first time with Mig Carke150tn

[lem0nmonkey]

got bought a Clarke 150t for my birthday, got it all setup today, small co2 bottle with .6 wire and welding mild steel

got some steel bbq panels from work that were spare, most sheets are about .8-1mm and one large 2mm piece,

had a go on the 1mm peice today, grinded all the powder coating off and just laid some beads down with various power settings and wire feed speeds.

blew a few holes as expected specialy on the higher sitting, got good penetration as expected, gonna have a go on the 2mm peice tomorrow, and maybe try some butt welding and overlapping.

some pics, any input appreciated

trying the side to side motion, prob a little to fast

the underside, penatration good all over if a little to high

 

[shenion]

Yes, side/side was too fast and too much. Concentrate on the weld pool, for a weave, try and make it "grow" the weld to the width you want, then the opposite direction.

CO2 will be a bit difficult with blow-through as the penetration is wider due to the added heat of the gas. You want it to barely penetrate through, once you do a butt joint, it will take a bit less heat.

It is a good start.

 

[Wozzaaah]

Too fast full stop!
Looking at your first pic you can see that the weld runs are an inconsistent width, sometimes shrinking to almost nothing in places.
It's difficult to learn on very thin steel so my suggestion is to stick to the 2mm for your practice runs.
It will be a lot easier to get a feel for travel speed and consistency, move down to thinner stuff when you're more confident.

 

[lem0nmonkey]

thanks for the tips, i guessed i was running a little fast in places, sometimes i did it on purpose to see what the outcome was.

gonna prep the 2mm stuff and maybe have a go this arvo, gotta collect a mates tvr though and rebuild an astra 8v engine!! all taking me away from practising!!

 

[lem0nmonkey]

also does it matter what the rear of the panels like? is it best to clean up both sides of the metal?

 

[Welderpaul]

Yes - clean both sides of the panel - especially when it is very thin like your test material. You are effectivly bringing parent material from the opposite side of the sheet you are welding on into the weld pool.

And in some cases, blowing the parent material onto the floor

Looking alright for a beginner - keep going, tis easy really

 

[lem0nmonkey]

cool, grinding on both sides then later. yeah knew it was gonna blow through, had the power and speed up to high.

also did most of these using the pull technique, when i tryed to much it felt like it was getting stuck. what would cause that?

 

[lem0nmonkey]

ok, did some more tonight, this time 2mm steel preped both sides, nice and clean,

wire speed at 5-6 power on Min 2 much happier with how the welds went, also welded in a druaght free area, also tryed a Lap joint 1mm onto the 2mm, seems solid good penetration as far as i can see, one blow through where i slowed down to much,

some pics

underside

 

[Welderpaul]

Looks better, nice even heat spread. You will get an improved weld bead profile by ditching the co2 and using an argon mix

 

[shenion]

Hard t see in the picts, looks like some may have had a bit low of a torch angle. Causes the weld pool to become pointy on the back side rather than round. It is more of a problem with CO2 as the weld pool is so fluid the gas/heat will blow the weld out backwards.

looks real good though.

 

[lem0nmonkey]

thanks, much happier with these, only spent an hour or so at it so far, still hunting around at work for any scrap metal to practice on,

gonna use the bottle of co2 that came with the welder till it runs out then get some argolight,