First Attempt - Comments and advice please.

[giblets]

I've just finished fabricating a stand for my amplifier. With my new Clarke 151 (Thanks Weldequip ).

I followed the tutorial on this site, did a few practice runs and then went for it! Here's one of the welds. I'd really appreciate any feedback.

I presume it would have been better if I had done one continuous weld, rather than stopping at the corners.

Gas was CO2, 0.8mm wire.

 

[lorenzo]

It looks good but as you already pointed out..... you need to tie in the corner, as well as making sure not to leave a crater at the end of the weld. What kind of wire did you use? I use a 90/10 or 75/25 argon/co2 gas mix for solid wire, I think it performs better than the straight co2.

 

[Hitch]

Id be proud of that if you havnt done any welding before.

The only thing, as Lorenzo has said, you need to start at the begining and finish at the ends.
And perhaps a notch up on the heat next time.

Keep up the good work!

 

[MigTig]

Blimming good for a first go, keep up the nice work!

 

[malcolm]

How would you avoid leaving a crater at the end with the average low cost MIG? Don't you need some sort of slope down for that?

 

[lorenzo]

How would you avoid leaving a crater at the end with the average low cost MIG? Don't you need some sort of slope down for that?

One way to try to overcome this is, when you reach the end of your weld you can pause for a sec letting the material fill in the depresion.....

 

[malcolm]

Makes sense when you say it like that Thanks - I'll have a play next time I pick up the welder.

 

[dutch2u2]

giblets

Looks like a good weld for your first serious attempt

Dutch.

 

[giblets]

Thanks for the feedback. I've messed about with an Arc welder before on my exhaust hangers and had a very brief encounter with a gasless mig, but couldn't get it feeding correctly, so never actually used it for anything other than making a mess! so weldequip sorted me out with a Clarke. This is my first attempt at making something.

I find it really difficult to follow where I want to weld and on a couple of welds I missed the join and had to re-do them

Any tips?

 

[giblets]

Just wanted to add that the tutorials are superb. Thanks to the author, who ever you are? It's so much eaiser to see a video than read about it.

@Lorenzo: I don't know what the wire is. It came with the welder and doesn't have a label on the reel.

 

[lorenzo]

As far as the difficulties following the joint..... what shade lens are you using? The lens shouldn't be so dark that you can't see the joint while welding. You may also be focusing to hard on the puddle and not paying attention to the area around the puddle.

The addition of some small halogen lighting directed at the joint can help out as well.

 

[daf45]

Looks like you are doing very well. Consider an auto dimming mask too, if you haven't already got one. The one that came with a clarke welder i bought was useless. Weldequip does a good one called Parweld...

 

[weldequip]

Are you after a bit of commission?
weldequip

 

[giblets]

I've got an autodimming helmet that I bought when I used when I tried arc welding. I was a cheapo ebay job, so it might not be up to the job.

I was pulling the torch away from the pool, rather than pushing and it was the torch that was obscuring where I wanted to weld. Perhaps I should try the push technique?