First Time welding

[goodomens]

Hi All,
am new to this and aim to eventually get to work on my campervan. So, I thought I'd post some pics of the practice run that I had today.

I did 12 lines and have both front and back shots.

All of them are from a clarke 135te and the setings are: Wire feed at 6, power at 1 min and gas is around 10 lpm. I am working on 0.8 to 1mm steel as its to replicate the metal on my camper.


Can get the pool going, but am struggling to get the penetration on the back. Is there something else that I can do?

Also, if I am not careful, I get a buildup on the top like the last picture.

Any help/pointers are welcome.

Thanks,

Goodomens.

 

[BrokenBiker]

hi there, and welcome to the forum.

if this is your first time welding anything, you should really start on 3mm or thicker metal, as this will help you to control the weld pool, and help you learn techniques to end a run without such a big 'blob' at the end.

get some thicker metal first, get lots of consistently good runs, then slowly work your way down to thinner metal, going down by 0.5mm at a time, until you are confident to use 0.8mm.

if you want more penetration, try turning your voltage up a setting, but doing so will make it easier to blow holes in the thin stuff.

 

[malcolm]

True enough - best to get the hang of continuous welds before the stop start ones. But the continuous welds in the last photo do look like they have grown. I bet they are full of bubbles which would indicate shielding gas being blown away or some contamination.

 

[Wozzaaah]

As the man above says (Brokenbiker, not God! ), get something thicker and practise running lines on it so you get a general feel for torch control. When you're happy with the basics, move on to doing joints then finally try some thin steel.
Looks like you've got some sort of strange weaving technique going on too, just run straight beads for now.
You're trying to run before you can walk.

 

[goodomens]

thanks for the pointers. I will get more thicker metal as soon as I can. In the mean time, I tried some more on what I had and managed to get a better penetration on the first two attempts below. Then I turned up the voltage one notch to see what would happen. It was better, but was easier to blow holes. When I turned it back down, I seemed to have lost even the basic ability to replicate what I had done at first. Aaaargh!
But I know, keep practicing! Does anyone give lessons?