Picking up my first welder today. Mine specifically is a Chicago Electric MIG-100

Just a basic run of the mill electric gasless 110V welder. Im only 19 and I HAVE to teach myself everything from scratch, never touched a welder befor, never seen one being used actually.

Im only going to be using it for exhaust and small fabrication and brackets and such but dont know where to start.

Need help on everything possible you guys can give me to read.

Like if Im buring a hole or something, what is going wrong, where my hands are supposed to go and the speed there supposed to move at, trigger tension, I dunno.

EVERYTHING

Maybe this can be stickied or something to help other newcomers to the fabrication forum.

Thanks

 

 

http://millerwelds.com/education/etraining.html

http://tig185.com/using/setupweld.asp

http://millerwelds.com/education/calculators/

here are some links, not just mig.

 

Thanks for the link

How hard is it to ground these units? I remember like 5 years ago when my friend tried to use his fathers he turned it on and tried to ground it to a table vice or something and it didnt work but the thing was full metal. What are common things to ground this to that would be foudn in a basement or outside. I wanna fire this up but dont have any metal grounded objects in my workstation in the basement. (I live in a condo, no garage)

 

you have to ground it to the work or work table your welding on.

does that answer it?

 

Nothing but wood in this basement other than my engine stand with engine attached to it, 10" vice mounted to the table but that wont work right? hmmmm I really dunno what to use

 

I sure hope you have good ventilation in that basement.

 

A closed door and a window right above me haha, I didnt know it made a big stink

 

The gases can be deadly.

 

alright so I went to try it in the backyard and it didnt work, I guess its just not grounded because the only things I can find metal outside in my backyard are a water meter reader deal that was painted and a water tap pipe

Maybe Ill bring the unit to my grandparents tomorrow and try on something better and unpainted

Quick question

At what angle are you suposed to point the gun, is the wire supposed to touch the metal when you start, is the outside tip of the actually gun supposed to be anywhere inperticular?

 

aye man clamp that clamp to the piece your welding and try again. arc welding works in a electric circuit theory. its not working because your clamping on to something totaly not in the circuit.

also click on that first link i posted. and check out the basics of MIG

 

You should really start reading before you pick up any welder.

Not to rag or diss you, but you really do not sound like you know what you are doing. The last thing I would want to hear about is, you tried welding some random piping, that was coated with something and you inhaled the fumes and now you are in the ER.

 

All the materials I have are uncoated and unpainted mild steel and some stainless steel 2" piping

I completely never even thought about the ground location completing the circuit. What if your welding something very small what are you supposed t ground to then?

 

Alright boys Ive got some welding done, finished about 1 foot of a continous bubble, thats about what it was, a bubble with some spatter. Im welding 1/4" mild steel plates together now (stacked ontop of eeachother) and it was working alright

THEN

The wire stopped coming out, I check the spool and there are no kinks or jams that I can see inside the box, I can pull the trigger and pull the wire with a set of vice grips with ease and the wire will feed at the designated feed rate but when I try and just pull the trigger it wont move

Whats going on?

 

adjust the wire feeding roller tension; make it tighter. i dont know if all mig welders use the same type but my lincoln machine does.

oh and another good read is the Book 'welder's handbook' by richard finch. isbn:1-55788-264-9. It's relativly cheap, under $20.

its vary good, alot of pictures for easy learning.

 

oh did you check to see if the wire balled up at the tip and stuck to the contact tip?

if you are welding a small piece of metal. you dont nessarly have to clamp the clamp to the work. just lay the work on it. or make a welding table and clamp the table so the whole table becomes part of the circult and just put your piece on that table and weld.

good luck