well I just picked up mig welding, my setup is a thermal arc fabricator 140 gas mig welder uses 110v outlet I didn't want anything more as my garage isnt wired for more power. I just wanted something I could easily use for fabricating my exhaust/shaving my bay/charge piping/misc odds and ends

here is a few pics of my welds after about an hour of playing, I believe the material is aluminized steel. The only cleaning/prep I did was a quick scrape with a wire brush... looking for insight/opinions as I want to be able to flawlessly weld my charge piping/exhaust coming up soon... THANKS






*these are just quick pics I snapped, sorry for the shitty images.

 

Not bad for your first welding.

 

thanks, anyone have any tips/etc

 

All I see you need to do is practice more. Also, with this thin walled pipe, you may have better success welding it downhill.

 

i will try some downhills if I have time today, most of those/most of my welding so far has been pushing the bead uphill. I've been working on my cold garage floor, nothing to be desired but I figured it's fine for practice.

Any tips on exhaust piping/charge piping welding as thats what I want to be doing soon...

 

I have welded for the last 7 years an most of it was Arc an Mig welding. you will find that mig welding is really easy after awhile. The main thing is take your time most people just rush it an Fu(k it up then. If your not sure how hot + wire feed speed to set the machine do a test weld befor you weld on a final peace.

 

It's your machine compatable for a bottle? (so you can do solid wire)

 

Looks pretty good for your first time welding..
might want to clean that aluminized off first with a grinder.. That'd help. Plus you don't want to be breathing that ****.. As said above try running it downhill. Depending on how hot your machine runs, you shouldn't need to push uphill for this thin of material. You'll get plenty of penetration running downhill. Patience daniel son...

 

Umm I think the first thing he mentioned is it's a thermal arc fabricator 140 gas mig welder. Welds certainly look like bare wire to me.

 

Ya didnt catch that still waking up from last night

 

Yea was a rough one for me too hahaha

 

No, keep pushing the puddle, you don't want to pull. What Engloid was saying is that it is easier to weld downhill. So if you have a tube that is sitting in a fixed horizontal position (5g) it is easier to start at the top of the pipe (closest to ceiling) and end at the bottom (nearest the floor).

 

ok i will take your advice. Yes I am using gas on these welds, but I believe its some old *** fencepost that i didnt care much to clean. I will do some welds on a piece of 3" aluminized steel I grabbed from racing solutions a while back, and I will report back with pictures later on today. I will wirewheel the **** out of it and bevel the edges of the joints.

The pictures suck, if you see them in person they look much more like welds using gas, I also wire brushed the welds afterwards.

keep the tips coming, im desiring to get better at this as best I can!

 

here are some updates from day two of welding.... material is 3" aluminized steel 16gauge exhaust piping. I wire wheeled the ends/grounding spot of my welds this time a lot better.

heres progress from start till end, bottom vband is first weld of the day and the top is misc beads with new thicker .030 wire.

here's the inside view, top to bottom this time...


here is an old junky vband i welded onto the piping and a second butt-weld


here is the inside view of above vbands weld/etc. Tell me if this doesnt look good...


and heres where you can see where I ran out of the smaller .023 wire and switched to the .030 wire (top right 2 welds are the thicker ****), I had to lower the wire speed a bit and move slower for it to weld as nice as it did with a tad big higher wire speed on the smaller wire... I also am burning thru with the thicker wire more easily... whats the best wire for exhaust work?


keep the critiques coming I want to get better and better, appreciate it.

 

Your doing good an i vote for .35 wire for exhaust systems. go to a place where they use thick plate like 1/4 inch (so you dont blow threw thiner plate) an see if they will give you some scarp peace's an weld bead after bead.

 

.35 is pretty thick, this is a gas mig welder not using fluxcore. I've been researching and most people have said the .023 wire makes it easiest for welding exhausts on a machine w/ gas... just wondering?

 

O everything i have used when i welded at work was .35 an i could do all kind's of metal i think the thinest metal i welded was 1/8.

 

yeah 1/8" is a lot different than exhaust tubing correct me if im wrong, but thanks for the insight when i step it up to some thicker stuff

 

I would stick with the .023" wire for the exhaust work.

 

thanks im planning on picking some more up tomorrow from the welding supply store... any critiques/help with the 2nd set of welds i posted above guys? thanks

 

ttt

 

I didnt know until yesterday buy those 10 LBS spools are $$$$$$$$$. Harbor freight has the most cheapest soild wire spools compaired to Lowes an Homedepot, but i dont know how he quality is.

 

I grabbed an 11lb spool of all state .023 mig wire from the welding supply shop for 37 bucks today... not too bad I guess... any more critiques

 

bump

 

on a lot of the welds it looks like you need to move faster.. I can't see which is which (.035 vs .023) On most of them it looks like your weld is burning through the base metal, causing it to sag, and as I said before clean that **** off of the pipe it will weld a lot better