Hello im new.

[Tianskull007]

Hi guys, just recently started welding 3 months ago, and this seems like a great forum, lots knowledgeable ppl here...
I first started welding with a crappy harbor freight flux. I mostly bought it to practice on and to kinda learn. It was a good cheap welder to learn on. Although the quality and asthetics of it were horrible it sure was a challenge. Well I think to this day I still kinda suck with that welder.
Anyways, finally after gathering some money I was able to afford a real gas mig. After reading around I decided to go with the eastwood, mostly for their customer service and good rep. Well the first day I started welding with it (4 days ago). I inmediately noticed the difference between mixed gas (im using 75%argon/25%co2) and crappy flux welder.
Although I still dont know if this is a good pass. I was hoping for some critique. This was the second pass I made on that gas welder and looking at the flux from 3 months ago and this one, I have a feeling its much better. Although like I said idk if its still good lol. Im just a newbie...
Any tips/advice are greatly appreciated... Also I attached the pics from my phone, idk if that will show up. Since I know some forums need an external image site to be able to view them...
Thanks!

 

[Engineer1964]

Hi Tianskull007

...and welcome to the forum

Glad to see your making a definate start in the world of welding, The weld on the left looks a lot better than the weld on the right, not sure what happened there?

A little tip an old boy told me years ago was to turn the set up on high with the wire speed to suit and work down the settings until you get a decent weld, Trying to explain how to set your set is almost impossible with so many sets out there, but if you start on fairly high amps and work down you can't go wrong.

The other thing i've found out is the cheapest consumumables is often a bad investment, Get the best you can afford for the job your doing and you'll see an definate inprovement as you explained earlier.

Practice is King

 

[cumbriasteve]

Yes you can certainly tell the difference between the 2.

On the gas weld the end weld looks about right, the side weld I suspect could have done with a little more power, you are trying to heat a bigger area of the box, the end of the box heats up easier.

I am unsure if you have had them clean enough though, I used to give the metal a quick buff or wire brush and thought it was enough, I then bought flapwheels and got it back to polished steel... makes a massive difference....I bet you never go back to flux coated

 

[Tianskull007]

Thanks for the responses guys.
Yea the one on the right was when I had just started with flux a while back.
I see what you mean about playing with the settings, since I know im getting some good oenetration, but the weld looks like its too much (on the left). Meaning that its kind of a big mountain. I dont know if it should be flatter, or if thats how mig gas is suppose to look like.
Also you cant really tell but I did prep the sirface on the left, right where I welded. I grnded it dowb to bare,metal, then left tthe other half to rust....
Ill continue to practice with settings, and get back to you guys.
Thank you for all the feedback!