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finnally ordered a welder: started floor repair. have a couple questions

welding machines usually have parameters inside the door, thickness of metal you desire to weld wire size, type of gas or flux core, and it will tell you what settings to use, from there you can fine tune, on heavier metal I always run a little hotter ie- 1/4 steel , I set to 5/16 settings. make sure your polarity is right for your process
 
wire pushing the gun away turn down speed or turn up heat or hold gun closer to work (tighten up stick out) wire melting before it hits metal do the opposite but always try to keep the gun tight to work without touching it no matter what
 
ryoken said:
is this fluxcore, or gas?
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Flux core. I found the arc started a bit better on occasion if I hovered the wire above and let the wire spool onto the metal rather than touch the wire to the metal then pull the trigger.
 
i usually just get my position set and hands where i wanna start the bead and then pull the trigger, shouldnt be that hard to start it.
 
Keep the gun down there nice and close and turn the wire speed down. Master straight line welding first. Just play with it. Turn the temp and wire speed way up and way down to watch how it reacts. It takes time to get good penitration and beads.
 
metalneverdies said:
Flux core. I found the arc started a bit better on occasion if I hovered the wire above and let the wire spool onto the metal rather than touch the wire to the metal then pull the trigger.
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well,yeah, your not creating grd... some of the better welders, my 180 for example, have circuitry to allow the wire to touch somewhat, but the cheaper machines, no...

fluxcore will smoke a bit more.. make sure the steel is grinded clean...
 
What shade is your hood? Auto or fixed? If you can take a class at a community college itll help. Certain things need to be said while your welding. Convert that machine to gas. And its been a month since your last post here. You gotta give us more than 15 or so beads of practice. Go buy a piece of 2" or 3" flat bar stock. About 2 feet long. 8th inch think or 3/16ths thick. Clamp it to your work bench and run beads across the width of the material. Start at the end and work your way back to the bench. No weaving, just keep the weld puddle the same size as you drag it from edge to edge. After the very first bead, run the puddle half way on the previous bead and the parent metal for every bead after the first. Also keep a bucket of water near buy and every two or three beads cool off the material. You DO NOT do this when working on a project but when your practicing its fine. You have to practice more! PM me if you want and ill give you My cell number if you need to talk to someone. I can also text you pictures of what type of practices you should be doing.
 
K5 Jess said:
What shade is your hood? Auto or fixed? If you can take a class at a community college itll help. Certain things need to be said while your welding. Convert that machine to gas. And its been a month since your last post here. You gotta give us more than 15 or so beads of practice. Go buy a piece of 2" or 3" flat bar stock. About 2 feet long. 8th inch think or 3/16ths thick. Clamp it to your work bench and run beads across the width of the material. Start at the end and work your way back to the bench. No weaving, just keep the weld puddle the same size as you drag it from edge to edge. After the very first bead, run the puddle half way on the previous bead and the parent metal for every bead after the first. Also keep a bucket of water near buy and every two or three beads cool off the material. You DO NOT do this when working on a project but when your practicing its fine. You have to practice more! PM me if you want and ill give you My cell number if you need to talk to someone. I can also text you pictures of what type of practices you should be doing.
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Its a fixed shade hood. A jackson hsl 100. I believe its shade 11 or 12? I would have to double check.

If I could take a class at the local CC I would be all over that. Unfortunately my local CC does not offer one. There is a good tech school but I cant go there because it is an 8 week full time deal.

How much can I expect to pay to rent a tank and switch to gas?

The reason for the long time between posts is because of my work schedule then with the ice and snow and being 30 degrees in my garage I decided to stay indoors. Im on the board all the time just dont post too much.

The only work bench I have at my disposal is wood. I have been bent over on the concrete trying to do all my practicing.

Sending you a PM. Some pics would be very helpful.
 
learning to weld can be tuff, you need to take all variables out of it, so you can really focus on learning, part of being able to weld is to trouble shoot problems, so being comfortable, having the right stuff, having the machine set right will allow you to learn. one thing being wrong will throw you off, and while you think it's because you don't know how to weld it can be some other variable, thats why I always recommend taking a class, or if you know someone who welds they can set you up and check out what you got going on. post up some pics or video and I can or some of these other guys on here can get you going in the right direction. the mig will be easier to learn because you get to see the bead (no flux). but flux isn't too bad, just make sure you are running on some 1/4" thick metal thinner metal can be harder with flux core. another tip I can give you is LWS always marks their stuff way up and they will negotiate prices so never pay asking price, you gotta hear their quote and then tell them you want the good guy price.... and beat them down as low as you can.... you get it.

switch to shade 10, 10 is sufficient for what you're doing 11-12 is dark
 
starting floor repair

Ok, I started welding up the cracks in floor. Next I am going to work on adding some support pads where the seat mounts.

Does any one know what thickness the floor material is? I would just barely end up burning a pin hole here and there. I guessed the floor was 18 gauge.

If I am welding plates that are a bit thicker to the floor should I go with a setting for thinner material so I do not burn through? I assume I would run a stringer weld in the crack between the two pieces like how a t joint is done?
 
Aim your tip at the thicker of the two metals to be welded so that you still get penetration on both but don't burn through the thinner metal.
 
I havent welded stuff that thin before except for practice once. I would think you would just use a series of tack welds. That thin stuff doesnt hold heat well.
 
You just gonna have to get the feel for it. If you blow through, do quick tacks. If you still blow through, do tack, let cool, tack let cool (and by let cool I mean just for a second for it to not be red anymore)

It takes some practice to figure out what you can get away with.
 
I know you have a welder, and want to use it, but for some of that stuff, you might consider brazing.
On really thin sheet metal, I have done some welding with good success, but it takes a while and you have to go back and fill in the blowouts.

I can run a brazed seam much faster.
 
Make sure you stop drill the cracks before you start welding them up.
 
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