back into the weld, but I would try not to fixate on it. Your post made me think that the instructor intendended for you to never push the weld.

Lets continue this thread.

KO

 

[sberry]

If anyone has to ask at this level they are putting too much faith in the welding, none of this type of stuff we are discussing on this forum should be totally reliant on the quality per sa,,, 99% of home brew stuff is over welded especially by a crowd as concenencious as this. Its not worth close rigorous design, easier to overbuild, weld a little more than it is to calculate.

I saw a steel rack here a while back, had about 20X the weld on it it needed filling up gaps, made of tubing etc. They did nice job, welded all weekend where in a fab shop it wouldnt have been done, it would have been calculated to be adequate, I have no fear these guys didnt get it good, ha.

Where most of this is a concern is in structural stuff, untested un qualified, Saw a hitch fall off,, said,, well it was factory installed,,, well maybe but doesnt mean it wasnt the guys first week on the job. They used too small mig with operator that didnt know what he was looking at. Didnt design the joint so it was failsafe, fitup all tight, no room to burn a hole. Needed to be better out of position welder.

I work on machine/equipment, most failures I see are factory, someone with a pencil figured it out, I see them but they are rare numerically, on occasion get to see some dandy repair usually preceded by the comment,,, my buddy,,, a laid off welder,,, but its not all easy in a good spot, sometimes they have a good idea, fine or acceptable design but get in to a spot where it needs a quality weld in some a hole upside down and they just cant get it and cant fix it.

Did one the other day upside down, the customer was sitting right there and said,, when you started welding it in I could tell, different than the last guy that sputtered around.

 

[sberry]

Thank you. My son was very flattering when he told me he just wanted to clearcoat his tire carrier.

This is the kind of thing I eluded to in last post, a fabrication or at least a welding job 200 times more than needed to carry a spare, its beautiful but don't really matter how good it is other than appearance. This isn't aimed at the welder but at the gang that has trouble with a distinction about how much,, how good it needs to be, what is adequate.

I looked at some nascars, some were really nice, some pass inspection and not a whole lot wrong with it but it wasn't top shelf either. The operator had to run a pinch too cold to keep up with it, start stop in some bad spots. I was kind of surprised it passed.

 

[btamkel]

sberry i'm not sure you understand what this post was meant to be. It's not about a 5 min patch job on a snow plow not about just adequate enough to get by with and certainly not about gaping gapers filled in 1 pass because it takes to long to do proper fitups, it was meant to be about diffrent techniques to acheive certain apperances and yes have proper weld penetration, not every job should be fast and nasty some of our customers want welds to look good on their projects not a weld they can see on machine/equipment out in the field. If you do 30.00 welds on everything when your finished you only made 30.00 plus some of us like our stuff to look good I think its called pride in our work and when people see my work i want them to know i did it and come back for more or tell their buddies like zmotorsports said earlier the motorsports world is complety diffrent than industrial based. Please dont take this personally its not meant to be just want to clarify what i was asking of this tread.

 

[sberry]

No problem, I can let this thread die.

 

[koditten]

Isn't cool how easy it is to get off topic. This is one of those things about forums.

Thanks for getting us back on topic, but I will promise you, btmkel, we are gonna drift agiain. We just can't help trying to express ourself. We love the challenge of communicating to each other.

I'll snap a couple of pics of some of my welds, some that I "think" are great and some that I am not pleased with at all. I'm actually looking forward to you guys "ripping me a new one".

I don't want this thread to die.

BTW, Carry, I know exactly what you are talking about. I come across "proffessional" weld all the time that make me scratch my head.

Later

KO

 

[sberry]

I saw a couple of guys trying to run a 5/32 electrode on an AC buzzer at 70A, swearing at the machine, rod etc,

 

[koditten]

You lost me on that one Carry, I can't even remember any of the rod numbers from back in the day.

I'm not afraid to say that my days of stick welding are over.

KO