Welding for n00bs

[Shorty40]

Im taking the constructive advice on board I am keen to learn. One thing I have picked up is the zig zag motion instead of ripping straight along the seam.

As for the flaming...meh, I will worry about that when everyone posts up their very first welds

As for you Dan, you got me stumped . I was trying to think what I am good at and I drew a blank

[80lsy gq]

Bl@@dy Mig welders, Ha I blow my nose in your general direction.
Regards from the Tig meister

the welding machine has spoken.....

Can you post up some pics of ur welds awill4x4

Those welds of Daves looked bloody awersome so i wouldn't mind seeing how bloody nice urs would be then.

Rick.

picture some of the best Tig Welding you have seen and that pretty well covers Awills abilities..the man is a machine

dave

[pongo]

im not a great welder but who cares at least i gots a mad welder and a mad helmet to look good while farking things up!

ill agree with ya there. on the other hand my stick welder was my old mans and built half a farm . old as the hills, but it really needs its own 15 amp circuit .

[Guy]

Some of Awill4x4s very tidy work

http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/viewtopic ... ntercooler

[Micka]

Micka..whatever....i dont claim other peoples work as my own....and i certainly wont be claiming your efforts on cookies buggy as mine


dave

I don't blame you...I'm not claiming them either

[zagan]

I posted this in my member thread, but wanted some general feedback from the OL crew.........

For the 1st time ever yesterday I was given the opportunity to try welding

Bit scary at first as i had no idea what to do Sounds a bit weird for most you guys that weld a fair bit, but for a guy with little mechanical aptitude it was a big step

Anyway, I got to lay some beads down (see, already got the lingo down pat ) on the floor pan of the buggy

Tell me what you think - please be kind

Just looking at your pics, now.

Are you doing triple fillet welds?

Post up what the welder is and the settings you used for each pic.

1st pic.

The upper/lower pipe weld is under cut (along the top of the weld), your weakening the metal around the weld bead.

you could reduce some of the heat or maybe go up in heat and reduce the wire speed a bit lower and do a double or triple fillet weld.

The weld along the pipe looks good but you should do another weld bead along the top of the first bead so that the pipe is properly welded up, that's a problem with pipe and metal rod you'll end up really needing 2 beads at least to get a good weld that will hold maybe more depends on the settings and what your doing and what it's for.

The weld along the mild plate, you start of going fast then slow up to a good pace for the weld to form properly.

I see you like going forwards and backwards, theres nothing wrong with doing this, for some people it's easier than going through at the one speed all the way.

Did you sitch weld those plates? as pic 4 I'm guessing that it might have opened up a bit requiring the extra fillets of weld where as in pic 1 you only use 1 fillet.

2nd pic.

Personnally I'd say you were going too slow for the heat and wire speed you had set.

3rd pic.

upper/lower Pipe weld is under cut again.

lower pipe weld, I take it the mild steel wasn't held together very well?

needing the welds on both sides but the side of the pic the weld doesn't even touch the pipe at all.

You might want to ease up on the wire feed, heat could be corrct but it looks like your simply trying to pump in too much, and you just can't keep up.

4th pic.

The upper/lower pipe weld facing us is good, though a bit sloppy it's not under cut though other side looks like it could be under cut, could maybe clean it up a bit, looks a little thin as well but looks ok as well.

weld coming down the upper pipe needs another weld it's not thick enough, if your going to go vertical down you might want to take a it little slower or go over it again.

weld coming down and around the lower pipe looks good, welds should look like this.

The mild steel weld looks good, you want welds like this at least.

The weld on the lower pipe is undercuting the pipe and isn't really welded all that much to the pipe anyway, you should really have another weld bead along the top of this weld.

5th pic.

weld around the upper/lower pipe looks good maybe just go around to clean it up and weld a little more so it touches the lower pipe better near the mild steel.

lower pipe weld looks good could be going a little slow, but you need another weld along the top of this.

The weld going down alobng the pipes looks ok, may need another weld over the top but it'd probably be for looks more than anything.

wild steel weld, is bad.

Probably going too slow with settings that are just too high, your welding 3mm mild steel you don't need to go too stupid with heat etc as it's only real thin stuff.

without knowing the settings/welder won't have much idea what's happening exactly.

Some of the welds are good and others are bad.

Well that's what I think of them.

[mickrangie]

Keep at it Shorty40 welding is an art form!!!

just to go off track a little I had a look at that website posted earler great read!! Anyway i was at BOC yesterday and got my self a small roll of ally wire and a small bottle of pure Argon anyway for the 1st time i welded some 3mm ally plate and it didnt look 1/2 bad!! I am having a few probs you experts may assist me with. Some info I have a Cigweld 165 the right type of ally wire for the ally plate i am using.

1 - The wire bunches up- i have the tensioner on so light but the heat generated seems to turn it to mush and it gets jammed. after 6 times of pulling my welder apart i had a hissy and stopped welding.

2 - the tips dont seem to last too long i fused 3 or 4 -should i be using a different type

I a wait yr info as i am very keen to do my own ally welding

Mick

[MART]

Have you changed the rollers as alluminium needs round rollers and if you use the mild steel one's it crushes the wire into the wrong shape and jams in the tip , also use a drill bit to coutersink the tip a couple of mm's , this will make it harder to fuse to tip , also does your gun have a teflon liner this stops the alluminium blocking the gun cable due to abrasion , might help , also you can change the shroud to a different style , Cheers Paul.

[mickrangie]

Have you changed the rollers as alluminium needs round rollers and if you use the mild steel one's it crushes the wire into the wrong shape and jams in the tip , also use a drill bit to coutersink the tip a couple of mm's , this will make it harder to fuse to tip , also does your gun have a teflon liner this stops the alluminium blocking the gun cable due to abrasion , might help , also you can change the shroud to a different style , Cheers Paul.

Cool make heaps of sense!! Will go down to the welding shop tomorrow and get some hop up parts for the welder!!

Mick

[ausyota]

Keep at it Shorty40 welding is an art form!!!

just to go off track a little I had a look at that website posted earler great read!! Anyway i was at BOC yesterday and got my self a small roll of ally wire and a small bottle of pure Argon anyway for the 1st time i welded some 3mm ally plate and it didnt look 1/2 bad!! I am having a few probs you experts may assist me with. Some info I have a Cigweld 165 the right type of ally wire for the ally plate i am using.

1 - The wire bunches up- i have the tensioner on so light but the heat generated seems to turn it to mush and it gets jammed. after 6 times of pulling my welder apart i had a hissy and stopped welding.

2 - the tips dont seem to last too long i fused 3 or 4 -should i be using a different type

I a wait yr info as i am very keen to do my own ally welding

Mick

I was told by the WA CIG rep that trying to weld ally with a small MIG is futile.
He reckons that you really need the 4 roll wire feeder to get it to feed well which is on the Transmig275.
And it wasnt just cause he wanted a sale, I had a bloke wanting a 135 to try with ally and CIG man said if he really wants to do it send him to a different shop as he would be back giving us grief when it didnt work well.

[micks troll]

Here are a couple of welds I've done resently. I have only been welding for 4 months so I'm happy with them.the top 2 are run on mig weld machines the first a rotator and the other on a straight line machine i operate. the bottom 2 are my handy work, if a weld isnt strong enough do what is done in the 1st bottom pic. The centre is 1 run the sides are 3

[mickrangie]

what you think of this for a noob ally welder?



Well i broke my welder this arvo by dropping and stepping on the trigger so i am having a huge sook atm. so anyone that will feel sorry for me will help!

Mick

[Shorty40]

I posted this in my member thread, but wanted some general feedback from the OL crew.........

For the 1st time ever yesterday I was given the opportunity to try welding

Bit scary at first as i had no idea what to do Sounds a bit weird for most you guys that weld a fair bit, but for a guy with little mechanical aptitude it was a big step

Anyway, I got to lay some beads down (see, already got the lingo down pat ) on the floor pan of the buggy

Tell me what you think - please be kind

Just looking at your pics, now.

Are you doing triple fillet welds?

Post up what the welder is and the settings you used for each pic.

1st pic.

The upper/lower pipe weld is under cut (along the top of the weld), your weakening the metal around the weld bead.

you could reduce some of the heat or maybe go up in heat and reduce the wire speed a bit lower and do a double or triple fillet weld.

The weld along the pipe looks good but you should do another weld bead along the top of the first bead so that the pipe is properly welded up, that's a problem with pipe and metal rod you'll end up really needing 2 beads at least to get a good weld that will hold maybe more depends on the settings and what your doing and what it's for.

The weld along the mild plate, you start of going fast then slow up to a good pace for the weld to form properly.

I see you like going forwards and backwards, theres nothing wrong with doing this, for some people it's easier than going through at the one speed all the way.

Did you sitch weld those plates? as pic 4 I'm guessing that it might have opened up a bit requiring the extra fillets of weld where as in pic 1 you only use 1 fillet.

2nd pic.

Personnally I'd say you were going too slow for the heat and wire speed you had set.

3rd pic.

upper/lower Pipe weld is under cut again.

lower pipe weld, I take it the mild steel wasn't held together very well?

needing the welds on both sides but the side of the pic the weld doesn't even touch the pipe at all.

You might want to ease up on the wire feed, heat could be corrct but it looks like your simply trying to pump in too much, and you just can't keep up.

4th pic.

The upper/lower pipe weld facing us is good, though a bit sloppy it's not under cut though other side looks like it could be under cut, could maybe clean it up a bit, looks a little thin as well but looks ok as well.

weld coming down the upper pipe needs another weld it's not thick enough, if your going to go vertical down you might want to take a it little slower or go over it again.

weld coming down and around the lower pipe looks good, welds should look like this.

The mild steel weld looks good, you want welds like this at least.

The weld on the lower pipe is undercuting the pipe and isn't really welded all that much to the pipe anyway, you should really have another weld bead along the top of this weld.

5th pic.

weld around the upper/lower pipe looks good maybe just go around to clean it up and weld a little more so it touches the lower pipe better near the mild steel.

lower pipe weld looks good could be going a little slow, but you need another weld along the top of this.

The weld going down alobng the pipes looks ok, may need another weld over the top but it'd probably be for looks more than anything.

wild steel weld, is bad.

Probably going too slow with settings that are just too high, your welding 3mm mild steel you don't need to go too stupid with heat etc as it's only real thin stuff.

without knowing the settings/welder won't have much idea what's happening exactly.

Some of the welds are good and others are bad.

Well that's what I think of them.

Wow - thanks for the critique

I certainly would like to keep at it - but the gear isnt mine, I just used it as the guy who is building my buggy (Mark at Suziworx) let me have a go

[nottie]

Hay micka and bowsey

That said someone had to weld it up as it would have been next year sometime otherwise. But hay you got to have a go dont ya shorty!
Looks good for a first attempt man.