hi, i just did some practice welds, but it comes out in lumps, i think i`m not getting enought penetration, i`m using a 90 amps flux welder. any ideas? thanks louie.
Your welds look terrible! You should apply for a job at Ferrari.
Are those solid bars? The 90 amp welder doesn't have a chance against anything thick. The 90 amp welder would cope with a thickness of at best 1.5mm.
Looks like the torch is scattering around a little. Try a full face mask - one of those that clips over your head leaving both hands free to control the welding gun. The extra hand can be used to steady the nozzle (wear thick welding gauntlets).
Probably the best way to get the hang of things is to pick up some 1mm steel sheet, turn the welder up to max and try laying welds on the sheet. If it blows through try reducing the power a little. Adjust the wire speed (assuming the welder lets you do this) so that the gun doesn't push away from the steel, but the wire doesn't vaporise in big blobs (somewhere between the two). That's the welder set up, and it's just practice to steady the movement and speed of the gun until you get nice looking weld runs. The same technique should work on two pieces of steel butted together.
:roll: i`m using 1x1/4" carbon steel, my welder is supposed to be able to weld 1/4" w/o any problems, so i guess the problem is my inexperience.
louie.
My 150 amp welder can just about weld 1/8 inch, so inexperience isn't the problem.
Welder suppliers seem to have a lot of imagination when it comes to steel thickness capability. From memory mine said it could weld 6 or 8mm. That might be possible if I ground a V in each plate and welded from both sides in multiple runs, but for a single run from one side without grinding a V it will do 3mm. A 90 amp welder will do 1.5mm, maybe 2mm at a push, but no more than that.
For developing technique it makes sense to practice on thinner steel. Once you get the hang of it you'll probably need to V the edges of the 1/4 plate and weld from both sides.
But if you wanted to weld 6mm properly malc, you should be preping it first :wink:
Most of the standard machines we use at work are only 250s, and they get used for anything upto about 20mm.
It's true - that's where the welding sales people are coming from. To be fair it would be even more irritating to pay £££££ for a welder and then find out that half the spec would have done the job with a little prep work on the plates.
Malc. I,ve just told a guy on another forum to practice on thick plate and your saying thin is better,I bow to your greater knowledge, (I,m a novice) but why?
It depends on waht you call thick!!!
I would say 3mm would be a good practise material.
Its thin enought to be able to weld with diy sets, but thick enough not to burn through easy. That way you have more of a chance to learn to control the weld pool. Once mastered, try something a bit thinner.
Hi guys
I'm a newbie with MIG, but did some stck welding as a student (sometime last century). I got some offcuts of 2 mm sheet from my local blacksmith -well, I does live in the coun'ry - and I've found this good for learning MIG. This penetration thing is difficult (my wife tells me the same thing!) but at least 2 mm is difficult stuff to blow holes in so you don't get too fed up. Nil desperandum