first welds

[RichK]

i finally set up my clarke 150te mig welder, and found some crap steel plate to practice on. i was playing around with the various wire speeds and power settings and had mixed outputs. The main problem is that i cant see the weld pool any help would be great

i am using CO2 and the plate was 2.5mm thick

cheers

 

[rkde]

Either your wire or you are too fast (depending on which weld). What sort of mask are you using?

There is a quite a selection of welds there, some too fast, some contaminated, some too slow and some others

What gas bottle are you using? a disposable? where are you welding?

A good start to begin with. I think you need to really clean the metal, be able to see what you are wleding and what gas flow you are using.

 

[RichK]

thanks for the reply, yes loads of different sorts of welds lol they seemed to get better, but i am not consistent at the mo. it is my first time welding

i was going with what the instructions said, and that was 3 MIN, and a wire speed of 7. though i found this too fast and reduced it to 6.5. Though these settings are different from the ones recommended on this site (power calculator)

I am using disposable clarke bottles, though am tempted to get a boc argon/CO2 large bottle. for now the canisters are ok

The metal is quite clean, my camera isnt though

At the mo i am using a cheap welding helmet i bought of ebay.

so what sort of speed should i be welding at?

 

[rkde]

If you are using the disposable bottles then you may wish to open to full as you rarely get enough shield from them. As for wire settings and speeds, try using the ones in the back of the instructions. They are not too far out to give you a good guide and more important a feel for it.

I think buying a cheap helmet is bad when your protecting your eyes and would recommend that you get a good one however that is up to you.

Speed depends on the weld pool and knowing you have enough penetration. too slow and you have too much and too fast and you wont have enough and that is where the practice really sets in. As well as the videos on this wonderful site I would recommend that you look on you tube too and spend some time watching them. I have learnt a lot over the years watching the videos

 

[rkde]

Also when I learned to mig I learned to do a spot before a run. This gave me an idea of speed and penetration, also doesn't use all the spare metal you have in one go. Normally for material that thick 2 seconds should be about right for a spot

 

[Marty2005]

Don't scimp on a decent mask. From my limited experience you pay for what you get. When learning I bought a cheap £35 mask and struggled. I then bought a £250 speedglas (secondhand at half the price mind you) and all of a sudden I could see and my welding improved beyond belief.

As for travel speed, I was taught about 1cm/sec. Wire speed and power settings depend upon the thickness of the pieces you are trying to weld together. While practicing on bits of scrap, I would set the power to about the middle of the range as a starting point and adjust the wire speed to suit. You want to be getting a nice sizzling/crackiling sound. If it's hissing then your speed is too low and if the wire is banging into the work piece then its too high. If you are burning holes in the piece then turn it all down. Adjust the power setting and then adjust the wire speed to suit. Try and keep the torch angle, distance from the workpiece and travel speed consistent throughout the run. To help, brace yourself against something if you can and hold the gun with both hands rather than tryng to do it single handed.

 

[RichK]

thanks for the replies. I had another crack at it yesterday. I can now see the pool, and am creating some better looking welds. I found that resting one hand on the metal and supporting the welding hand made a big difference, can really help with making smarter looking welds.
Still working on getting the right penetration, but i am definitely getting there. Will post pics later

 

[chunkolini]

wear a gove on the supporting hand, sunburn on one hand looks very odd.
Take your time and try to change one thign at a time, eventually you will not need to think about this stuff.

Chunko'