My first welds

[ollie76]

This was a lot of fun. Ran some straight beads to get started and then did a couple T-joints.

This is 10 gauge steel. Pretty thin really and everything warped in the end. First one was disastrous! Second came out alright. 120v flux core el-cheapo welder. I didn't clean anything after other than a hand held wire brush:

 

[RickP]

Those look better than my first welds!

 

[ollie76]

I blew holes right threw that first one. I didn't change anything other than my travel speed ( I think!)

 

[Richard Cranium]

some of them look better then others, But not bad for a first try. Like my old shop teacher told me, now go burn some rod.

 

[jimgood]

Keep playing with your travel speed and the pattern you use to move the torch. You'll get better. Flux core can be a PITA with all the spatter but it's worth learning. Make sure you take some of your practice welds and cut a cross section to see how good the penetration is. Take others and bash the **** out of them with a sledge hammer to see where they break.

 

[countryroad82]

Not bad for a first timer!! Practice makes perfect, I'll never say I'm perfect but after pretty much teaching myself how to weld I'm pretty proficient at it. If you get good at laying a bead with flux core, you will be amazed at the difference with gas. It's night and day!! I've had to switch to flux core before due to running out of gas and it absolutely ***** to say the least!!!!

 

[sberry]

I would say pretty good also. Burning a hole is a good place to start. Its hot enough to make a weld. 10 ga really isn't thin, its pretty substantial for that welder.

 

[wagon]

came out pretty good for a first timer.

little technique tip, "drag with slag" - when your process produces slag (stick/flux core), drag the electrode. when you run gas you "push" it.

it's not typically necessary to do all sorts of goofy movements. watch travel speed consistency for a good appearance. off to a good start, man

 

[cspcrx]

great start. I took a class at a local welding supply shop for a couple of hours with my machine. It was a huge help but travel speed is the one thing I struggled with. The thing he told was practice was the only way to develop that. He did show me ways to read my welds to help me understand if I was going too fast or too slow but it really is a feel. He also told me not to worry about funny movements just go straight and keep the tip at the root. Can worry about making things look pretty after we get strong welds and start selling our stuff, LOL. Keep at it. It sure feels good making metal stick for some reason.

 

[ollie76]

Not bad for a first timer!! Practice makes perfect, I'll never say I'm perfect but after pretty much teaching myself how to weld I'm pretty proficient at it. If you get good at laying a bead with flux core, you will be amazed at the difference with gas. It's night and day!! I've had to switch to flux core before due to running out of gas and it absolutely ***** to say the least!!!!

I love doing stuff like that......learning on the crappy gear and getting good with it, then moving to fancier stuff that puts a smile on your face.

I'd say it will be some time before I manage to get a cylinder so for now I'll make due with the flux core. This is crappy flux core wire too I would imagine (it came with the welder). Might try some Lincoln stuff.

 

[DentorP]

The original wire that comes with the cheapo flux core welding machine is bad. Then replaced it for Lincoln wire and what a big difference.

 

[wagon]

nr-211 is the best short arc fcaw wire!!

 

[vintagespeed1956]

slow down & watch the puddle not the arc. good first efforts.

 

[malibu101]

slow down & watch the puddle not the arc. good first efforts.

Agreed.
Quite good for picking up a gun and going at it.
And like said above- watching the puddle, the toes, and how the fisheye is acting AND knowing how to make the puddle do what you want it to do is gained by lots of practice and some experienced guidance by a person who knows what they're doing.

 

[bullnerd]

Check out weldingtipsandtricks.com

Seeing it done will help a lot.

 

[cspcrx]

^ great site with lots of good info. He actually uses a 210mvp and shows how to set it up. Watching the puddle is a great tip but I have trouble with that. I think I need to adjust my helmet settings. I can see it at first but on longer welds I seem to be able to see my path less and less easily. Like my eyes are adjusting or something and it gets darker. Anyone else have this problem?

 

[markvfr]

Yup, that's how my welds looked like when I used a flux core on buddies welder for the first time. I got so interested in welding after making my first work bench, that I bought myself a LE MIG 180 two weeks ago. First sit down with it last weekend and on the third try I lucked out with this uphill push bead. It truly is night and day between flux and gas and of course a better welder.

 

[ollie76]

Some more today.....starting to get better I think. Outside corner joint was hard, I couldn't get the feel at all. Need more practice on those.

Flux core seems fine to me, the cleanup was pretty easy.

 

[Superbec]

stop trying to get stack of dimes look, keep eyes on the puddle if you can even see it, look at the edges and try to fill in and control

cut some coupons and stop ruining good steel, weld over and over .

practice=hours of hood time not 2 minutes squirting all over the place

 

[ollie76]

Ahem, it was 7 mins of squirting thank you very much

 

[Superbec]

Ahem, it was 7 mins of squirting thank you very much

keep going

 

[f150skidoo]

Looking good ollie76, always a good sign when you see the heat marks on the back side of the piece of steel. Like everyone else said you just got to spend hours burning pounds of wire to get better. Reading this thread made me get the itch and go out and buy a 12lb spool of NR-211. I haven't ran FC wire in a few years, I only burn ER70S-6 solid mig wire about 30lbs a year as a hobby welder.

 

[MarkG]

In school, we heard talk about being a good 2" welder-----and this is why! Yes, I know you're anxious to see what kind of wonderful bead you are putting down, but by stopping shortly after you start, you're not even getting into a rhythm or getting a steady pace figured out, not to mention that a lot of joints are longer than that and the fewer stops and re-starts you have, the fewer chances for inclusions and discontinuities! Force yourself to run a continuous bead the full length of the plate WITHOUT STOPPING and try to follow a soapstone line for your first pass----subsequent passes you can lap ('stacking beads'----you can cover a whole plate with beads lapped this way and get a LOT more use out of your material. That's what you'll do in school if you go) Trying to follow a line 6-8" long will tell you where you are as a welder, better than a 2" worm.

 

[Lassen Forge]

For first welds those are impressive. It's like those guys (or gals - ahem ) that can pick up a pistol for the first time and take out the center of a target. If those were really your first, you have some untapped natural talent there!

 

[ollie76]

You guys are right of course......I know it.

I guess so much of "basic" welding is in proper setup of the machine. I've watched tons of videos by Jody on Welding Tips and Tricks.com and ChuckE2009 and I got a pile of good information from them. I kinda knew what to look out for going in as they have done a great job in providing the basics.

I set my machines wire drive tension perfectly, used a 20A circuit, made sure to dial in the settings according to the chart on the side of the unit, made sure my ground was as good as possible, used a good auto-darkening helmet with a wide viewing area, correct polarity, using PAM for anti-spatter, etc. I also know how to spot going too fast or too slow.

I can see the weld puddle well now and it took a little practice to get some feel for it, however, I know that if I was even a slight bit out of my comfort zone here that I would make a proper mess of it. What do I have here? 5 mins with the trigger pulled, if that? The motion came naturally for me and I'm not 100% sure where that came from......maybe just watching others on Youtube I guess.

 

[markvfr]

Some more today.....starting to get better I think. Outside corner joint was hard, I couldn't get the feel at all. Need more practice on those.

Flux core seems fine to me, the cleanup was pretty easy.

Those look really good for flux core. Way better than my flux core attempts.

 

[vintagespeed1956]

get some 2" flat strap, cut it with ur chopsaw in 2" pieces, cut 6 of them and weld a cube (you end up welding 24 linear inches per cube.) bonus points when you can install an air valve and get it to hold pressure.

keep working at it.

 

[trackwelder]

You guys are right of course......I know it.

I guess so much of "basic" welding is in proper setup of the machine. I've watched tons of videos by Jody on Welding Tips and Tricks.com and ChuckE2009 and I got a pile of good information from them. I kinda knew what to look out for going in as they have done a great job in providing the basics.

I set my machines wire drive tension perfectly, used a 20A circuit, made sure to dial in the settings according to the chart on the side of the unit, made sure my ground was as good as possible, used a good auto-darkening helmet with a wide viewing area, correct polarity, using PAM for anti-spatter, etc. I also know how to spot going too fast or too slow.

I can see the weld puddle well now and it took a little practice to get some feel for it, however, I know that if I was even a slight bit out of my comfort zone here that I would make a proper mess of it. What do I have here? 5 mins with the trigger pulled, if that? The motion came naturally for me and I'm not 100% sure where that came from......maybe just watching others on Youtube I guess.

Please don't take this the wrong way but you seem to be over confident with these welds. They might seem ok to you but they are not that great. Please don't try and weld anything that could fail and hurt someone. You can not learn to weld in 5 minutes.

 

[ollie76]

I think you have misunderstood me. I'm fully aware of how terrible I am at welding. I guess I'm just a little surprised how "OK" my first welds came out. I was assuming I would not be able to do anything and in the end I was quite happy to see the results.

I have a long way to go

 

[trackwelder]

I think you have misunderstood me. I'm fully aware of how terrible I am at welding. I guess I'm just a little surprised how "OK" my first welds came out. I was assuming I would not be able to do anything and in the end I was quite happy to see the results.

I have a long way to go

I'm glad you understand. If possible try to weld with someone that knows what they are doing or maybe take a few classes. Learning how to do things right from the start really helps to be a proficient welder. I have had to teach guys that where doing things wrong for many years, it's hard to teach a old dog new tricks..