Some welding advice

[dscowell]

A week ago I was finally able to lay down my first couple beads and was wanting some advice on what to work on. Don't be too harsh.

All of the Welding was done with a Lincoln 170 MIG welder. Can't remember the exact amps and wire speed everything was set at. I tried to keep the gun at a 30 degree angle to the surface I was welding and made circles over lapping one another.

Sorry some of the photos are real small then some are real big I just got a new phone and are trying to get it all figured out.




Not perfect by any means but I think for my first couple beads they aren't half bad. What can I do to improve? I'll be doing some stick welding another day so what would you guys suggest for that if anything different?

[94ToyBear]

Pretty good for first welds ! Keep practicing!

[Haku]

Not bad for your first ones with no experienced welder looking over you. They aren't the prettiest welds ever, but its a good start.

Its really hard to give input without watching you weld. The ones that look built up like a pillow are either way to fast with your wire speed, you are traveling too slow, or you don't have the power high enough (or a combination of those).

For many of the others, they just lack consistent movement but look like good welds. Not sure if you've ever done music, but counting in your head or tapping your feet help keep it uniform. My biggest advice to novice welders (from someone who puts himself at intermediate advanced level) is to slow down, and focus on just feeding the edge of the puddle. Most welders have a table on the inside of the flap that covers the weld wire and takes all of the guess work out of it. That said, it is just a guideline but works great as a starting point. If its not working for you, then adjust accordingly.

Lastly, 90% of a good weld starts with prep work and making sure you have the best seams you can get, with clean metal surfaces. Even mill scale on material can mess you up sometimes.

Honestly, taking even a beginner class at your local welding shop, trade school or college will get you a jumpstart on this. You can figure it out on your own, but it will take you MUCH longer then just attending a few hour long class. At the very least, try to find someone experienced to watch you do it and give pointers.

You have the gear and this is a good start. Its only up from here.

[Brucker]

Good on you for making an effort at learning a desired skill. First off, are you using CO2 as your inert gas? Or a CO@/Ar mix? Based on the amount of splatter and residue left behind I am going to guess, just CO2, but could be wrong and you just need to adjust your flow rate a little. Or lack of good prep as Josh mentioned.

Second, most beads look to be run to hot. Some too slow, and some both. Did you set the machine up based on the recommended settings for amperage and wire speed or guess and play with it? Without knowing your settings, I would say before turning the amperage down, I would trying moving faster. Just remember that you ultimately want nice tight beads. And 30 degrees (I usually teach 45 but again, only as a rule of thumb) is a great rule of thumb, but you can not always rely on it. Go with what feels comfortable for you while still achieving desirable welds

Also try welding in semi overlapping half moons or whatever you call them (some say half circles or "C"s, or in TIG welding this would be called "walking the cup"), instead of full circles. Start at the root and then work your way back and forth, only overlapping enough to make a clean, smooth bead, down the joint. This technique should help with the speed issue and also help you control your puddles betters, which will give you cleaner, tighter beads in general.

Hope that this helps.

[Haku]

My guess was he was using Flux core wire. Could be wrong though.

[94ToyBear]

I'm thinking flux too. You can see the wire brush marks, but I can be wrong also.

[94ToyBear]

If you have no experience what so ever I say see who you do with a stitch weld, to get use to aiming, heat and wire feed adjustments. Stitch welding is not ideal but IMO is a good place to start if you don't have anyone experienced to help you along

[Brucker]

Haku previously posted:

[Brucker]

94ToyBear previously posted:

[Haku]

Brucker previously posted:

[Haku]

Brucker previously posted:

[Brucker]

Haku previously posted:

[Hypoid]

dscowell previously posted:

[94ToyBear]

I do agree with Both Aaron and Josh, but I do still think is a good place to start for Aiming, heat adjustments, wire feed adjustments.

I say this because in my auto shop I have a student here and there that wants to just get their hands on a welder, being that I'm not the weld shop instructor I don't have time to teach one kid to weld. The stitch weld works great for a confidence booster, and Aim, Heat and feed are better understood by time I get back around to them (might be 5 minutes might be an hour)
Then I move them on to a push pull, then the swirl type weld. Like I was saying, it's a good method if you don't have anyone to guide you along, and in IMHO it's better to start this way (if you have NO one watching over) in order to gain the confidance and prevent acquiring bad habits along the way for the much more difficult techniques

[dscowell]

Thanks for all the advice guys I knew I would get some good help if I posted here.

Haku previously posted:

[94ToyBear]

Where are you going to school?
If I remember correctly you went to Warn Tech for high school right?

[dscowell]

No I went to Holy Family. I'm going to Montana Tech to study Welding Engineering and figured it would be best to have atleast some experience since all the kids in the major with me are farm kids who have a lot more experience welding then I do.

[dieseldoc]

Start with stitching. It will let you get used to the weld
Clean all surface
as for wire if it look like copper you need gas.
If its silver its flux core.
then you have some things to check with the machine its self.
flux core is poitive at the gun
soild (gas) is negative at the gun

As for but welds they need a small gap to allow the weld to penitrate
next look at the heat pattern after you weld.
did the metal turn blue?
This will tell you if you moved to fast or not enough heat.

For practice just lay the bead on a flat chunk.

Are you pushing or pulling the puddle....is the weld behind the gun under your hand as you weld away from you.

The variable are very numerous.

They do look good for your first time with no one with you.

[dscowell]

Alright it was MIG not flux core. We used shielding gas and it was a copper wire.

I forgot to mention that but I was pulling the puddle the whole time and never really attempted to push it. I wanted to get the hang of things before I started changing too many things.

[EKXJ87]

Looks good for your first welds All great advice clean,clean,clean and also listen to the weld when you have the speed/amperage correct theres not a better sound its a smooth burn. Once you hear that then practice and practice.