Hello everyone,
I’m a new member and a beginner with welding. I have had a few wire feed welders in the past as well as technical college courses on welding during my time in college to become a certified auto mechanic. That being said, I think I have a grasp on the basics but I still struggle with welding more than I’d like to admit. I currently own a Lincoln Electric Handy MIG, used without gas but with flux-cored wire.
I am currently working on a small weekend project with 1” square steel tubing. I am welding very basic butt joints at 45 degree angles and a few 22.5 degree pieces. The trouble I am having is basically every aspect of making a decent weld. (I have the machine set on the factory recommended settings for what I am welding, and I have very briefly experimented with tweaking them in small increments.)
I am unable to even lay a bead down, my welds are just uneven piles of slag and spatter and crud. One major problem I’ve been having is burning through my metal, and I’m not sure how to prevent that from happening while still penetrating the material. The welds that I do have are very bubbly with spatter around most of them, and the metal surrounding the welds is discolored and looks as if it’s been way too hot. I’ve tried changing my travel speed, but faster is just too fast to do anything and slower just blows holes right through my material.
I’m not quite sure how else to describe the problems I’m having, my welds just simply suck! I’m hoping a more experienced welder can help me tweak my process to get better welds.
Thank you guys for helping out the younger newer guys!
*Quick side note: I also struggle with keeping my pieces to maintain the angles they are supposed to sit at. I did my cutting and grinding carefully, but my angles are opening and closing as I weld and making it difficult to even have a simple rectangle with 90° corners!
I’m a new member and a beginner with welding. I have had a few wire feed welders in the past as well as technical college courses on welding during my time in college to become a certified auto mechanic. That being said, I think I have a grasp on the basics but I still struggle with welding more than I’d like to admit. I currently own a Lincoln Electric Handy MIG, used without gas but with flux-cored wire.
I am currently working on a small weekend project with 1” square steel tubing. I am welding very basic butt joints at 45 degree angles and a few 22.5 degree pieces. The trouble I am having is basically every aspect of making a decent weld. (I have the machine set on the factory recommended settings for what I am welding, and I have very briefly experimented with tweaking them in small increments.)
I am unable to even lay a bead down, my welds are just uneven piles of slag and spatter and crud. One major problem I’ve been having is burning through my metal, and I’m not sure how to prevent that from happening while still penetrating the material. The welds that I do have are very bubbly with spatter around most of them, and the metal surrounding the welds is discolored and looks as if it’s been way too hot. I’ve tried changing my travel speed, but faster is just too fast to do anything and slower just blows holes right through my material.
I’m not quite sure how else to describe the problems I’m having, my welds just simply suck! I’m hoping a more experienced welder can help me tweak my process to get better welds.
Thank you guys for helping out the younger newer guys!
*Quick side note: I also struggle with keeping my pieces to maintain the angles they are supposed to sit at. I did my cutting and grinding carefully, but my angles are opening and closing as I weld and making it difficult to even have a simple rectangle with 90° corners!