Welding advice
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I am interested in learning how to weld. I have done a little welding but I wouldn’t say I am very good. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to get started. What would be a good way to learn and any tips? I have no idea on how to setup a welder or how to determine wire speed or current to use. I have a 220 miller at work to use to practice, but wanted to know how to start. Sorry if this sounds dumb but I am interested to learn.
Open the door where the spool of wire is, there you will find suggested starting settings for the gauge of steel you are practicing on. This gives a good starting point to fine tune your feed and amps. You will know when your setup is right by practicing. Good clean sheet metal is what you should try on, and probably a little on the thick side, then when your laying beads confidently move on to thinner stuff.
Oh and you want a nice constant sizzle sound, the weld should penetrate to the back side. Start by just firing up and building a nice hot pool of metal then proceed by dragging the gun at an angle making horse shoe type movements. Maybe you could have someone who is a welder watch and even guide your hands while your welding to give you a feel of what to do.
How do you know when to turn the wire speed up or down? What about the current?
[b]ryanbrown999 wrote:[/b]
[quote]How do you know when to turn the wire speed up or down? What about the current?[/quote]
By the way its burning, if the wire is burning back into the nozzle its too slow. If the wire is pushing against the work its too fast. Now this can be adjusted by moving the nozzle closer or farther away slightly also. Penetration is determined by the amps, higher for thicker steel, lower setting on thinner material. Because all welders are different you set the starting amps via the CHART on the machine, adjust wire speed to achieve the quick sizzle sound [no burn back or pushing] then lay a bead. Examine the weld, if penetrating the back then its good, if not bump the amps up which will likely require a faster feed speed. If your blowing holes the amps are too high, or your moving too slow. When mig welding steel the gun is dragged along, aluminum it is pushed, but thats a hole other story. Also guys freak out over vertical and over head welding thinking the amps or wire speed must be adjusted, this simply isnt true the setting remains exactly the same no matter what position the weld is. I wish i could give you a hands on lesson because mig welding really is a simple task but i cant so you will have to practice until you get it.[b]pnlbtr4life wrote:[/b]
[quote]Open the door where the spool of wire is, there you will find suggested starting settings for the gauge of steel you are practicing on. This gives a good starting point to fine tune your feed and amps. You will know when your setup is right by practicing. Good clean sheet metal is what you should try on, and probably a little on the thick side, then when your laying beads confidently move on to thinner stuff.[/quote]^^^^ What he said, A Mig shouldn’t take you to long to get the hang of. Unless you’ve got a roller slipping or some other minor feed problem, those factory settings should be damn close.
pnlbtr’s responses should get you where you need to be here.
I’m by no means a master welder, I learned on some scrap metal laying around the shop. Welding a hood hinge to a fender 🙂
I just told one of my bodymen I was interested in it & he was happy to give me a crash course. It didn’t seem to difficult.
^^^ those are good tips to getting it going for sure
i’ve got a few tips things thats i personally like to do and i have found they work very well for me hopefully it will be the same for you:huh:
a good thing to practice is to cook yourself a good bacon breakfast…a good weld with a good penetration/flow will sound like bacon frying in grease..:P but seriously thats the sound and when you get it you will know!!
mig gas – pretty much just shields the actual weld itself so no air is flowing around and blowing the arc sparatically it can be VERY helpful you don’t know how important it is till you don’t get it (flux core wire welding:evil:)
first without inert gas(non flammable gas) welding is a biotch!! it is nothing but ignorant lots of spatter the weld will be very porous so i make sure my gas setting is good on the cylinder, the safe setting for the gas is 25 c.f.m. now it also depends on what type of gas your using with mig you’ll mostly find Co2 (carbon dioxide) or c-25/autoweld (25% co2, 75% argon), or if your lucky very lucky pure argon. those are the most common types in an ideal situation you want the c-25, its good enough 99% of the time, co2 is a little dirty and you’ll get more spatter than you might want. just ask whoever buys the gas in the shop what type they’ll tell you its good to know regardless. Check for a breeze too any small gust of wind will blow that shielding gas away and make your welds very porous
so once you’ve set up your speed of the wire…then turn the heat setting to melt that “speed” you can play around alot and find one that lets your gun movement speed(hand speed) be good and comfy and still get that beautiful bacon sound. makes me hungry just thinking about good welding!!;)
my personal preference is to hold the gun pushing or pulling on a 45-60 degree angle this will help with giving you a good bead while maintaing your pattern and movement…. the tip of the gun for me i like 3/8” away from the metal and A VERY IMPORTANT thing i do everytime is always start welding with a little bit of the wire sticking out of the gun maybe 1/4” of it showing and if theres anything on the end of that wire cut it off!!! i check after every weld hold sidecutters on your lap…. im very picky on my welding :blink:
( ______________ / —–> pulling ) aka backhand welding method – deeper penetration, larger bead
( <— /___________ pushing) aka forehand welding method – shallow penetration, flatter beadnow theres a few different welding technics your gonna need to learn plug welds, lap spot welds, stitch welding! they all have there own little tips and hints so another time!!! I hope this has been helpful
take careMike Kennelly
Thanks for the tips guy’s this is a good thread!
Got any more?
I am using a Millermatic 251 with .023 wire gas about 75-80% argon
Had problems welding stuff on that Intrepid metal, setting’s per Miller suggested chart, Turned down amps and speed no help spot welds would burn threw very easy. :blink: :huh:Should have tried a few Beads first didn’t, :blush: went right to spot welds :unsure: results were less than stellar to say the least. 🙁
any question on mig welding look here, there are tutorials and many guys expeirenced in welding, It is a UK site but there are quite a few guys from over your side of the pond.
http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/index.php
google mig weld forum and it has high ranking, very popular forum over 6000 members
P.S. Ryan there is a section on how to set up wire speed the corect way
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