Hi guys,

I practiced a little more with my 90 amp Harbor Freight flux core welder. I know that it looks like crap, but I was wanting to know why my welds look different from other people who have the same machine.

What I did was lay the nozzle against the flange and pipe and held it at an angle. I set my welder to MAX and wire speed to 3. At first I made a slow pass over the area, but that didn't work Then I made a slower pass keeping the welder over the weld point abot a second. But it still didnt look good. So then I said screw it and held it over a point for 4-5 seconds and it looked a little better. There was a ball of metal over where I welded but after doing the same thing and spacing it out the weld was good, but looked like crap.

The only problem is I dont know if this type of weld will hold up for my DP setup. I saw CRXDrew's DP welds and soebody elses welds on the fab-forum and their's looked a lot better then mine. The main difference I notced was that their flange welds were flat, and mine was bulging out. I tried setting my wire speed to 5 and then to 1 but it would help if I dont know how that affects my welds. I looked on the inside of the pipe and I saw the heat spots but there was no penetration. Is there supposed to be penetration or no?

Anyways here are some pics. Could you guys give me some quick tips on flux welding? like how long I have to hold it over the area? I dont know if 5 seconds was too long or maybe not long enough. Also some tips on wire feed speed or tension and how it affects my welds.

Thanks

 

Doesnt look like you have enough power going to the welder. Keep a smooth consistent motion, and let the electrode burn off into the puddle and move it back and forth, or circle motion around the flange, and the pipe itself. Make sure to watch your puddle.

 

There are only two settings on the HF 90 amp welder and I had it on max. Not sure if it makes a difference but it was plugged into one of the outlets in my apartment. Also I cant see much of anything. I cant make out a puddle or anything else, all I see is the flash. Then again my face is about 2-3 feet away from the torch and I'm pretty nearsighted, should I move closer to get a better view? I tried using the minimum setting, but I ended up looking worse. A bunch of small metal ***** were all around the weld area.

I might end up just having my friend weld my stuff using my welder. Maybe he can tech me how to use it too. The thing is I offered to pay him like a hundred bucks to weld my stuff. If I learn how to do it myself, then I can save myself a hundred bucks.

 

Hey man.

You mentioned me in ur first post. When I welded using that very same machine I used the "MAX" setting with a pretty high wire speed. 7 maybe?

The thing is... don't move urself so fast. Let the puddle form up I guess... I don't know how to use the terminology correctly.

Basically I moved like... /)/)/)/)/) and sorta slowly. I also moved a bit more slowly on the gasket surface because it is thicker I figured I'd need to give it a chance to melt/heat up more.

don't worry.... practice makes perfect.

 

don't be afraid to get in there a bit. a little welding smoke isn't going to kill you right away.

just shoot it in one spot. looks like you might have the wire speed a bit high, but use one hand on the torch and one hand on the wire speed **** and twist the **** until you get a puddle that you can work with,

 

i hope your wearing a helmet.

And are you sure thats flux core wire??

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Want2race &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i hope your wearing a helmet.

And are you sure thats flux core wire??</TD></TR></TABLE>

Hehehe I might suck at welding but I'm not stupid. I used the hand held face shield at first but now I am using a helmet which I bought a few hours before I started practicing. Also it's a flux core only machine, and the spool is the one that came with the machine. And it says right on the spool "flux core wire" so yes it is flux core wire.

 

what is the max width it says for the flux core, as far as welding thickness.

i have the chicago electric gas and flux, i use the gas and get great penetration and it has good heat.

you may need to mess with the heat settings on some scrap tubing or pipe so you know what to weld with, i had to do it too, cause our welders only have a heat switch not any ranges,

 

There's really only two settings. The minimum is 63-68 amps and the maximum is 79-90 amps, there is nothing in between. Also it says to plug it into a dedicated 110 VAC 20 amp line with delatyed action type breaker or fuse. Does that mean I can plug it into any outlet in my house? I wonder if that has anything to do with it. I thought that all houshold outlets were 110V anyways, but I dunno.

With only two settings about all I can do is mess with the feed speed/tension and vary the amount of time I hold the torch over the weld spot or the amount of distance over the weld spot. I've tried holding the torch right on it, and I tried holding it so that there was an inch of wire coming ot of the torch. Only difference I noticed was when I held it further away a lot of little metal ***** (slag?) appeared around the weld area. But I dont know if that's normal or not.

 

Your problem is wirespeed. You have it set low because you are trying to be conservative -- Don't. Crank the wirespeed up to 7 or 8, and you will see a puddle quickly form. You cannot make fine welds with a cheap SMAW, they are either going to be popcorn or globby. Globby is better.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by beepy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Your problem is wirespeed. You have it set low because you are trying to be conservative -- Don't. Crank the wirespeed up to 7 or 8, and you will see a puddle quickly form. You cannot make fine welds with a cheap SMAW, they are either going to be popcorn or globby. Globby is better.</TD></TR></TABLE>

ok, I'll try setting the speed higher the highest I had it was like 5 but I'll crank it up to 8. Also do you guys think I should hold the torch away from the weld spot or closer to it? I was sorta using the torch as a quide and resting it on the metal. I would just adjust the angle until the wire was coming out and contacting the area where the flange meets the pipe. It looks like my seams came out a little better when I was holding it right onto the metal instead of away from it.

Also the "puddle" you guys are referring to is the melting feed wire right? I think on my first time welding when I had it set to speed 5 I was sorta welding blind cause I wasn't watching the puddle or anything I just held the torch over the same area long enough for until I thought the feed wire had bonded with the flange and pipe. The only problem was my bead was kinda broken and spread out. Maybe I just need to stick to this technique and work on making a consistent bead/seam?

All I'm doing is getting the piping and flange hot enough so that the feed wire will bond them together right? kinda like when you are soldering wires and you have to preheat the wire so that the solder will stick to it better? if you dont preheat the wire enough the solder wont stick and you get a cold solder joint. Kinda the same thing with welding right? if the flange and pipe aren't heated enough the feed wire ends up solidifying on the surface and doesn't really hold anything together.

 

You'll get the hang off it
It took me a couple hours to find the speed that worked best for me
Just takes pracitce. Good luck