My first 5 welds! Adriano I feel your pain

[blcknspo0ln]

I used a 90V gasless mig welder that I picked up off of a guy on dsmtuners. I thought I was getting a great deal, but turns out it's the same price brand new from harbor freight :cry: Oh well, at least I didn't over pay.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=44567 (http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=44567)

Got it for $200 shipped. I'll be buying some welding gloves and a better mask tomorrow. The one he shipped to me was one of those 'watcher' type masks so I had to weld with one hand and hold the damn mask with the other. I just cut a SS pipe I had laying around and did some practice passes. I thought Adriano's manifold was hard to make, but now I can fully appreciate the work! I only cleaned and filed the welds down. Anyway, here they are in all their bird-shit glory!! Anyone have any suggestion on what wire I should purchase to help ease the pain of this type of welding?

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b39/thelmasofast/64ad46ce.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b39/thelmasofast/a5803769.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b39/thelmasofast/e6501f62.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b39/thelmasofast/a195c3e8.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b39/thelmasofast/647ca03a.jpg

[gtluke]

flux core makes for really really bad looking welds, don't try and make them pretty because you can't. aim for consistency and penetration. look inside the pipe to see how well you did, the outside will always look like dog poop but that doesn't mean its a bad weld.

[blcknspo0ln]

Am I looking for it to penetrate all the way through or ?? I can't find the happy medium yet. Either it's a surface weld or it burns a damn hole.

[TuRBoTaLooN95]

Sweet dude! Keep us posted how the learning curve goes. I've been thinking about picking up a welder myself and playing around. I'd like to make my own IC pipes.

[91tsiguy]

Not to burst your bubble, but sell that thing and get a real mig welder that uses shielding gas. You'll never get a good looking weld with those flux core welders, especially the cheaper no name brands. Lowes and Home Depot carry the consumer line of Lincoln welders that use gas, but you can also check out on ebay for the more professional line of mig welders that Lincoln offers too. Pay attention to finding ones that have infinite wire and amperage adjustment, and not just 4-5 click as you turn settings. 8)

[Hinz]

Not to burst your bubble, but sell that thing and get a real mig welder that uses shielding gas. You'll never get a good looking weld with those flux core welders, especially the cheaper no name brands. Lowes and Home Depot carry the consumer line of Lincoln welders that use gas...

yeh i agree. I got the 110V Craftsman MIG used off of Ebay for $110. Luke has the same one and it welds pretty good for small jobs. Anything thicker than sheet metal or pipe, I would want to go up to a 220V MIG.

[blcknspo0ln]

lol I bought the welder with full intention of knowing that it would not even be close to a gas mig welder, but my purposes for this is just to build simple things like a dumptube or possibly an exhaust. If I get better at penetration, would this be enough for such a job?

[91tsiguy]

For learning how to mig, I don't think this machine will let you get much better than what you posted above, or teach too much at all. I started off with basically the same machine, and got too frustrated with it the 3 or 4 times I used it to even care anymore. Now it sits in my parents garage collecting dust.

[dre99gsx]

You can achieve very clean and neat welds with flux core. Practice practice practice. Gas is cleaner, but not needed if your metals are thin.

There are a few folk on here who can testify to some amazing weld jobs with flux-core.

Make sure you pick the right speed and voltage.

[blcknspo0ln]

I tried another 4 attempts at it and realized that I don't have to do a zigzag motion to create a good weld. I turned the feed to '5' and kept the voltage at 'minimum' and just went right down the cut and it came out pretty nice. I'll post up more pics when I get some cleaner welds. Oh, and when you look on the inside, it actually went through this time :twisted:

[97gsxminus1bolt]

I have a flux core you could of had for 100 if i had known. Flux core sux balls but with practice you get better. Buy an auto darkening from harbor freight(no more than $50 with coupon). Lower the speed lower the voltage and try to pull the puddle.

[crazyb]

You can achieve very clean and neat welds with flux core. Practice practice practice. Gas is cleaner, but not needed if your metals are thin.

There are a few folk on here who can testify to some amazing weld jobs with flux-core.

Make sure you pick the right speed and voltage.


Flux core is excellent if you prep the weld right. My guys use flux core for all non structural. Mostly handrail thou. That weld is not even a weld yet. It looks to me that the voltage is a tad too high, and the wire feed was too low... was 5 turning it up?

It looks like the feed was slow and wasnt getting enough wire constantly down on it. You should hold it up about a finger length from the metal while welding. You can do sliiight zig zags but watch the puddle and keep it together.

My setting advice might not be exact, as its a pretttty ugly weld. After a night of messing with the settings of a mig welder and you should have a clean weld. If not, that welder is probibly not what your looking for. I wouldnt buy that welder if you gave me free wire for life.

Keep at it, its been a frusterating road for me, but its just practice practice practice!

[crazyb]

You can achieve very clean and neat welds with flux core. Practice practice practice. Gas is cleaner, but not needed if your metals are thin.

There are a few folk on here who can testify to some amazing weld jobs with flux-core.

Make sure you pick the right speed and voltage.


Flux core is excellent if you prep the weld right. My guys use flux core for all non structural. Mostly handrail thou. That weld is not even a weld yet. It looks to me that the voltage is a tad too high, and the wire feed was too low... was 5 turning it up?

It looks like the feed was slow and wasnt getting enough wire constantly down on it. You should hold it up about a finger length from the metal while welding. You can do sliiight zig zags but watch the puddle and keep it together.

My setting advice might not be exact, as its a pretttty ugly weld. After a night of messing with the settings of a mig welder and you should have a clean weld. If not, that welder is probibly not what your looking for. I wouldnt buy that welder if you gave me free wire for life.

Keep at it, its been a frusterating road for me, but its just practice practice practice!

edit: it looks like you had the wire feed at two, then turned it to 5. I would flip the switch on 7-8 high and pull a weld going long ways on that pipe. I bet youll get a nice weld and it should penetrate the back end of that pipe but not blast through. Try it out... show us!