First Welds

[wobblycogs]

Hi, I've just tried out my new welder for the first time and thought I'd post some pic's of the weld for comments. The welds are onto 20x2mm box section as I don't currently have any scrap sheet to practice on.

Weld 1 was just a guess at settings but looks ok to my untrained eye, perhaps a bit too much power. For weld 2 I lowered the amps but started getting pop corn sounds so for weld 3 I turned the power back up to a bit less than weld 1. The weld then sounded good and I was able to stir the weld pool a bit.

I notice there's quite a bit of brown soot around the weld. I've read that's because the gas flow is too low, I've double checked that I'm running 10 l/m and there's no breeze so I suspect the problem is I didn't clean the work piece before starting welding, it's got a good coating of protective oil on it. Does that sound about right?

Cheers

 

[shenion]

Weld 1 looks a bit cold. The edges should flow out (kinda like the a bell shape.)

If it started popping, adjust the wire speed. See the wire speed video in the tutorials.

#3 may have had the torch angle a bit low, at least at the end. That can cause the brown soot.

 

[Llama]

You should be cleaning that oil off before you weld. I've heard white spirits or acetone does the trick