Teach me on my welds

[ticci]

Last time I welded was on junior high. Wasn't really good at it and tought that I'll never need that skill. After a decade you start seeing things bit differently... So I bought cheap old welder and decided to start training. Couple hours in youtube and this is what I was capable to do for some exhaust pipe:

Can you give some tips to improve my welds? They seem to be little high, am I just staying too much on the top of the larger pipe? Welding outdoors with mig seem to bee little tricky, propably the shield gas is blown away in longer welds. I'm using c02 from an old extinguisher turned upside down for now on.

Have some problems learning how to control my machine. Feels like I'm getting symptons of too fast wire speed when I'm turning the speed knob anti-klockwise; popping, spattering and so on. I will propably contact the manufacturer if they had some manuals left in archive since there was none with my machine.

Thanks for your input!

 

[allinon72]

The armchair welder in me says you need more heat and less wire speed.

 

[shedfullatools]

The armchair welder in me says you need more heat and less wire speed.

Bit more heat little less wire speed

 

[zmotorsports]

First off, get some 3/16" or 1/4" flat to practice on rather than exhaust tubing. Secondly, try to avoid the "tack, tack, tack" welding that by the looks of the crater you are doing to join the welds. Set the machine appropriately, squeeze the trigger and weld in one bead. You can manipulate the gun to get various weld characteristics but try to avoid the trigger method of tack, tack, tack welding as the penetration is quite poor.

Practice first to achieve a sound weld with proper penetration and then focus on aesthetics. Proper metal prep will also yield you huge benefits so get rid of the mill scale on the scrap before you start.

Once you get proficient on thicker plate then you can come back and work on the thin wall tubing. Trust me it will be much easier to learn on thicker material and then move to the thinner tubing vs. starting out on thin wall tubing.

Mike.

 

[zmotorsports]

Also, in the above weld it would be helpful to know what wire you are running. I would recommend for something that thin to use .024" or .030" but something like .035" or .045" will require way too much current to get a good weld profile.

Mike.

 

[LXCam]

Also it looks like your using aluminized tubing. Clean all the coating **** off. The amperage setting looks ok, just back off on the wire speed and tack weld it.

 

[jimgood]

If you're using MIG outside, the wind will definitely blow the gas away. Put up some kind of screen to block the wind or use flux core wire (but remember to reverse your polarity if your machine allows it).

Try tack welds on that material. A one-second tack should be pretty flat; maybe a mm of crown at most. Play with the adjustments until you get it but allow the metal to cool between tacks.

 

[f150skidoo]

Try and get some C25 gas instead of a fire extinguishers CO2, as others said try and lay a continuous bead instead of tack, tack, tack on a piece of 1/8" plus fla tbar

 

[Dr.phil]

too cold

 

[WWShop]

Yep, a little more heat. Your welds have what is called cold lap. Also try practicing a circular motion as if you were writing a cursive "e" with the mig gun.

 

[R.Anderson]

Try and get some C25 gas instead of a fire extinguishers CO2, as others said try and lay a continuous bead instead of tack, tack, tack on a piece of 1/8" plus fla tbar

Nothing wrong with CO2 with MIG. CO2 from a fire extinguisher is just great way to use one other than chilling your beer in a hurry, best use for that fire extinguisher is for what it was made for sitting next to your welder. 20lb tank of CO2 is my preferred choice for shielding gas for MIG, gets you more penetration vs 75/25 and it is cheaper, only disadvantage is faster splatter build up on your nozzle and that is no biggy.

 

[brownbagg]

flux core mig, first, clean your metal, then when you get done, clean it again, how i know, that yellow **** is burn contaminated, and that why you fought the mig to weld. second if the weld stands up, you too cold, if it flatten out you running good to hot, and that could be bad ground because you metal needs to be clean, or you moving too fast or too slow.

I hate mig, to damn picky, clean your metal and have a good ground, watch the arc length

 

[Showkey]

flux core mig, first, clean your metal, then when you get done, clean

I hate mig, to damn picky, clean your metal and have a good ground, watch the arc length

Any and all weld processes ........clean base metals is critical .......especially TIG, MIG, GAS maybe stick is a little more tolerant and can burn through rust and ****.

 

[ticci]

Wow, lots of replays! Thank you guys.

First off, get some 3/16" or 1/4" flat to practice on rather than exhaust tubing. Secondly, try to avoid the "tack, tack, tack" welding that by the looks of the crater you are doing to join the welds. Set the machine appropriately, squeeze the trigger and weld in one bead. You can manipulate the gun to get various weld characteristics but try to avoid the trigger method of tack, tack, tack welding as the penetration is quite poor.

Practice first to achieve a sound weld with proper penetration and then focus on aesthetics. Proper metal prep will also yield you huge benefits so get rid of the mill scale on the scrap before you start.

Once you get proficient on thicker plate then you can come back and work on the thin wall tubing. Trust me it will be much easier to learn on thicker material and then move to the thinner tubing vs. starting out on thin wall tubing.

Mike.

The pipe was just something that I needed to do and thought to do some training rather than using clamps. I did some longer seems also, but they suffered from the lack of shielding gas wich was blown away. I'll get proper material for next time I'm with the welder.

Also it looks like your using aluminized tubing. Clean all the coating **** off. The amperage setting looks ok, just back off on the wire speed and tack weld it.

Didn't really tought about that, the pipe for sure is aluminized.

Bit more heat little less wire speed

Problem is I only have a 4-way switch for heat. I tried going with the full steam but it felt too much. May have to upgrade the switch if I come across a broken bigger model.

For now I'll use the leftovers from the extinguisher, but propably will be getting proper shielding gas later also. Will need the better penatration, higher mass and ability to deal with some not-so-clean materials of Co2, but getting co2 filled is a pain...

 

[sberry]

The wire feed is the heat, the other knob is the voltage adjustment.

 

[CNGsaves]

Hopefully you watched all the great videos on YouTube . . .
. . . .
. . . . . . . WeldingTipsAndTricks

This guy is terrific !!

 

[steel 35]

There is a muffler shop in my town that would hire you in a heart beat.

Defiantly not the easiest thing to start with, but it is practicing.

 

[ticci]

The wire feed is the heat, the other knob is the voltage adjustment.

Well that's confusing. I'm not native, so next time I should crank the 4-stage power switch up and turn my wire speed down. Is this right?

Hopefully you watched all the great videos on YouTube . . .
. . . .
. . . . . . . WeldingTipsAndTricks

This guy is terrific !!

Great videos, will watch!

There is a muffler shop in my town that would hire you in a heart beat.

Defiantly not the easiest thing to start with, but it is practicing.

Hopefully not. I'm not even aiming to be a pro/class welder, just learn something new and bring old skills back.

 

[LXCam]

Well that's confusing. I'm not native, so next time I should crank the 4-stage power switch up and turn my wire speed down. Is this .

Well his statement is incorrect. Heat is the voltage adjustment, it has nothing to do with the wire feed rate. But your statement is actually correct and is what's being suggested by everyone else. I still happen to think just dialing back your feed will allow enough burn time to get penetration but you'll need to play with it and see. If you do increase the voltage setting and start burning thru the material you can off set that by increasing the wire feed to some extent. But as suggested, clean everything really good and make sure you have the ground attached securely and on clean metal too.

 

[FANTM58]

When you weld
Outside. Are you running off an extension cord, if so the may be an issue .

 

[wrenchMONKEY_]

When you weld
Outside. Are you running off an extension cord, if so the may be an issue .

Can be. Depends on the gauge. I run 75 ft of 10/3 for my 220V and have no issues.

 

[sberry]

Well his statement is incorrect. Heat is the voltage adjustment, it has nothing to do with the wire feed rate. But your statement is actually correct and is what's being suggested by everyone else. I still happen to think just dialing back your feed will allow enough burn time to get penetration but you'll need to play with it and see. If you do increase the voltage setting and start burning thru the material you can off set that by increasing the wire feed to some extent. But as suggested, clean everything really good and make sure you have the ground attached securely and on clean metal too.

Where did you learn this?

 

[LXCam]

Where did you learn this?

Knitting school

 

[sberry]

What I describe is one of the fundamental principles of adjusting a wire feeder. The wire speed is the amperage control.
Lincoln and Miller didn't label that knob heat,,, they labeled it arc volts.

 

[LXCam]

Well berry I want you to know you are right. After 20yrs of mig welding I obviously thought the voltage control was also coordinated with the amperage control. And wire feed was only that. But I looked at millers site this morning just to confirm and you are correct. So thanks for the education, your comments forced an old dog to learn a new trick.

 

[bullnerd]

What I describe is one of the fundamental principles of adjusting a wire feeder. The wire speed is the amperage control.
Lincoln and Miller didn't label that knob heat,,, they labeled it arc volts.

Yeah, I took a evening welding course right after high school,(47 now) took some time to understand that one. LOL.

 

[sberry]

Good. I was just thinking about this in regards to another thread I hacked at. I left welding school for Ironwork and am a career stick welder and by that time tutors were poor but was in my 30's before I used feeders. Even today would struggle, should still go back over the charts and curves to get right.
With a stick and construction work it was simply a matter of turning it up most of the time.

 

[sberry]

These little feeders are a *********, I hated cleaning all that slag and whart a constant mess it was, smoky and terrible on thin materials. Even though a bigger machine can be turned down they have the arc super tuned in some of these steps for 030 c/25. They made the Lincoln 180T for a long time inside several jackets now but its a really good machine with a simple 5 speed.
Wire does seem to make a little difference and seems to show up more problems in variable machines where a guy can set narrow parameters.
I bought 2 rolls of generic China the LWS had, it was abut 1/2 price and he said they sell a lot. Man it was good in a fussy machine, followed it with USA, same spec, didn't move a thing and the machine ran bad and it really takes work to tune it after a change.
I regret not snagging the deal on a couple more rolls while it was hot. The Hobart wire at the farm store is good

 

[sberry]

Another thing is that the 240 machine is 2x as good usually a small machine on a good circuit and will double the output of a 120V with basically the same parasitic losses. Less and less of the worlds stuff is build using true structural steel. You can do a lot of work with the thing but it gets slow and costly, machine can fix most things most people own.

 

[sberry]

Ok, back to the subject,,,,, some of the import little welders label it as heat. But we need a real electrician to splain it to us.

 

[jimgood]

Well, sberry, you have taught me something new. Wire speed (along with wire gauge) affects amperage.
https://www.millerwelds.com/resources/article-library/miggmaw-101-setting-the-correct-parameters

 

[vintagespeed1956]

best results i've had welding exhaust tubing is welding 1-2" stitch at a time, if you try to weld the whole thing in one shot (and your machine isn't setup right) you'll start popping holes. i'd tack it up, weld a stitch, flip it over, weld a stitch, etc.

once you get the hang of it your stitches will get longer and your holes fewer.