Killer Weldz Thread

XJsavage said:
I'm far enough ahead in my curriculum that I had the option to get both gmaw and fcaw at the same time. Stick was fun too. Moving onto TIG next week and have til Feb to tackle the open root 3&4 and hopefully get into pipe.
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Tig should be fun. I'd like to work on mine some more before I go for a plate test.

Here's some of my tig progress. Kind of a bad start on this one.
 

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Outershield then, with a blend CO2 and Argon. Flux core is pretty neat. Varying wires demand different gases and even different polarities. It can be very particular and when tailored to the task very high deposition rates and very good welds.
 
No walking the cup, I suck at it, I can only freehand weave. We get weld nuts, foam tape, big 4130 solid bar and a couple other misc things from McMaster. They have so much stuff it's crazy.
 
.090 aluminum tread plate. Fusion with very little filler. 1/16 tungsten 120 Hz. 60% at 70 amps. Produced very little over penetration and weld seem bleeding to inside of joint.
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mcutler said:
My main intended use is on light aluminum. Really want to build some dashes and switch panels and such. Possibly a fuel cell. I wouldn't anticipate going any thicker than .125 on anything I will build, just drug out the .250 to attempt to figure out the basics of laying a bead. Since those pics I have played with a little 1/8 corner welds, (inside and outside) with/without filler just to see how things react. hell I'm not even sure if I'm grinding the tungsten right lol.


In ex....I've heard "ball the end", but not sure what our how that is achieved. ...
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to get the ball on the end switch the machine to DC+ , turn up the heat a bit , and strike an arc on a piece of scrap for a split second or until the ball forms , it doesn't take long .
 
I not a huge fan of the ball at the end of the tungsten for aluminum. I keep a point, it will ball eventually. I feel that I have more arc control with a point and small ball, I'll regrind to a tip when the ball builds up too much.
 
Grind with the tungsten not around. Marks should be lenght wise. Enough amperage will ball pure tungsten on its own. On a transformer based machine you can blunt 2 percent and use on low settings for thin aluminum to control bead width and heat. Anything much pass 90 amps I would run pure. My machine is an inverter and I use and select various tungsten for each base material and thickness even though some fancier alloys are recomended.
 
hurt4x4 said:
I've honestly never tried one open root. Guess I'll have to give it a shot now.
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Open root with mig is fun. I did 3/32 gap, 3/32 landing and ran a straight bead 3&4g for the win. Much like 6010, it sounds noticeably different when youre doing it right.
 
I officially no longer own anything miller. I had to get the mm 212 out of my shop before I took a sledgehammer to it. I've owned 3 variations of the same machine and haven't been happy with any of them. Bought this a couple days ago and so far I'm much happier.
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The lincoln power migs are nice machines, that's what I used in welding school! Have a mm252 and I like it. my welders older Miller but the new ones seem to be idk finicky.
 
I tried the 212 but I despise the autoset. I'm with Chris on that one I wanted to set it on fire.
 
We use millermatic 304s at school and if I could ever swing getting one I'd be extatic.
 
We use the Miller 304's at work. I like the "x" adjustment to tun the arc from globular to silky smooth...
 
The big millers and millermatics older than 20 years or so don't seem to have the issues i complain about.
I don't necessarily hate the auto set feature. It's great for when I'm welding up a cage or something and someone walks in with a loader bucket to weld a crack on. Just turn the dial and go.

My complaint with the Miller is a very specific problem. When I weld tube I try to do a 360* joint in two 180* passes. If you have a 45 deg. angle on two intersecting tubes you end up with a really tight spot on one side. To make the weld look nice you need to start one of your 180* passes in that tight spot. I call it long arcingng, but you basically have to start the weld with a bit more stick out that usual. The Miller machines won't do it. They just spit and sputter trying to adjust themselves to fix the problem. It makes for a hideous weld start and a cold joint.
One of the guys that works for me also works for a big race team and he informed me that the "run in" was adjustable. I couldn't believe I never knew about it. I thought all my problems were finally solved. I've since spent the last 2 months screwing around with the run in adjustment and I can change how it does it. I just can't make it go away.

Miller tells me that all of their below 300 amp machines "tune" them selves in the first seconds of a weld based on the arc length and other variables. This "tuning" is what ruins my welds. They tell me there is no way to disable the feature. So I disabled it myself. I got rid of the damn thing.
 
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