Alright guys, ive only been at this thing for probably 2, maybe 2 1/2 hours getting in some practice. Its some knock off 'Power mig' my dad has had sitting for about two years that i never even know about. I laid this down sitting out front in the drive way.



I cant get the wire to feed right. It feeds fine all the way up to like 60% speed but once you go past that, the feeder just spins and doesnt push any wire out. I tired adjusting the arm, it just wont grip the wire... I donno...

 

how are you doing it , hor or vertically?

 

actually, its sad... I had it sitting flat on the driveway, weld up.

 

ur moving to fast

 

if i move slower it burns though, if i turn down the heat, no penetration. Thats why i was kept trying to feed the wire a little quicker, but it wouldn't feed.

 

looks decent for the thickness of the material, if you slowed down, it would warp and burn...

 

i would also have to agree that wire speed seems a little high, but i don't know how thick of material you are dealing with... lower the amps, lower the speed, move slower.

 

less wire speed & more heat.....good job for a 1st attempt

 

turn up the heat a lil higher and try pulsing it.

 

plusing it?

 

Yea pulsing it. If your welding from left to right. What you do is pull the trigger till the desire bead size and let go. Move a little to the right and do the same. Once your done you should have a pretty nice lookin weld. If you need more help just im me.

 

so essentially your saying a good tack, next a good tack, next to a good tack?

 

do a bead next to it slower with less heat, and post it again.


o ya are your pushing or pulling, makes a diff.

 

ill go up to my dads and lay down some lines tomorrow. Ill get the pics up asap. Thanks for all the help. josh

 

spent a little while on the welder today. Check em out.

PS: This is only like my 3rd time welding, so any pointers would be a great help.

O yeah, the material im working with is about 3/32 thick (a little shy of 1/8"), i dont know what kind of metal it is though

This is the the same way i used to do them, but better:


This is one the old way compared to one the 'pulsing' way:


Heres two more with pulsing, and the last is the back side of the pulsing:

 

for a beginner it looks ver promising. when you pulse, try to overlap them 50%, i havent migged in a while. been tigging everything. also try to turn up the heat a little.

 

They do both look good, however the "pulsing" or stich welding isnt as "profesional" lookging keep practicing laying a bead, I think in school they called it a "pattern"...damn, dont know if thats right, you just need to practice so that all the humps in the bead are uniform. thats what people want to see when they look at welds, its beter penetration, and the other kind of looks mickey mouse
edit:plus you will burn out the trigger in your gun faster.

 

Ok guys, i turned the heat all the way up today, it was a little harder to get good lines:






The heat was on 4 out of 4 and i was moving pretty slow. This was all the penetration i could get:


I think this material might be a little too much for my little 110v non brand welder. Im going to get some actual exhaust piping and take a shot at that, since thats the type of stuff im going to be welding anyway.
Thanks for all the input thusfar... keep it coming!!

 

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okay don't worry about the pulsing thing, here's the deal; you move left to right but you spend to much time in the middle and that is why it sticks out. try to stay to the left and stay to the right a tiny bit longer. A few years ago when i was in my welding class i had the same problem, and my instructor told me to move to the left, count to two, then move to the right side and count to two, and then move to the left side count to two, and so forth and so on. by doing this you'll focus more on the sides but it ill end up being a nice flat weld (: hope this helps.

 

you shouldnt be moving from lext to right, moving in the direction of the pieces to be joined, you should be moving up and down, along with the direction of the weldjust barely moving your wrist, and trying to get the beads in your patern identical

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SicNA94TegGsR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you shouldnt be moving from lext to right, moving in the direction of the pieces to be joined, you should be moving up and down, along with the direction of the weldjust barely moving your wrist, and trying to get the beads in your patern identical</TD></TR></TABLE>

wow, that doesn't make any **** of sense. if you're going vertically you move from the left piece to the right piece and the right piece to the left piece. you dont move up and down the gap, that doesn't make any sense.

 

hmmm...

 

lets just say that everyone has their own "style" of welding and one is no more correct than the other. Just practice and find out what works for you, vary your speed and heat based on material thickness, and dont forget about the duty cycle of your welder. as the duty cycle reaches its limit the welder will begin to weld much different than it would if you let the welder cool for a couple minuets.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by thebense &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">wow, that doesn't make any **** of sense. if you're going vertically you move from the left piece to the right piece and the right piece to the left piece. you dont move up and down the gap, that doesn't make any sense.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I think he's trying to teach you how to lay a pattern...don't be so jumpy.

kinda try moving your hand in this motion

 

What kind of welder are you using? 135amp or less?