First welds

[Jacques]

Hi all!

I managed to get my hands on some Argoshield Light for my Clarke 130EN the other day and have managed a few welds. I started off on 2mm mild steel with some good results on weaving and spot welds. I even managed some OK butt welds with good penetration and a relatively small heat affected area!

I did a few 1mm butt welds the other day and post some photos up below. I've found a nice machine setting of 2, min and 6.5 wire speed which gives good tacks. What I am finding is that when I put a flap disc to the welds I see little pin holes where I put my row of tacks down? Any reason for this? I'm on 10l/min gas flow on 0.6mm wire.

My aim is to be able to weld a new replacement floor pan onto my Vespa 100 scooter. There will be some short weld runs as well as plug welding. The replacement pan measures in at about 1mm and the existing body is 0.8mm. I intend on doing short runs of tacks to minimise warping.

Critique on the photos would be great! Thanks!

The front. bit of blow through on the one weld, not enough power on the other.

The rear.

Front. Middle weld OK'ish, panels didn't line up though!

Rear.

Thanks, Cheers!

Jacques

--
Clarke 130EN

 

[shenion]

Does look like porosity. Could be gas flow, too far torch distance, wind or too low torch angle.

 

[Jacques]

Thanks Scott.

Gas flow is a difficult one as I can hear the gas when I press the trigger and see it flow in the arc light. The reg says 10l/min but it could be lower? I'll try and boost it a bit to say 12-15. I don't want to waste gas either though! I clean the shroud out after about every 10 welds as there is very little spatter.

Welding tip is about 10mm from the workpiece, is that OK? The shroud is about 5mm away. No wind as I'm inside with no open doors. Torch angle is about 70-80 degrees?

Think it could just be inexperience. I should note that the time gap between tacks is about 3/4 - 1 sec. Could that be the issue?

Jacques

 

[shenion]

How clean is the metal, could be contamination?

The continuous bead looks clean.

 

[Jacques]

Could be the metal as it's offcuts from a fabrication shop. Having said that, even some pieces I've cleaned with a wire brush end up with pin holes.

I'm going to try and reduce the time between tacks and slightly overlap them a bit more. It does put more heat into the metal but I'll have to do short runs of an inch, clean off the weld, and start again after a minute or two.

Jacques

 

[KTMMICK]

It looks like you pulling the trigger....moving pulling it again rather than one continuos weld in the middle of the picture.

 

[Jacques]

KTMMICK,

Correct, I'm doing short pulses. See the link below.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/thin-metal.htm

Will try a bit of an overlap tack on the weekend.

How's SA? I'm originally from Durban, could do with a bit of sun right now!

Jacques