Welding Tips!

[bikebuilder]

I have the cheap CRAFTSMAN brand MIG and am very happy with it. Obviously GAS-Mig is better than gasless, but if your MIG is gasless, I would suggest experimenting with scrap metal. Try putting your tip at different distances from the weld. I tend to get nice results at about 1/4 - 1/2" from the weld. This helped more than anything else I tried. Unless I am working with sheet metal, I leave it on high power. I welded a lot of parts for my car that had to be water tight and air tight. My gasless mig did fine. I wish I had a closer shot of some of the welds, but here is my exhaust done with a gasless mig.

Good Luck!

 

[Wingman]

Something that I didn't mention ..
The hearing sence comes into play while your welding .
When you have the tip at what I will call the sweet spot.... However far away it has to be ( Typicaly like stated before .... .125 to .250 away from metal surface being welded) you will hear it with your ear when you hit that sweet spot ... the intensity of the buzzzzz .... will tell you if you are getting it done rite.

It's kinda a Audio / Visual kind of rythem deal .

Anyone ??

 

[MonsterMetal]

my teacher showed me the C way to do a bead or half moons back and forth back and forth. oh greg showed me that if u start burnning through stuff either switch to thinner wire or turn up the wire speed. i did that with mine (i run .035 wire at anywhere between 3 3.5) and that works for me. also depends on what thickness your welding and it gets tricky when welding a thick peice to thin stuff

Just a note.... That speed the wire thing up only works on a pretty small welder.. If you have a big industrial megga amp welder then speeding the wire up actually increases the temp of the weld, the reason it works with a smaller welder is by stuffing more wire into the same puddle it cools it down... with a big welder the amps are tied to the wire speed, so by speeding up the wire you actually make the welder hotter not cooler

Just an FYI.... If it works on your machine keep doing it :mrgreen:

 

[MonsterMetal]

Something that I didn't mention ..
The hearing sence comes into play while your welding .
When you have the tip at what I will call the sweet spot.... However far away it has to be ( Typicaly like stated before .... .125 to .250 away from metal surface being welded) you will hear it with your ear when you hit that sweet spot ... the intensity of the buzzzzz .... will tell you if you are getting it done rite.

It's kinda a Audio / Visual kind of rythem deal .

Anyone ??

Yep... you can tell a lot about how your weld is going by how it sounds, its often the first indicator of something being wrong..


the stand off (how far the tip is away from your work) is very important... Id say under most circumstances .125 is too close. One thing to keep in mind is there are lots of things that come into play to determine how "hot" your weld is... The stand off is one most beginners over look... If your weld starts to get to hot you can pull the tip away from the weld and it will reduce the amps... you can pull it out to around an inch and still get a good weld... the closer it is the hotter the weld... Wire speed is another important factor.. on a small machine (110V) these things are really important because the machine has a limited output... But like has been said, practice is your friend... it takes about a 1000 hours under a hood to really get a good solid feel for what the wire does.. so get welding!!!

 

[MonsterMetal]

I should say I dont know everything about welding, but I do know a bit, and am more than willing to share, If you have a question and think I can help shoot me a PM ( this is not really directed at the current batch of stuff but someone in he future looking through past threads for insight)

 

[MonsterMetal]

I should say I dont know everything about welding, but I do know a bit, and am more than willing to share, If you have a question and think I can help shoot me a PM ( this is not really directed at the current **** of stuff but someone in he future looking through past threads for insight)

I thats the second time I got the ****** for B A T C H Hey Steve... is b a t ch now a bad word?

 

[Wingman]

Ok , here ya go ... Yep Yep Yep what the Monster Says. I to don't know every thing either ..... didn't know what to call it , just know how it works .

All I have ever run were the larger machines & Yep to adjusting the amps on the fly buy moving closer / farther away from the part with the tip.

Not ment as an insult .... I have always kinda viewed the low dollar / home machines that ya get at Harbor Frieght as Amusing & kinda cute . Endless scorces of flustration.

Like I said , Just my personal opinion .... Some thing is always better than nothing ... Mayby ????

For a person to get a fair shot at being a good welder they should have the oppertunity to give it a go on a nice box. I'm sure the Monster will agree with this