critisism please

[davegs]

ok here it is my very first attempt at mig welding , went into local enginering works and they kindly gave me some 3mm steel out the bin, so I have had my first real attempt coments greatly received.
Clarke mig 160 ne gasless weld settings max 2 and wire rate 7-8

 

[malcolm]

Looking good for a first try. Check the reverse where you've joined the 2 sheets. Probably the weld won't have made it all the way through.

Couple of things you might do - first you may be a little low on the power settings. I'd have guessed at 3 min (I think the numbers are coarse settings and the min max fine tuning - there was a suggestion on the forum the manual was getting it wrong - bit of testing and you'll figure out which is the higher setting).

Other thing is slow down a bit. Number 3 looks nice and smooth, but you can see your weaving in the others. If you go a little slower the weaving forms a smooth bead which means the heat will be a little more even along the weld too. It's tricky with gasless, but try to get a weld pool started and keep it going along the weld.

 

[davegs]

heres the flip side

 

[malcolm]

You'd ideally be looking at breaking through the reverse side with the weld so you can't see the gap if you want the weld as strong as the adjacent metal - a little like this:

 

[bawjaws]

the best thing to do is keep practicing and mess about with the power settings like malcolm said

 

[Endacy]

I found when I started welding that I was always too conservative with the power settings. I found that I did much better turning up the power and blowing some holes, then trying to move the torch a little quicker to avoid making holes, if that didn't work knock it down a notch and try again.

 

[migmag]

I know I keep banging on about this but can you actually see the weld pool and the bead of weld forming??

 

[davegs]

Thanks for all the replies , will continue to practise and I`ll use a higher setting and slowly reduce it untill it appears to be right.
As I`m using gasless I can see the weld pool but not very well, so I`ve ordered upgrade for welder, gas, regulator and wire, so hopefully I will see the weld pool without the clouds of smoke

 

[malcolm]

Cool - using gas really makes practice easier. And once you have the hang of what's supposed to be happening you can use the same techniques on gasless as well.

Not that you'd want to unless you are welding outisde in the wind. An argon/CO2 mix gives much smoother welds with next to no spatter.

 

[Gasman]

Looking good so far, gas will make a difference too, Just keep a mental note of your optimum settings for when you come to weld that same gauge steel on a real job.

Good Luck

 

[Haze]

you spelt criticism wrong

 

[davegs]

you spelt criticism wrong

spelling sh*t welding not bad lol

 

[Haze]

^^