First welds - advice anyone?

[Skillster]

Afternoon everyone. I'd appreciate thoughts and any advice on the first welds I've attempted for about 10 years; not that the welds from 10 years ago were any good, I hasten to add - I am a rookie!

Welding 3mm steel. Welder is a Clarke 150TE. All welds here on maximum power and wire speed 6. The penetration seems poor - I was expecting better from going full-bore. Some of the runs were done way too slow and the metal has built up quite spectacularly but has gone up not through, if you follow me.

Would greatly appreciate some voices of experience...

First attempt progress from top to bottom - some very large 'volcanoes' of metal - saw the first attempt hadn't penetrated well and tried to go slower - obviously not the answer!

Rear view of attempt 1

Attempt 2 - front

Attempt 2 - back

 

[Wozzaaah]

I take it you're expecting to get full penetration on 3mm? It ain't gonna happen, you'd need way more than 150 amps for that.
Those welds aren't too bad at all but going to slowly has made them excessively wide.
I'd try some longer runs rather than short ones like those, you'll gain far more torch-control skills as you'll have to work harder to keep them straighter.

If they're genuinely your first ever welds then I'm even more impressed but looking at them they can't possibly be, you're just embarrassed to show us your rubbish ones.

Good efforts though, well done.

 

[Skillster]

Blimey that's a quick reply - thanks.

The last time I welded was 10 years ago - a repair to a Landrover footwell. Borrowed a welder and its owner, had a go, looked terrible and to be redone by my benefactor as we were in a rush!

These were the first welds I did today; so I am a rather encouraged by your comments -

So I need to try longer welds and go a bit faster. Right.

I am going to build a workbench and have some 50mm box section, 3mm thickness. To join this I take it I would need to use the 'V-notch' approach and leave gap, as shown in the tutorial.

Would it be helpful to drop the wire speed - perhaps less wire = slower speed = more heat = better penetration - or have I got it wrong?

Cheers.
Duncan

By the way, am using 0.8mm wire and Argon 5 gas from a local firm.

 

[Wozzaaah]

You haven't lost too much skill since then.
Yes, longer runs and slightly higher travel speed. If the welds look thin and straggly then you've travelled too quickly. Aim for a nice looking, consistent width, straight bead.
Yes to the prep, grind the edges to a chamfer and leave a slight gap and you'll pretty much guarantee good, strong welds.
Dropping the wire speed will sort of put you into globular transfer and will result in a heck of a lot of spatter, better to keep the wire speed up and go for the nice, steady 'sizzle'.
Try this, while welding on full power on some of that angle, turn the wire speed knob up until you just start to feel the torch being pushed away from the workpiece then turn it back just far enough for it to settle, that should be pretty much the optimal setting.
Turning it back too far will cause the wire to ball up into a large molten blob then fall off causing excess spatter.
Your wire and gas choice is fine.

 

[Skillster]

Thanks for your thoughts. I think I'd got a wrong picture in my head of what it should look like.

I'll give the wire speed tip a go as will see what happens - not sure about welding one handed and trying to fiddle with the controls at the same time....

 

[Sean]

OOh old Britons Landrover? I had loads of them when I were a lad

 

[Skillster]

My wife put it in my Christmas stocking a couple of years ago; it was the closest thing to hand when trying to prop up the angle to take the pics!.

Its also probably in better nick then the Series 3 on the drive! Another reason why I decided to learn how to weld so many years after my first 'let's have a go.... oh ******' efforts.

 

[Ed.]

Those blobby things on the welds are usually cause by contamination