I am really new to welding and realize that what i have for a welder in nothing great, but it is what I have and seems to work for me.

First off my MIG welder is just a Century 100 wire feed converted to MIG with the Lincoln kit. Heavier material, 3/16" and up, has to be done with a double weld.

My first real welding project is the 6X2x3/16 rocker convertion. Not finished yet, but I did get one tube capped and ready to be installed.

Welded


Ground down


The caps at 1/8" while the tubing is 3/16". The blue is not heat induced, it is layout dye I used to mark out the caps I ground a 45° chamfer on the tubing and placed my weld in there. I double welded to get as good of a connection as I could.

I know the welds are far from perfect and that is why I am posting here. Any tips on improving my welding aside for taking a course, or buying a bigger welder would be appreciated. For the record I am not a kid just starting out, I am a 50 year old man just starting out and a new welder is not in the budget, and I don't have the time of funds for taking a night course at a community college. besides the nearest college isn't in my community, it is 30 miles away

Thanks
George

 

Google and youtube...there's lots of good vids and pages with info out there. Right off the bat, I'm going to suggest prepping your metal properly before running a bead...use a grinder with a flap wheel to clean off any surface rust/scale, clean metal is happy metal. Much easier to get a good bead. The best way to improve your welding? Time under the hood. Take some scrap pieces of metal and practice, practice, practice...weld in all positions (horizontal, vertical, and overhead) because trust me, very few welds will ever be on a bench, LMAO...depending on what you're welding, and how, there are various weave techniques you can use, most common is to make little cursive lower case e's...here's a chart I took a pic of at the CC I have taken classes at:


Now, that chart is more for arc welding, but alot of it carries over to wire fed machines. Try various patters in various positions when you practice. A teacher once told me, there is no cheating in welding. A good bead is a good bead. Doesn't matter how you get there....

Bottom line? Get out there and burn some wire, man! Hope this helped ya!

 

Hopefully you've had some time to get the welding thing figured out, but if not my best advice it to preheat when you're going to weld 3/16" material with a small welder. Additional beads are not going to help because you need the strength in the root pass but without preheating you will get little penetration when using a lower amperage welder.
Good luck, and pm me if you have any additional questions!



Ron