ok my parents have a lil cheap chicago mig 100 welder and i was wondering

1. If it will be ok to weld charge pipes?

2. what is the welding technique?

 

charge lines yes, anything else, itll be tough.
for the technique, turn the heat up, feed down, and do half-moon shapes while moving around pieces...

 

thanks, any other tips or advice?

 

make sure ur crap is pretty clean

mike

 

always wire wheel both surfaces before you weld and wipe them both down with acetone to get greases off.

 

bump

 

I have the same welder, cant get the hang of it. can anyone tell me where I could purchase a gas kit for it? or if they're even available for it? I was told they were

 

Look up welding in your local yellow book. Small 10lb tanks are around $100 filled and last around a couple hours or so depending upon flow. Refills on small tanks are like $15 for an argon/co2 mix. They should also be pretty helpful on letting you know what you're doing wrong. Bring in a piece of metal that you have done some welds on and they should be able to tell if your heat, speed, wire, technique are wrong. good luck

The whole deal with the MIG(GMAW) process versus flux cored is this. In the flux cored there is silica which melts when the arc is struck. It continiously melts off and covers the weld bead as you go. This keeps oxygen from getting to the weld and contaminating it. Problem is when silica melts it turns into glass. That's why you need a chipping hammer to take off the slag. The slag can also get inside of the weld if you double pass or just aren't great at welding. This yields a weak weld. Bad. MIG on the otherhand uses a argon/co2 mix to displace oxygen around the arc but it doesn't really deposit anything onto or into the weld itself, yielding a cleaner stronger weld

Just practice practice practice and eventually you'll get the hang of it. It's easier for some people, while it might take a while for others.

Also, if you're using flux-cored right now a change to a argon/co2 mix will be like night and day if you have the right technique. Just about no spatter, produces a cleaner looking weld, and penetration is usually better.


Modified by elude667 at 2:25 AM 6/26/2003

 

It's really hard to learn to weld on a POS welder. So don't feel bad.