Finally Got 5 Minutes

[demondriver]

well ive finally found five minutes to get on the computer, my fiance gave birth to my little girl on the 5th of this month so its been very busy. anyways glyn very kindly gave me a mig welder and ive had a few goes with it and find that when ive tried to learn welding two metal pipes (exhaust pipes little off cuts) i have bought a grinder and cleaned both pipes up and tried to weld i just get like little balls of weld rather than a nice smooth seam. i have also currently mis placed my camera but as soon as i find it i will upload the pictures to show what i am on about. find my describing this could anyone tell me anything i can do to try and stop this and get better?

thanks very much
Ian

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

you need to take it slow...

make sure the earth return lead is attached to a clean bit of the workpiece. Check that the gas is turned on at around ten litres per minute or, if you haven't got a flow meter, so that you can hear it hissing when you press the trigger. Also check that you have the wire-feed set to about half-way, and the power setting also about halfway through their ranges.

Now aim the torch at one spot, press the trigger for a couple of seconds, then stop and look at what you've done. You should see a blob of weld attached to the metal.

If not then we can suggest some other things but we'll need pictures.

If you havea blob attached, then get set again at a different spot, press the trigger and this time look at the weld-pool, it's a pool of molten metal. Now try moving the torch slowly in one direction...

too slow and it'll likely burn through...

too fast and you'll leave the pool behind and leave a row of blobs.

If you get it right you'll find you're adding new molten wire at one end of the pool while it's setting solid at the other end about 1/4 inch away.

You're most of the way there now, just do it consistently and then try with two pieces of metal.

Read the tutorials on here for a more in depth review.

Regards
Peter

 

[gavuk]

Just had a baby AND mislaid the camera. i bet you are popular ........try welding flat stock first ,3mm or thicker,get a feel for the welder on easier matl and position ....hope this helps .Gav

 

[demondriver]

thanks so much for the replies, yes ive been very popular lol all of the pictures have had to been taking on my finaces phone to then put on my computer, i would have done this with my welding efforts however i already took the pics on the camera.
thanks again
Ian

 

[Glyn]

Hi Ian, congrats again on the baby! I know what you mean about finding time (we just had a nipper too) and women are soooooo demanding! "It's for the baby" and other such quotes just to keep you close. Now, are you attempting to weld with the gasless wire that was on the welder? If so, I think you will find it harder to learn. I managed some half decent welds with it but more luck than skill! The smoke it produced obscured the work, the arc was brighter than I expected and I had to turn the wire speed up loads more than with solid wire. Best thing you can do is find or borrow a camera and put some pics on here. Someone will know where your going wrong.

 

[demondriver]

cool will do glyn thanks and i will speak to you all very soon,

congrat glyn on the nipper too

 

[bush]

Congrats on the new one, I've one 7 and one 2 and started a business in the mean time. Any ideas when I get my life back? Start on a flat piece of steel and read the tutorial here. It got me welding sweet in the 10 minutes I had!