time to bring the flame! haha

im a pretty novice welder. i couldnt guess at how many hours i put under a hood, but ive built a few small carts, shelves, fire pits, odds and ends, and ive been working on a custom radio flyer for my daughter. in my opinion i can weld thicker material "decently" (not very pretty) but still struggle with the thin stuff.

i just pulled my HP D60 out and plan to cut all the current bracketry off and weld on some stuff from ballistic and ruff stuff in order to stretch the front out a few inches, and possibly build a 3 link while im at it.

i just thought id ask for some ways i could improve my welds tips/pointers/criticism before hand. my setup is a millermatic 180 with 75/25 .030 wire





heres a few pics of things ive boogered together. most are for my daughters wagon, and a piece for my brothers roll cage. alot of the wagon welds were done at work usuing a 480V millermatic 250

wagon parts








this ones embarrassing...







how her wagon sits now



roll cage piece for my brother. in my defense, the wind started RIPPING when i was welding this













flame on! haha

 

How hot are you running? Make little side to side motions whip back into the puddle and pause and whip forward and repeat watch that puddle burn into your metal

 

Personally I think he's doing great for just starting out. Maybe a little bit of extra prep might get him some better penetration. The problem with that technique is that you're not keeping the heat in the root of the joint. I avoid that at all costs unless you're really needing to fill a gap you can't close otherwise.


Looks like a little extra prep here could be needed. I can't tell, but it looks like a little undercut.

 

I'm not brave enough to post anything I've welded yet, but I will say that I have gotten a lot of benefit from taking Saturday adult education classes at local community colleges. My first class in Louisiana was taught by a couple of guys who had years and years of experience in plants and shipyards, and they had different styles between them. The class I'm in now in Texas is taught by a guy who does precision work for a research laboratory, and his style is considerably different from either of the other two guys. All three of them have provided a great learning experience.

And both of these classes have been a sort of "work at your own pace" type of thing where you can come back as many times as you're willing to pay for and build on what you already know. Last term one of the students was actually a welding inspector there to collect hours under the hood for recertification.

Now I think it's time for me to practice and build some things on my own for a while, but I could easily see myself going back at some point in the future, maybe under yet another instructor to get more variety.

 

This has probably been asked before, but I can't find a decent answer anywhere. Hopefully someone can help me out.

I'm completely new to MIG welding. Bought a hobart handler 140 a few weeks ago and after sorting out a couple of issues it's doing well... on flux core. It's messy, but it holds.

I'd like to get a gas setup, but the nearest welding store is about an hour away from me and there aren't multiple around here.

I'm pretty sure I'm looking for 75/25 Argon/CO2 for my needs (Jeep and other small projects), but how much of that do I need? I don't have a lot of large projects ahead of me, but I practice regularly making things out of horseshoes, scrap, etc.

And what would be a fair price for that and a bottle?

Also does 75/25 work at all for stainless? I need to do an exhaust on my truck, which has factory stainless. It doesn't need to look pretty, so I can buy the stainless steel flux core if it wouldn't work at all.

 

Never said he wasn't doing good. Was just trying to throw out some pointers he can also make a cursive e motion or U's and watch the puddle burn into the metal

 

I got a 20cu/ft tank currently, I figure I got about a solid hour of trigger time with how I have my flow rate set. Most places will let you transfer the value of the tank and upgrade if need be. Maybe 40cu/ft would be a good starting point.

 

this is my first attempt at TIG with aluminum. did zero prep work and was mainly just killing time at work relearning TIG. my steel tig isnt too horrible but needs some work

 

Not bad at all. Here's some of my aluminum

 

 

thanks, I need to start logging more time on aluminum. it also doesnt help I am stuck with one set of tungstens and not much scrap

 

Exhaust adapter that got TIG welded today.
(Made about 50 today)

Welded using 309 stainless steel filler with two passes at 125 amps DC.

 

Gorgeous!


Speaking of awesome welds (queue sarcasm).... can anyone give me a solid recommendation for flux-core wire? Not looking for diameter, 'cause my machine will only handle up to .035" anyway... need to know what brand. I've had a couple of people say INE, but then I look and supposedly INE is now made by the same company that makes the Harbor Freight wire. I'd like to try a better quality wire 'cause I've heard from many that a quality wire can make a difference in this stupid little HF buzz box.

Mainly asking 'cause I'm out of wire.

 

Lincoln inner core

 

Ok cool... that's easy enough to find at Lowes and Home Depot