Welding Tips

[Retroanaconda]

Hello all,

Got my welder up and running today, thought I'd give it a go on some 1" box section I got 'free' with the workshop. Not expecting much as the steel is likely not that clean, and my grinder was at home, but worth a shot anyhow.

This is what I ended up with:

Couple of spot welds and one seam

Second seam

Third seam

Tried a joint for a laugh, didn't work suprisingly

Spent a lot of time playing with the settings on the welder and seeing what effect they have.

First question is, what's the yellow stuff that accumulated around the weld?

Second question, is there anyone local who would like to earn themselves a few beer tokens by coming and giving me a short starter lesson?

[Ex Member]

You are running much too cold. Turn up da heat.

[steve b]

Not bad for a first go , you need to reduce your wire feed and/or up the amps, also weaving the tip as you move along the weld path will help to smooth the weld and make it less 'humped' in cross section. Are you pushing or pulling the weld? Pushing - angling the torch to point away from the weld and towards the rest of the un welded joint is the easiest way to get to grips with it.

On the 90 deg joint hold the tip at 45 deg and weave across the joint line to each piece of parent metal again pushing the weld.

You may also find it useful to cut through the practice welds at 90deg to weld to see the penetration in section.

The band of bluing either side of the weld and on the reverse of the work will give you clues as to even-ness of weld speed and penetration ie where the heat marks are wider and dark blue = weld speed slower on the work and more heat going in , narrower and light bluing or straw colour = weld too fast and less heat going into work.

cheers

Steveb

[Retroanaconda]

Thanks for the tips guys

I need to get some sheet steel to practice on so that I can see what's happening the other side. I will call into my local steel stockist and see if they have any off-cuts in 2mm and 3mm, as it's mostly chassis work I will be doing for now, maybe the odd bit of footwell.

[Ex Member]

A good guideline for MIG welding is to keep turning up the amperage until you have trouble burning through, then back off a little. The biggest problem with MIG is ensuring fusion to the parent metal and most people run too cold. There is a correct wire speed for the amperage. Play with it and look at the effects.

You should not "need" to weave if the settings are correct and you weld at the right speed with the right torch angle. Practice and play.

[Retroanaconda]

I guess it's not helped by the fact that my wire speed control doesn't have a knob on currently, so making fine adjustments is a bit tricky! Got one on order from Maplins though so should be good soon.

Am I right in thinking that with a MIG machine like mine (Murex Miget) the amperage is in fact controlled by the wire speed? As my 'power setting dial' is a voltage selector.

[fozsug]

Good first attempt, and some good tips. Have a look on here

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

gives some basic info.

[fozsug]

Power is set by the Voltage control switch, wire speed by the wire speed knob

http://www.spawelding.co.uk/images/stories/Miget.pdf

[Ex Member]

Yes, sorry.... I should have said voltage. MIGs use a constant (adjustable) voltage supply.

[Les Henson]

Your first attempts are a lot better than mine were

As a few have said - the weld is on top of the metal - rather than part of it, so a weak join at present. The discolouration around the weld is dirt, etc, being burnt off, and is fairly common if the metal hasn't been cleaned properly first (it's surprising the difference in the weld between clean and dirty metal). All the welds in your pics look like wire speed is ok, but amps are too low, so try again a click or two higher. I found it easier to learn on thicker metal, then try the thinner stuff. Moving the gun from side to side as you weld will help - especially when welding into a corner, or on thicker metal.

Lots of practice and some patience and you'll get it in the end

Les.

[jcwcooper]

Better than my first attempts too!

Its definitely worth going on http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/ as someone else mentioned. You should be able to pick it up from there fairly easily, as les said try starting on some thicker metal and then working your way down......Thin metal can be very difficult to weld.

Keep practicing and you will get better and better!

It looks like your using argosheild too at a guess? I need a BOC account I think!

Dave.