Shorty40 wrote: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.
I am keen to learn. One thing I have picked up is the zig zag motion instead of ripping straight along the seam. 
as he would be back giving us grief when it didnt work well.
