Teach us how to weld

Tried but he link did not work
 
Got it that time. I watched a test between uphill vs downhill and the difference was amazing. Seems I have been welding wrong all along, yet with my self taught techniques that's no surprise. I see some practice and self testing in my future.
 
rockcity said:
I think your instructor needs to go back to school. ;)
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To be honest, he may have taught it the other way around, it has been a while!

o_OMatt
 
I pretty much agree with what most have said so I won't repeat it.
Going along with what chip and a few others said practice the weld without ever pulling the trigger to be sure you can do what you think you can do before you even start. To me the 100% most important thing to teach yourself and the hardest thing to learn is consistency. Even if the welder is set perfect and your penetration is on point you can still have an ugly weld.
When I do classes I teach guys to imagine margins on either side of the weld just like notebook paper. You want to fill to the margins but not go over them and you want the spacing between your c's, e's u's or j's to be exactly the same every time.

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On a long weld like this in order for every "dime" to be the same size every whip of the gun has to be the same size. Outside corners like this are a great way to practice it. You match two pieces of 1/4" plate up so they form a small 3/8" or so wide 90* bevel to fill in. The edges then make perfect margins to fill out to. Go a few inches, stop and look back to see how the edges of the weld look. If they aren't nice and even then you need to tighten up.

Make sure you're comfortable. Prop your non gun hand on the table palm up and rest your gun hand in it. Use that hand as a pivot or a slide for the gun hand to move on. Stability is also key. If you're just learning and you one hand the gun out in mid air you're probably never going to get it.

Another thing to practice is to put a pencil in your gun hand holding it by the eraser end and draw your weld pattern on notebook paper between two blue lines the full width of the paper. Try to keep the pencil pointed the same angle to the weld the whole length of the weld. This will really show you how consistent your gun English is. Once it looks nice and even and is equally touching the lines on both sides of the weld all the way across the sheet you know you can do the same with the welder.

I agree too that you need to throw away the tubing and dissimilar thicknesses to start with. Get two pieces of plate the same thickness and weld long straight beads. Tubing takes vewy vewy long to get good at.
 
Just going point out again the chris's classes are great and he can show you alot in a short time.
 
XJsavage said:
From the looks of it I'd say it's a combination of moving to fast and an inconsistent forward backward movement. When I mig weld I keep a 0 degree angle going into it and with each step forward, I take half that step back and wait for the puddle to build up while I travel along.
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What's a 0 degree angle?
 
ManglerYJ said:
What's a 0 degree angle?
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Straight into it. Mig can have a push or drag angle (+ or - 15 degrees) and at times it helps. I usually tackle anything straight in at 0 degrees and adjust a degree or two as needed.
 
To phrase it as I was taught is "Push MIG, drag Flux".
 
77GreenMachine said:
Can someone clarify uphill vs downhill for the rookies like me?

Say I'm welding something flat on a table, I will start at point A and pull towards me to point B. Is this incorrect?

If I were to start closer to me, and continue the bead away from me it looks awful and I have no consistency. I don't get too many chances to practice like I'd like to. This thread and the others have got me wanting to take a class. I think @MarsFab should offer another training thing.
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Uphill = you weld traveling up

Downhill = you weld traveling down


I would recommend practicing traveling left to right in lieu of towards you. Once you get the form and process down pat, then you can change it up by welding towards you or away
 
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Community college doesn't hurt. Don't even have to buy a welder or waste metal. Use the institutes...some of our students test Coupons.
 
thats what i was thinking. taking a class and burning up their materials. but mainly having some help. I used to run a welding machine when i worked at Dana. (too bad i wasnt wheeling then) I had a hand welder to fill in bad spots. but for some reason now fullers welds may look better than mine. somewhere in the last 10 yrs I have lost my patience when doing stuff like this.
 
Bringing this back up... Here’s my first stick welds with new welder 7018 3/32 rods set on 80v not sure how many amps it’s pulling tho! Note I haven’t welded besides mig spot welding in 10 years...
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far right side is last one I did thus far!
 
Don’t believe I got penetration lol not sure? second from the right was flux core tho with wire speed at 145 and 20v I believe. All these welds in 110v also! I like this little 220 welder, and Hobart endeavor auto helmet! now I wanna tig something bc it’s only welding I’ve never attempted!
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C.Berry said:
now I wanna tig something bc it’s only welding I’ve never attempted!
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TIG was my last venture as well. I fell in love with stick immediately and MIG is something I do every day. To be honest, I don't like TIG for some reason but mostly because I don't encounter many situations where I actually need it. It does help a lot with watching your puddle though. Open root TIG is really fun, but as far as TIG welding for hours on end...you can have it. My hands aren't as nimble as they used to be. I've broken too many bones in them I guess.
 
XJsavage said:
TIG was my last venture as well. I fell in love with stick immediately and MIG is something I do every day. To be honest, I don't like TIG for some reason but mostly because I don't encounter many situations where I actually need it. It does help a lot with watching your puddle though. Open root TIG is really fun, but as far as TIG welding for hours on end...you can have it. My hands aren't as nimble as they used to be. I've broken too many bones in them I guess.
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My favorite is def stick as well! I taught myself when younger working in tobacco fields fixing trailers and junk, it just amazed me how a little machine could make metal like new again and it was fire lol! I could/have sit and stick weld for 12+ hours and be left wanting to do some more! Guess I’m in wrong line of work now that I look back! They say do what ya love and never work a single day... in mig side I’ve gotta learn it and it look good too lol it hurts my feelings my mig skills suck so badly
 
bury your rod deeper, 7018 is a short arc rod. you want to just barley see the kernel of the arc. However focus on the edges of the puddle, keep the side to side smooth and travel forward slower. The puddle waves make it pretty, does nothing for strength.
 
Jeff B said:
bury your rod deeper, 7018 is a short arc rod. you want to just barley see the kernel of the arc. However focus on the edges of the puddle, keep the side to side smooth and travel forward slower. The puddle waves make it pretty, does nothing for strength.
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Yeah I catch myself looking back for puddle and pulling away from arc at times I’ll be burning through some grinder disks and portaband blades testing welds and drop the pretty crap for now lmao!! I’ll be mig welding most of packmule rig so I need to pick up some gas asap! everyone’s saying 75/25 or C25 why not just Co2? Any major reason not used now? I know body guys that still use it!
 
Yeah, shorten arc length by a lot. I know the amperage output on a lot of machines are different, but with my Esab on 220v, 100 amps with a 3/32 seems to be the sweet spot. Seems to be across the board too (6010,11,13 7014,18 308,09 and even 4043 Al also).
Basically with stick, if your rod isn't shorting out and sticking, you're good. Short arc length just works.
As far as oscillating goes, take it slowly and imagine dropping a 2" diameter rubber ball down a 2-1/4" PVC pipe standing straight up in the air. The ball won't drop straight down without bouncing off the walls at a steady rate. I could demonstrate with sound effects but typing it would just look stupid. :lol:
 
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