Killer Weldz Thread

[ponykilr]

I watched the first 2 mig videos at weldingtipsandtricks.com. Well presented stuff there and a common sense approach to the whys and hows. I plan to watch the others, good refresher and picked up a few new ideas and things to try. I have had good success with the .024 wire. I even have gotten it to perform on the highest setting where I was having trouble.

I am going to start a gate for our place in the mnts and will post some pics.

 

[Tom@Hilltop_Machine]

I watched the first 2 mig videos at weldingtipsandtricks.com.

Yeah Jody has some good vids.

 

[ponykilr]

Watched videos til 2AM last night from weldingtipsandtricks.com. He is a great teacher who talks about the complicated subject of welding in a way that makes it seem very simple. Kudos to him. While I have been a good welder, I want to be a better more confident welder who understands the "why" to a better degree.

Things I will try today I gleaned from weldingtipsandtricks.com are:

1-Setting the wire tension on the spool and feed like he suggested. Did not know how critical it could be to consistency.

2-"tracing the puddle" with a V on uphills.

3-Turn my gas down to 15 or so.

4-Set my nozzle so the tip is flush or maybe even sticking out. Mine has always been set about .25" recessed.

5-Experiment with the much better/shorter stickout the above will allow.

6-Gonna try pulling with very slight angle rather than pushing. I think it will allow better views of the front edge of the puddle.

7-Gonna work on a better ground setup, either a strong clamp or maybe a set of visegrips modified or something. The balled up wire is cool too but I don't have any braided stuff like that. A set of big locking pliers with the wire bolted to them might be awesome. I know it's steel but it should be very solid.

8-Gonna STOP WORRYING about trying to make a stack of dimes and just make sound, hot welds.

 

[WARRIORWELDING]

8-Gonna STOP WORRYING about trying to make a stack of dimes and just make sound, hot welds.[/QUOTE]
The most important thing I stress to any student of GMAW welding, it just doesn't belong as a criteria for a high quality weld.

 

[Mac5005]

1) set wire tension against a block of wood. Make sure you have the correct drive rolls for your wire. Otherwise getting the tension correct will suck.

2) Jody's weave pattern on uphill fillet welds is great.

Be wary, In vertical groove welds this inverted V weave pattern may not be the best.
Just a heads up. Your weave will change for every joint type and position.

3 & 4) turning your gas down and getting the tip out of the nozzle is great for conserving gas. Be careful of having a fan on or door open or being outside.

If you loose gas coverage on a joint and get porosity you'll spend time grinding it all out and starting over.

Keep your flow rates up when working in a non controlled environment.


6). A 10-15 degree drag angle is optimal for penetration on short circuit mig welds.

With the mention of #6, make sure to keep your arc on the front edge of the puddle.

This is one of, if not the most important aspect of a short circuit mig weld. This keeps the weld from piling up and the root of the weld losing fusion and penetration.

The top side of the weld can look like a stack of dimes while the root has no penetration. This is a very common problem when trying to make a not weld look good with no concern for quality.

Be most concerned with fusion at the root of the joint and making a quality weld free of defects.

To gain some confidence is your weld, weld two plates together at a 90 degree angle, with 1-3 passes, whatever you would typically do, and then smash the weld with a sledge hammer trying to break the weld.

The results will either show what you are doing wrong and show that you are doing it correctly and give you confidence.

Confidence is a big part of making a sound weld, it keeps you from changing your weave and timing mid weld searching for something unnecessarily better.

 

[ponykilr]

Thanks mac and warrior. I remember when a good mig weld was a simple little smooth bead.
For some reason, the rippled look sorta took over, but I am over it. Back to basics.

Everything seemed to be a success today. I cut off my nozzle flush with the tip. loosened my tension to just tight enough to prevent backlash.
The only weld I did was on an axle on my leaf vacuum. The difference in the stickout made a huge difference in the penetration. It was effortless to get it deep.
I will practice more this week, my gas is low so I have to go to AirGas Monday.

Guys, if I got 90-10 mix instead of 75-25, will it short circuit weld ok? I want to try spray transfer but I don't want two tanks.

 

[WARRIORWELDING]

Leave the spray transfer to .035 better yet .045 wire and a good 290 to 300 plus amps. I also tend to run a Tri mix gas. The 75 - 25 is what I run 99 percent of the time unless I'm running a bunch of mil scale covered structural iron with minimal prep. The spray arc is also only good for flat work unless you got a really good pulse machine. The larger wire is needed to properly carry the arc and run consistent when it changes into the "gaslike" fluid state of transfer. It involves very high deposition IE wire speed and needs very high voltage settings to get it done. When right however it like putting down liquid metal with no erratic splatter, noise, or puddle flows. The prep is the key, when clean the results are nothing short of a 7024 jet rod.

 

[ponykilr]

I have access to a machine that would have those amps, I may try it this summer (or come let you show me some time)

Something is wrong with my welder I think. I noticed the gas seems to be running even when the trigger is not pressed.
It used to run a couple of seconds after I released the trigger but now seems to just stay running. I guess there is a valve that controls that.

I may buy a used 240V 270A Systematics (Snapon) welder we have that was repo'd.
They are 100% duty cycle at 185A and will weld 3/8 in a single pass and it will TIG too.

We also have a repo'd Plasma 30I I can get cheap

Still thinking.

 

[snappy]

I had a mm140sl, they are great machines but will not tig alum.

 

[ponykilr]

Yeah, I know. Dealer remember LOL

 

[ponykilr]

OK, my welder was continuing to vent gas out of the nozzle after the trigger was released. This caused the very early demise of all of my gas. I would leave the welder on at times for 1/2 hour while working on something and the whole time gas was going bye bye. Just happened to notice a couple days ago when my ear was close to the nozzle. The fan on my welder runs all the time so I just never heard it. No telling how long it had been doing it.

I took it apart and found that the main contact was staying in after the trigger was released. The wire feed would stop but there was still current on the wire and the gas valve. I took the contact apart and found some sticky crud on the tips. I polished it off and put a thin wipe of dielectric grease on them. I put some powdered graphite where it moves for lube and I verified it was no longer sticking, then put it all back together.





I then took a pair of large vise grip pliers and made a ground clamp out of them. I know the factory clamp was crap.





Yesterday I cut my nozzle to where it is flush with my tip. Before the tip was approximately 3/8 deep or more.

I put my new tank on and set my flow, I don't believe my gauge so I set it by ear. I need to get one with the little ball in the tube. I then reconfigured my spool and set the tension on it where it just barely is tight enough to keep the wire from back lashing. I set my wire feed so I could slow it down with gloves but not stop it. I then ran a couple of beads...

The difference is NIGHT AND DAY! It sounds incredible, looks incredible and the penetration is almost 100% on 1/8 plate with the heat on max and the wire speed on 60. It doesn't spit and pop or any other problem, it JUST FREAKING WELDS like it never has. You can see the much flatter bead with edges that look completely fused with the base metal. I used a 10* drag angle and simply made little "e" movements being focused on the leading edge of the puddle.








I have never been so excited about welding. These simple changes made the process go from decent to WOW. I cannot wait to get started on my slides for my truck now. Thanks to the professional welders here and to Jody at welding tips and tricks for taking the time to help the hobbyists to be better welders and understand the whys as well as the hows.

 

[Mac5005]

Those welds Look awesome glad you got yourself and the welder tuned up.

 

[WARRIORWELDING]

Nice clamp mod, should be good at all those hanging places where the cheap ones fall right off. All else fails clamp and weld no tacks needed when your without a free hand!

 

[Mac5005]

I finally was able to drop the shield on some tig work yesterday. Had full classes and not much Time or room for me to weld any lately.

Making a big hammer to keep in my truck as I am always searching for one.

One end is brass and the other going to be all welded and polished out.

Main portion of the head is 2" .625" wall. And the handle is 1" .120" over 3/4 bar stock.

Nothing great, but really tedious practice walking around this joint. I need to work on getting my toes back even and consistent.

 

[iwaxmyjimmy]

Heres a skid i made for a new JK out here in Cali

Here's a weld for the oil drain door

Good penetration I think, but I'm no expert

One of the bends

I suck at vertical anything but I do ok when I'm comfortable. Whats this trimming down the nozzle thing? I've got a few extras so I might try it out just to see how it is. Any any tips for me is much appreciated only really been welding maybe once a month for a year or so.

 

[WARRIORWELDING]

Trimming the nozzle is an attempt to get the tip and shield gas closer to the work. Thinking you get better coverage and better arc control and viewing window. All which can be solved by using the appropriate stick out to begin with. To many people are scared to run really close to begin with and think by compensating they get a better look at the weld pool and arc control. Truth is really good welders,focus less,on the arc and more on where they are headed.

 

[Mac5005]

Trimming the nozzle is an attempt to get the tip and shield gas closer to the work. Thinking you get better coverage and better arc control and viewing window. All which can be solved by using the appropriate stick out to begin with. To many people are scared to run really close to begin with and think by compensating they get a better look at the weld pool and arc control. Truth is really good welders,focus less,on the arc and more on where they are headed.

This.

If you are watching the puddle and arc more than where you are going, it's already too late, the mistake has already been made.

You have to watch where you are going and make corrections before the error occurs.

 

[ponykilr]

Trimming the nozzle is necessary if your tip is set back in the nozzle over 3/8" like mine was LOL. I sure aint going back, it welds awesome now.

 

[mcutler]

Few tubing beads with the small wire. Think I'm finally getting the hang of this. .....




20 years later . Appreciate all the sharing of tech here from the masters.

 

[ponykilr]

^ nice!

 

[MarsFab]

Toyota power steering reservoir mount....

This is the first time I've TIG'd any steel in a long while. This is on a TJ rear bumper.

 

[mcutler]

I'm jealous of the plasma table. Looks nice buddy.

 

[John Fuller]

well here's some of my welds since it's a going thread lol. any advise would be great for improvements. working with Lincoln 140 .35 Flux, sometimes .30 but been staying with .35 this is most recent work as of today.

 

[John Fuller]

another one

 

[Mac5005]

So my fiancé Sam had borrowed my main Jackson auto helmet to let one of her students try it, so I was left at the shop with my trusty Lincoln auto and jackson fixed shade.

Half way through tacking up this Pittman arm, the Lincoln dies. It won't stay dark and is extremely slow to react to the arc.

I'm all for using a fixed shade when I tig weld, but when fabbing stuff with the squirt gun, I love having an auto-darkening helmet so I can keep two hands on the gun.

No excuses for my bad restarts just giving the background...

It was humbling re-learning bracing and flipping the lid down to weld this.

Pittman arm for my jeep.