arcless MIG practice

[Splatterer]

Hi all,
Am strugling with straight lines at night school. First weld test is 3 straight lines on a 3mm plate.
Now I'm being tought to move the torch very slowly in a straight line.
This is quite hard even with a Murex Tradesmig on 1.2mm wire.
Maybe it's age...

At home with disposable CO2 it's getting expensive.
Are there any tricks I can use to get the lines straight?
I'm not after dodges as I'm after doing it right.
But cheap practice without actually striking the arc and blowing gas would be quite useful.

Thank you.

 

[cumbriasteve]

An 'out of the box' suggestion but one I was told years ago for arc welding:

Tape some chalk to the tip, close your eyes and pretend you are welding... the line you leave on the plate will show which direction you tend to drift.

 

[Hitch]

Can you see what you are doing clearly- what mask have you got?


If you have no line to follow, running a dead straight bead can be a bit tricky.
Can you do a light pass with a grinding disc to create a fake sort of joint to follow?

 

[pedrobedro]

Use both hands to steady the torch, prop the swan neck with your spare hand.

 

[jinjahbiscuit]

I had the same problem at first, total lack of directional control, falling off the edge of the plate and burning holes in everything. Then I read a post on here suggesting that you follow a chalk line. Nicked some chalk from work and whoopee. Sorted. Now all my blobs, pigeon pooh and holes are in a straight line!

 

[invicta]

I had the same problem at first, total lack of directional control, falling off the edge of the plate and burning holes in everything. Then I read a post on here suggesting that you follow a chalk line. Nicked some chalk from work and whoopee. Sorted. Now all my blobs, pigeon pooh and holes are in a straight line!

Do you run the chalk line on the weld line or parallel to it? If on the line, I imagine it would contaminate the weld.

 

[jinjahbiscuit]

It's just a guide so running parallel will work. Personally I run along the chalk line. It's helped me with straight lines, I'm no expert, just a hobby welder like yourself. Maybe if I was producing critical welds on a structure it would be an issue, but so far my work bench hasn't collapsed! And I'm no spring chicken either. I think it's really a matter of practice and patience. The chalk on the end of the nozzle sounds like a good idea too, if saving gas and wire is issue. Good luck!

 

[Mid Wales welder]

I have been a welder for 10 years & it's still hard to weld a dead straight line in the middle of some plate, but then that's because in the real world of welding the isn't much need to do that lol. When your at college welding you should do a pad weld, just run a weld along the edge of a piece of plate then just keep laying weld after weld next to each other slightly overlapping. An auto dark mask with a clean lens & a well lit environment will help. Plus all the other suggestions on hear lol.