laying my first beads

[NEK5]

first, with the advice from Paul (ryoken), I started by laying some straight beads on a thick hunk of metal.

Then I said screw it, and found a piece of scrap, ground it clean, and layed a bead down.

So, how am I doing?

 

[Disciples Performance]

doesnt look too bad for a first time? what is your heat range and wire speed set at?

 

[twoslo4five0]

no expert by any mean but slow down...what motion are you using to get good pentration??i like using the half moons

 

[howdiy]

Is this stick or mig?

If mig I'd say you have way too much contamination or the tips are the wrong size for the wire or worn out.

 

[sweetk30]

little to fast.

and back feed a tiny bit at the end to prevent the puddle/hole you have there.

and you want more of the heat/time welding in the thicker metal. you can see good fusing on the thinner plate. and more of a square edge like its sitting on top of the metal for the thicker stuff.

so if you have same thickness it would be 50/50 split of the welding on both . and your second pic is thicker ond thin plate. you need to put more heat/time/welding in to the thicker stuff to get good penitration.

 

[jt512]

i thing i always tell people the most overlooked area is, prep work. i always use a grinder or flap wheel and not a wire brush anywhere i am going to weld and for where ever i am attaching my ground. you get a much cleaner "bare metal" surface to start with and it really make a difference especially with a mig. and like twoslo450 said i also like using the half moon or "C" motion. what kind of mask are you using? if you dont have one and plan on doing any amount of welding an auto darkner is the only was to go, and a adjustable one is even better! good job so far, get some scrap in various thickness and practice with different heats and welding different angles. welding on flat and vertical are totally different techniques.

 

[NEK5]

To start, this is the welder I`m using.
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100031840

doesnt look too bad for a first time? what is your heat range and wire speed set at?

its set at high 2 and 9, but will go up to ten.

no expert by any mean but slow down...what motion are you using to get good pentration??i like using the half moons

just pulling it along straight

Is this stick or mig?

If mig I'd say you have way too much contamination or the tips are the wrong size for the wire or worn out.

mig, and the machine is brand new

little to fast.

and back feed a tiny bit at the end to prevent the puddle/hole you have there.

and you want more of the heat/time welding in the thicker metal. you can see good fusing on the thinner plate. and more of a square edge like its sitting on top of the metal for the thicker stuff.

so if you have same thickness it would be 50/50 split of the welding on both . and your second pic is thicker ond thin plate. you need to put more heat/time/welding in to the thicker stuff to get good penitration.

so in a C motion, stay on the thicker part longer?

i thing i always tell people the most overlooked area is, prep work. i always use a grinder or flap wheel and not a wire brush anywhere i am going to weld and for where ever i am attaching my ground. you get a much cleaner "bare metal" surface to start with and it really make a difference especially with a mig. and like twoslo450 said i also like using the half moon or "C" motion. what kind of mask are you using? if you dont have one and plan on doing any amount of welding an auto darkner is the only was to go, and a adjustable one is even better! good job so far, get some scrap in various thickness and practice with different heats and welding different angles. welding on flat and vertical are totally different techniques.

it may not look like it, but I used an angle grinder to prep the metal, and where i put my ground. Here`s what I`m using for a helmet.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...Id=10053&productId=100341088&N=10000003+90401


Thanks guys!

 

[sweetk30]

you quoted mine.

yes stay on the thicker part a little longer when doing the sweeping c motion.

 

[NEK5]

My first real project will be welding up my exhast. Any tips?

 

[howdiy]

mig, and the machine is brand new

I still think it's the machine, the wire and tips match right? How does it sound when it welds? Is it smooth and crisp? Maybe take a video of your weld.

Heres a weld going perfectly straight. It's on the left small rectangle on the top.

And for the exhaust, what size is your welder? With mine I would probably stitch weld it, which is also know as the tack tack welding method

Read around here it helped me out a lot when I was beginning.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/

 

[NEK5]

Yeah, it`s setup from the factory, I doubt they`d put the wrong tips on it. No video camera here, but I guess it sounds alright, sounds like any other welder I have heard. thanks for the link. The welder I`m using is link in the top of my last reply

I still think it's the machine, the wire and tips match right? How does it sound when it welds? Is it smooth and crisp? Maybe take a video of your weld.

Heres a weld going perfectly straight. It's on the left small rectangle on the top.

And for the exhaust, what size is your welder? With mine I would probably stitch weld it, which is also know as the tack tack welding method

Read around here it helped me out a lot when I was beginning.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/

 

[howdiy]

Oh alright then, I didn't know you where using flux since you cleaned it after

In that case like everyone else said, slow down some and try out some different patterns and see what you like best. It's hard to go too slow, you'll know when you start burning through.

The site I gave you should answer most of your questions about welding exhuast. stitch welding would probably be best, unless you can keep from burning through.

It just takes a lot of time and practice

And for your settings start with what is on the back of the panel and adjust from there, thats what I usually do.

 

[fattymcgee]

should sound like bacon fryin...

 

[DEMON44]

I'm no welder but a good mig burn sounds exactly like bacon frying in a pan if you close your eyes and listen.

 

[twoslo4five0]

clarkjw24 taught me and i learned on a stick and am still learning on a stick...its all i have..he gave me and oily rust piece of 3/8s to learn on

 

[AZ79K5Project]

I'm no welder but a good mig burn sounds exactly like bacon frying in a pan if you close your eyes and listen.

I'll try your advice - I'm going to close my eyes the next time I weld. I can't do any worse.

I never thought about that - That's exactly what it sounds like.

 

[NEK5]

Any good? This is my passenger side radiator mount. I did half moons on all the welds except for the one ontop of the flat stock going to rad support (3rd pic), not sure what happened there. It got good pentration for sure as it got red hot!

I think I need to clean it up a little better, don`t think I can too much more though...

 

[tRustyK5]

When it looks like the inside of an "aero bar" it's not good. I see a lot of "aero bar" in those pics. It's known as porosity, and indicates some sort of contaminant, or lack of shielding going on. Welding over rust, paint, oil etc will do that. For single shield flux core (gasless wire) the smoke is a lot of the shielding...it displaces the oxygen in the arc. If your 'stick-out' is too long it can be a problem.

Stick-out is the distance from the contact tip/edge of the nozzle to the puddle. Shouldn't ever be more than 5/16"-3/8".

Rene

 

[NorCalKid]

Still looks like you still need to slow down a fair amount, get the tip in closer too like Rene said. I kinda doubt the porosity is from contaminants, with flux core you can get away with a lot and still get pretty decent welds. Way more then with a gas setup

 

[NEK5]

so is there something I should do to this piece or should it be alright? do I need to make it again? I still need to make the drivers side one, so I`ll have to try and adjust myself again....