Help! First welds, not going quite as planned!

[prey]

Ok, so it's not as easy as a pro makes it look!

Bought a cheap corsa to learn on, and a welder (sealey supermig 185) so thought i'd tackle the spare wheel well first - it doesn't look pretty. It seems to have stuck and I've got penetration but that's about it as regards ticking the boxes - any suggestions?

I'm on pub gas, 10lpm, .8 wire - mostly on power 1 and wire speed around 2 (any higher power seems to just blow through and faster wire is bouncing me off - or more likely I'm doing it wrong!) - also I'm not convinced doing it upside down makes it easier!

For your scrutiny:

1)

2)

3)

About the only bit I'm happy with is the short vertical run at the top left of pic 3) - that bit looks quite nice, the rest..... well I'm glad it's UNDER the car.

Any suggestions/pointers/telling off more than welcome!

 

[slimjim]

most of it looks ok, you need argon mix

 

[barrygibson]

Ive seen a lot worse mate thats for sure
Try a little bit more power and instead of trying run 2inch
beads at a time try just pulsing in short bursts.
Its a pain in the a$$ lying on your back welding anyway so
dont expect miracles.Just keep on as you are because your definitely
doing more right than wrong.
Also try and clean the area a little bit more.
Just out of curiosity,could you not have cut the bad out and butt welded it from the other side??

 

[cumbriasteve]

The short vertical run shows you 'can do it'
Probably the rest is a combination of a few things, discomfort while welding, power and wire settings, metal not clean enough and co2 instead of argon mix, still using co2 I think a bit of playing around with the rest will end up with the results you want.
I started using MIG again after 20 years of arc welding and it's taken me 2 weeks to get 'the feel' back.

 

[prey]

Thanks for that - it encouraging to know it's not all bad!

The metal was really clean, I've cut all the bad out and overlapped the plates by a few mm, all cleaned up with knotwheel or flapwheel on the grinder (the pics were taken this evening after a week so it's just surface rust from not painting it straight away!).

I could have welded it from the top which would have been easier I guess but I thought that you should weld the plates on from the bottom to avoid creating traps for muck and water etc?

I did find the weld was really splattering and I struggled with getting a decent weld pool and then burning through so I will try turning up the power a notch and keep moving a bit more.

Still got plenty to do though, rear chassis rails (same thickness but from the side), front chassis rails (so have to use some thicker stuff) and then either a lot of patching or a full passenger sill to tackle!

 

[pedrobedro]

Push don't pull, turn the wire speed down a bit and tilt the gun a bit more from the look of it. Grind it down and paint over it and you'll never know it was there.

 

[prey]

Thanks I will try pushing and you are right I was pulling the weld with the gun nearly vertical to the metal - will also try relaxing the angle a bit.

I have flapwheeled it all down and seam sealered/painted so it looks passable at least - I'm not worried about presentation on this car because the whole point is to practice before I start working on other stuff - as long as it's structurally ok I'm happy for now!

 

[Uniqueusername]

Fair play, i'll give you about 8/10
Lots of this already mentioned;
Push the gun
Use power 2 wire speed between 3and4
Hold tip about 10 - 12mm away
try only welding 6mm at a time (two or three arcs)
Keep your nozzle clear of spatter or it'll play havoc with your gas shield
wear ear plugs before you win your first free ear candle LOL

 

[Sphinx]

I wouldn't be soo hard on yourself for your first welds.
You picked the most difficult type of welding to practice with; overhead. You can neaten them up a lot with a flat wheel and as you say, on a car like that it's more about function than form.

 

[prey]

Ok thanks that will give me a fair bit to try when I have another go - power and wire up a bit, tip bit further away and more angle, push rather than pull (makes sense, following the gas shield then!). I will put some more pics up of my next go but it will be a couple of weeks as I've got to clear the garage to do some spannering!

 

[carbine]

I have exactly the same supermig as you, the 185. I have been using it quite a bit, and I have been surprised how high I've needed the wire speed quite often. For 2mm steel I've been using power 2, and wire speed around 4 to 5.. I've been getting the best out of that, with the gas at 12lpm.

After using the massive inverter MIGs, the Sealey needed the power turning up a lot to get a nice smooth weld for me. As a beginner, the best thing I have learned is get that steel as clean and as pure as possible! Even contaniments within two inches of the pool have caused my welds to go nasty, I guess from burned hydrocarbon gasses flowing into the weld pool.

 

[prey]

It's looking like it will be a few weeks before I can get anymore welding practice in which is annoying now I have some pointers to try - makes me itchy! I will post some more pics as soon as I start again, will be the rear chassis legs this time so will be fun taking the tank and filler etc out......

 

[zardoz]

Give it a try on the bench first mate. Get lots of scraps you can practice on. If you can, a night class is a good place to start, you can get a few hours practice every week. Not a bad start.

 

[chris y]

Well done for having a go on a low value less important car for practice first.

Ive seen much worse that that done on classics and called restoration.

If you are achieving those results upside down as a beginner you are doing well.