Sorry but figured this was the best place to post this. I am wanting to start practicing welding. I have both a stick welder and wire welder. I know nothing about welding but am very good with my hands ( carpenter builder and painter). I am getting frustrated with having to order pre built stuff off line and have been wanting to learn for a long time. Any pointers or where to start would be much appreciated. I don't know where to start with the settings, the heat, which welder or even what wire or sticks to use for each weld. Completely new to welding. I would love to learn and start building my own parts instead of buying everything that needs to be fabed up.

Thanks guys

 

And before you guys comment on my sig, to me it means both either you built it by building your own stuff or you put it together instead of buying one that was already done! =)

 

i learned mostly from trial and error. what machine do you have?

if you arent getting good enough penetration, turn up the voltage. If you are burning through the metal, turn down the voltage, if the bead is coming out too fat, turn up the wire speed, if the wire is coming out too fast, turn down the speed.

 

So I went out and tinkered around with the wire feed and a few pieces of metal that I had laying around. Tried just running a straight bead down a piece of steel then tried to fill in the corner of a piece of L channel. Played around with the speed and heat till I found what seemed to be decent, at the speed I was going. I then tacked a bolt on edge and continued to run the bead around the bolt. The welds I did do, some of them turned out looking like a weld should look (being what I know a solid bead that looks like a caulk line) However I know I have a lot to learn and practice will make perfect. I ran into a few problems with my tip catching and every once in a while I was either moving too fast or too slow and the bead would get thinner and thicker. So pretty sure just need to get the feeling down for my speed. I guess if there are any pointers you guys can think of, I would love to hear them. I dont know if I even did the welds right but some looked like what I think they are suppose to look like. I threw the pieces on the concrete and then beat them around with a hammer and everything held so I guess thats a good start...

The welder I have is a Century 160 mig wire feed 230 volt 20-160 amp (dont know if that info helps)

And thanks for the diagram but to me I would of thought that the good weld, travel to slow, voltage to high, and the wfs too high all looked good? Guess I got a lot to learn!

 

Haynes puts out a pretty good welding manual. We sell them at HFT. If well all use them for our rigs than why not for welding right?

Also bevel a couple of pieces of plate and weld them together at a 90. Once you think your weld looks good and strong do everything in your power to break the weld apart "You do have a sledgehammer right?" Your weld should be the strongest part of the assembly, bending the plate well before snapping the weld "if you snap the weld at all"


EDIT- looks like you did abuse them, my typing fingers jumped ahead of me.

 

Thanks yeah I will give that a try, was just trying to get the feel of it all first. But I will try to do the 2 pieces at a 90. Think Its just going to take a lot of practice, I got sick of telling myself and others that I cant weld...

 

As long as you get good penetration a grinder and some JB weld can make even the ugliest welds look good.

 

The quality of your machine matters too. If you have a harbor freight flux-core machine, you're fighting an uphill battle.

You want something argon-gas shielded. I have a miller mig and lincoln tig, but hobart makes good machines too.

I highly recommend an auto-darkening helmet. It helps a LOT when you're learning.

Practice makes perfect so giddy up! Always try to push the weld pool too that way you can see ahead of it and where you're going.

Wear long sleeves too to protect from sunburn.

Always practice weld before tackling something important. You can cheat that rule a little with simple exhaust work.

Do you have a high-current sub-panel or 220V access? You'll quickly want to try bigger stuff and need more power.

 

Is the welder I have a decent set up? Yeah the helmet I have is tinted all the time and makes it really hard for me to see what I am doing when I start. I did some reading on the auto tinting ones and they seem to be a really good idea. How do you push the weld pool? And yes the garage is wired for 220! I will keep practicing and try to post some of my beginner welds up so you guys can give me some opinions on what I need to improve on. Thanks guys I really appreciate the feed back and help

 

Start watching youtube videos. Miller has tons of them online. Watch a bunch and go get some scrap steel and start practicing line after line after line. Once you can lay a good bead move on to welding piece together, then corners, ect, ect.

Check out local tech centers and vocational schools. Most offer night classes in welding that meet once or twice per week for 2-3 hours. If you can have someone correcting your mistakes and showing you how to do things different in the beginning you're going to be a lot better off.

 

go down to your local county college and sign up for welding classes thats what i did

 

I think the best way to learn to weld is with a stick welder. Just google what settings and metal thicknesses you should have for what electrode you're using and just try it. I think it's easier to learn with stick because you can see your puddle better and you can control it a lot easier. With a mig welder you can see the puddle and control it but it's a lot more fast paced and you'll just learn by the way it sounds and how smooth you are.

 

Also with an Arc welder (stick) one tip I have for beginners is the same I was given years ago. Find a comfortable position for your hands and yourself. If you are comfortable, then getting used to feel is way easier. Good luck.

 

Miller makes an android app for smart phones mig/smaw(stick)/tig
Great program. You can also go their website.

 

Fire up that ARC (Stick welder) and start playing with some 7018 rods on flat steel. It will teach you a good steady hand and speed. Get to where you are running it correctly, the slag will just role up off of the weld on it's own. Next move to a 6010 rod and practice very tiny back and forth motion nice and smooth and maybe even some very tiny motions that look about like this ). If you can get to where those are running good, a MIG will be a piece of cake. Remember welds don't always have to win a beauty contest to have good penetration and do the job.