Started to weld today, critique/feedback is appreciated.

[MotoCARR]

Machine: Lincoln Electric Weld Pack HD, runs on house current, flux core wire
Material: Scrap car exhaust pipe, just like what you would find at you local parts store or muffler shop. Not an OEM exhaust.
Experience: Stick welding a few days in high school shop class 17 years ago and YouTube

Best weld of the day:

Essentially I was practicing **** joints. I kept burning a hole in the material so I thought that the setting was too high(as seen all the way to the left). After I laid this beauty down I remembered that for this weld I had put the pipe in a vise and as I moved from left to right, the material got closer together and the burn through stopped. I think for most of the time I had my material too far apart so and as a result I turned the power down, and now it was spattering all over the place.

Couple questions:
1. In general, how far away should I keep the torch/wand away from the material as I am laying a weld down?
2. Does splatter usually only show up if you don't have enough power for the material you're working on?
3. Are you able to tell if I was laying the weld too fast?(I think I was for fear of burning a hole)
4. When doing a **** joint, should both pieces of material be touching or should there be a gap? If so how big of a gap?

Any tips/tricks/advice/critique besides "that weld *****" is appreciated!(I know it ***** ) For those who have used this or a similar welder before, settings are below.

 

[Know Wosad]

That weld suc......
OK. Go to welding tips and tricks com. Order the DVD set and keep in mind even though that machine says " Lincoln"-YAY. It's really barely anything more than a train transformer that can kinda-sorta burn metal.Practice on 1/8" flat stock with the machine maxed out.Learn its duty cycle and respect it or you'll smoke that little toy.

 

[jimgood]

Are you sure you're using flux-core wire? That bead looks really porous; like solid wire when the gas is turned off (or the wind is blowing it away). Way more spatter than I'd expect for even flux-core.

 

[MotoCARR]

Are you sure you're using flux-core wire? That bead looks really porous; like solid wire when the gas is turned off (or the wind is blowing it away). Way more spatter than I'd expect for even flux-core.

I'll double check. I'm 99% sure I would have bought the right thing since I grabbed an extra spool of wire at the same time I bought it, but like my welds I'm not perfect.

 

[jimgood]

I would try for zero gap or a gap no wider than the wire.
The stick-out doesn't matter than much for flux-core.

Try tack welds on a piece of the metal where there's no gap to weld. Hit the trigger for 1 second (count one one thousand and stop) and don't move the gun. There should be a nice smooth weld spot with maybe a few spots of spatter. Adjust the setting up or down a little until you get a nice looking spot. Then try that setting on the gap.

 

[MotoCARR]

Try tack welds on a piece of the metal where there's no gap to weld. Hit the trigger for 1 second (count one one thousand and stop) and don't move the gun. There should be a nice smooth weld spot with maybe a few spots of spatter. Adjust the setting up or down a little until you get a nice looking spot. Then try that setting on the gap.

Ah I see. Great info I will definitely give that a shot!(Maybe tomorrow when it's not 95 outside.)

 

[jimgood]

Also, I'm not familiar with the two red switches but you might try playing with those a little.

Edit: Also, make sure you let the metal cool a little between test welds. You can cool it with a wet towel to speed things up. I found that if you keep doing test welds without letting the metal cool, the preheated metal gets hotter and hotter making it difficult to make the test repeatable.

 

[MotoCARR]

I found that if you keep doing test welds without letting the metal cool, the preheated metal gets hotter and hotter making it difficult to make the test repeatable.

i noticed that too while I was Swiss cheesing the material. Sometimes if I stopped and started again ~30 sec later I would burn a hole almost instantly.

 

[jimgood]

i noticed that too while I was Swiss cheesing the material. Sometimes if I stopped and started again ~30 sec later I would burn a hole almost instantly.

Right. That's a technique thing. After you start a bead in thin stuff, you might have to very slightly increase your travel speed.

 

[MoonRise]

OK, that weld *****.

Step #1 : RTFM. Twice. At least.

Step #2 : Verify the type of wire you are using. You said FCAW? Is it Lincoln NR-211MP wire (a 'standard' Lincoln small-machine FCAW wire and the one that Lincoln usually bundles in with their 'small' wire feed machines, decent wire usually when used within its limits)?

Step #3 : Verify the machine's polarity setting. Wire feed machines can be set for either DCEN (DC Electrode Negative) or DCEP (DC Electrode Positive), RTFM and/or check the label inside the wire compartment door to make sure you have the polarity setting correct for the wire you are using. Solid wire GMAW (aka MIG) is run using DCEP, the Lincoln NR-211MP FCAW wire is run using DCEN.

OK, I went to the Lincoln site and grabbed a copy of the owner's manual for the Lincoln Weld-Pak HD machine. It's an FCAW only machine, so you don't have to check the polarity setting (there is none on that machine). It can use 0.035" wire only, so don't go trying to use some 0.030" FCAW wire (you'd have to understand wire feed welding a wee bit more than 'beginner' level, and even then the limited adjustability of the machine would have you completely guessing on what parameters to even try to run with a wire size other than what Lincoln already figured out that the machine runs with).

Step #4 : A poorly fitting **** joint with galvanized or aluminized muffler pipe is a tough configuration to 'learn' on. Even more so if using FCAW, and even more so with a machine with limited adjustability.

Get some plain mild steel (not galvanized or aluminized) pieces 1/8" thick (thinner steel is way easier to instantly blow a whole right through it, and FCAW is a 'hotter' process than short-circuit transfer mode GMAW). Clean and degrease them, use your angle grinder (you one or six, right?) with a flap disk or hard grinding wheel (not a wire wheel, that doesn't remove mill scale at all) to remove the mill scale (that black 'coating' on hot-rolled steel) down to clean bright shiny steel.

Then set up for some practice welds. But set up for a lap joint, not a **** joint. The manual says to use settings H-2 and wire feed speed of 9 when welding on 1/8" thick steel.

And remember,

If there is slag, then drag.

Meaning if you are doing a weld with a slag-producing process (which for most of us means when doing SMAW aka stick welds or FCAW welds) then you 'drag' the weld as you are doing it.

For a right-handed welder, that means hold the stick or MIG/FCAW torch/gun in your right hand and point it to the left. Strike your arc weld, let the weld puddle start forming (it can happen rather quickly, so be ready), and then travel from left-to-right.

Right hand, point towards the left, drag the puddle from the left to the right.

Reverse things if you are a lefty (or weld with your right hand ).

Easy, right?

Next tip, Watch the weld puddle, not the bright arc. You want to (and need to) pay attention to the puddle of molten steel that you are forming and using to melt some of the workpiece steel with the little bit of added molten steel from your filler electrode and let the bit of molten steel all co-mingle (workpiece-filler-workpiece) so that you actually weld and join your workpieces together.

Summary: Use some 1/8" steel and practice with a lap joint.

Oh, regarding stick-out. It does matter. RTFM (Page B-5). For that machine (with the FCAW process, using the recommended/required 0.035 Lincoln NR-211MP wire), the stick-out is supposed to be ~ 3/8" (or call it 1/2" +/- 1/8" )

Just like getting to Carnegie Hall, practice, practice, practice. And make a left turn at Albuquerque.

 

[MotoCARR]

Thanks for the great info MoonRise, definitely gives me something to go off of!

 

[txvwnut]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the sound you want to hear while welding, a steady buzz or sizzle is all your after.
MoonRise gave you the best info you'll get for that machine and your experience level. Also if you feel the gun trying to push back in your hand then you either have the feed to fast or not enough heat. If you feel push back and your not burning through then turn the feed speed down.
But like suggested before watch your puddle and checkout www.weldingtipsandtricks.com, Jody has good videos to learn by and he speaks it plain and simple.

 

[rayra]

yes, start with tacks and learn how to get a proper puddle on the metal you are using. Then transition to trying to lay a bead. You're far too uneven in your heating and speed, thus gettign both burn throughs and spatter all over the place.
start small and slow. Then work in shorter sections until you get a good feel. You can make a good solid weld without it being pretty, but 'pretty' also means even strength in the bead.
Making long crappy welds just wastes a lot of material and money.

Lots of training vids on youtube, watch many of them. And read up on your wire choice, it makes a big difference, especially when you are just starting out.

 

[motobilt]

Looks like it would benefit you to take heed to the posts above and watch some Youtube videos. We work with a lot of guys wanting to learn here in the shop. Machine setup is the place to start. technique is very important but technique does you no good with a machine that will not perform. I would also highly recommend getting with someone who welds and learn from watching and listening. I was recently working with one of the new guys in my shop. We worked on his speed and motion in conjunction with him listening to what was going on. Made a huge improvement in his skill.

 

[Murphy4570]

You are better served practicing on thick metal. **** welding thin steel is a pain in the *** if you don't know what you are doing. Even then, it can be a pain in the ***. Spread the heat. Weave it in.

You are using a very basic low-end machine. Lincoln is a great brand, but understand the limitations of that machine. You have very limited amperage adjustment on a machine that uses thick flux core wire, which is good for penetration to begin with. You will only get pissed off trying to weld very thin metal. Set the amps to the lowest setting and move the heat. If you are blowing through, move faster or lower the amps. You can drag the gun, or use stick welding patterns, like circles, figure eights, E-pattern, whip, et cetera.

I first learned on flux core with exhaust pipe myself. Not an easy learning curve. Once you start looking at the puddle and getting a "feel" for it, you will have it down pat. You have to simultaneously be looking at the puddle, as well as where you want to go.

**** welds should be fitted tight, with no gap. Must go fast and stitch both sides together well. Move the puddle from side to side.

 

[Showkey]

Motocar..........all the above info is good..........BUT............do you have a friend or neighbor that knows how to MIG weld. They could spent 20-30 minutes setting the machine up and watch you weld.

 

[ovrrdrive]

Until you try out your skills on some thicker steel we aren't seeing what you're capable of. Not at all.

You're starting out on metal that's on a skill level of about 7 out of 10. As mentioned above get some better practice material. 1/8" run of the mill steel is about perfect for that machine. They sell some practice kits from Lincoln Welding Foundations website that are great. Just order 5 or more kits to get the discount and save on shipping.

I hate welding thin metal with a passion. When I built my plasma table I did the whole thing in 1/8" or better just for that reason. Not only is it easier to weld but the welds look better and are stronger too.

When I started welding I had a pile of galvanized trampoline pipe that was about the same thickness as what you have there. I got so tired of stitching holes back up that I did eventually figure out the correct settings but even better I learned to jump around and not stay in one spot too long. The most important thing I learned was to find some thicker steel to weld.

 

[FigureItOut]

From a slightly more experienced beginner, I had a hard time learning from the often recommended Welding Tips and Tricks in the very beginning. I found a YouTube channel done by a young guy called ChuckE2009 who made much more sense to me. You might check him out, hopefully you'll find an earlier FCAW video from before he morphed into little more than a pitchman. Jody from WT&Ts is now my best internet resource, but at first he just didn't hit the things I needed covered the way ChuckE2009 did.

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