First Lap Joint

[sport1901966]

Hi my name is Geoff and I've been wanting to learn to weld for ages. This summer I finally made the jump and bought myself a mig welder, a Parweld XTM 171C. I've had a few goes with it on some scrap steel probably about an hours welding all together. In that time I've had a go at 2 'proper' jobs. An exhaust where I wanted to join an old silencer to a mid section, I had to cut a new joiner section and some interesting angles then butt weld together. The second was a small bracket to protect some wiring from the rotating parts of an alternator (both on my 205 Mi16 conversion). Anyway below are the pictures of my handywork and the finish products. Any advice and/or critism is more than welcome as I really want to get good at this! Thanks for looking

 

[shenion]

Welds look good . Just one point, when doing welds in sections, overlap them a bit more.

 

[sport1901966]

Thanks very much, the main thing I am struggling with is penetration, the weld seems to build a lot on top but not much on the other side of the weld. Thanks for the advice I'll make sure to do that in future

 

[redwine300]

One thing I have been working on to achieve more penetration which may help, is to back off the wire speed a bit at a time, which in turn allows you to dwell just that little bit more, thus melting through the plate further.

Welcome to the forum by the way, if your first welds are anything to go by, you will be welding with the best of them in no time.

 

[sport1901966]

Thanks redwine I'll give that ago, it does make good sense now you've pointed it out. Thanks for the comment its very kind, I do find myself looking for any excuse to weld in a job now

Geoff