How are these Welds

[JonnyAlpha]

Hi;

I have been Mig welding for a while now with my Clarke 160EN, I am now using BOC Argoshield set at 8CFM.
I am reasonably OK and now know by sound when the welder is set correctly for the metal I am welding.

Attached is a photo of a Heelboard Repair using 1.2mm Steel, it has a mix of plug butt and seam welds, the bottom part in the pic was a Butt Welded, the upper part was a seam weld using a back and forward motion, to the left you can see the penetration from the inner seam weld.
The welder was set to Min / 2, do these welds look OK?

 

[norlander]

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/power-settings.htm have a read here.

 

[rkde]

They look OK, you would do a little better if you cleaned both sides back first but other than that it looks like you are getting penetration and the welds are quite nice and flat. I would probably avoid lengths of weld as the heat will distort and you run the risk of blowing holes easier

I would be pleased with that on thin metal - its always good to go and see the other side too

 

[DrNik]

The welds look like they have plenty of penetration, guessing though if you long runs you may blow through, wonder if you'd get distortion by doing long runs on the thin stuff

 

[JonnyAlpha]

The welds look like they have plenty of penetration, guessing though if you long runs you may blow through, wonder if you'd get distortion by doing long runs on the thin stuff

There was a little distortion on the longer run but as it was seam welding 2 x 1.2mm I thought it would be OK to try a run, maybe I should have pulse welded (shorter stints) even at this thickness to avoid distortion.

 

[JonnyAlpha]

They look OK, you would do a little better if you cleaned both sides back first but other than that it looks like you are getting penetration and the welds are quite nice and flat. I would probably avoid lengths of weld as the heat will distort and you run the risk of blowing holes easier

I would be pleased with that on thin metal - its always good to go and see the other side too

The materiel was cleaned, the spray is overspray from the weld through (should have not been stiungy and masked it off. I also think the penetration is OK?

Here's the back, the penetration on the left is from the long vertical weld on the front, the back of the lower pulse welds is not in this picture:

 

[Richard.]

Try doing short stitches of about an inch and back stepping. So do your first small stitch then go back to the beginning, start an inch away and run the next weld into the beginning of the first run then repeat again and again. This is back stepping. Great way of avoiding distortion on thin stuff