Is it me, or the machine???

[DeanR32]

Good afternoon

I've just started on my BMW 02 project and I've been given a Clarke 130te mig welder to do the business with.

I'm new to all this welding lark by the way. Also never undertaken such a mammoth task in this car.

Just to eliminate the machine, is this set up properly (if someone is familiar with this welder)?

It's most likely me, and I might have to get someone to do all the welding for me, which will cost an arm and a leg!

Any advice on the setting of this mig much appreciated

Cheers

 

[BrokenBiker]

if you are new to welding, maybe it is wise to practice on a bit of thick scrap first, as it will be far easier to learn on that than to dive right into a car. welding thin metal is a lot harder than welding thicker stuff (within reason) and even more so when you are out of position.

I am not familiar with that welder, what problems are you getting? burn through? lack of fusion, lack of penetration etc

 

[DeanR32]

Cheers for the quick response

I've been getting burn through, and a lack of fusion, all in the same tack. They end up big blobs that don't take much to break. Because I'm welding parts I've already cut off the car, I'm trying to maintain the 1mm or so the cut made. Is that too big a gap to fuse? I didn't think it would be.

I've been laying beads on a scrap piece. They don't look bad at all to be fair.

It's when I'm fusing two pieces together when I get problems

 

[Wendelspanswick]

You want tightly butted joints on car body work, you are making it difficult for yourself if you have a 1mm gap.
Have you looked at the thin metal technique in the tutorials above?

 

[BrokenBiker]

the 1mm gap is fine, I use a 1mm gap on cars and most other things too to be honest. how long are your tacks lasting? i.e. how long are you holding the trigger? car body panels don't take much to burn through at all. from what I can see your welder is set to 1/min, I personally would turn up to 1/max, and tweak the wire speed down a bit, but again I am not familiar with your welder, mine only has a min and max setting for the voltage.

 

[BrokenBiker]

You want tightly butted joints on car body work, you are making it difficult for yourself if you have a 1mm gap.

I don't find the 1mm gap an issue, I do find however that if I butt the joint up tight it isn't flat once I have welded it, with the 1mm gap I find it much easier, just using a series of quick tacks as in the thin metal technique. each to their own though.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

I don't find the 1mm gap an issue, I do find however that if I butt the joint up tight it isn't flat once I have welded it, with the 1mm gap I find it much easier, just using a series of quick tacks as in the thin metal technique. each to their own though.

Having a gap is fine if you are competent but if you are a beginner you are making it difficult for yourself.
You leave a gap to help prevent distortion but trying to learn from scratch with a gap and you are going to burn through every time.
Chances are it's going to be finished with filler unless the OP becomes highly skilled so his first priority is a structurally sound weld with cosmetics low down on his list of priorities.

 

[BrokenBiker]

ah right, thought you were just saying that a 1mm gap is wrong, but I can see where you are coming from now.

 

[DeanR32]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I'll look into the max setting. As said, I need a sound weld first. Although I don't want to make too much work for a painter.

I'll have a look at that thin metal tutorial, as the bottom of the rear quarter looks like a sieve!

So do you reckon a higher voltage would be better? I thought lower would save the holes

 

[BrokenBiker]

higher voltage and lower wire speed will let you weld in quicker bursts, lowering the overall heat going into the metal, but still giving a sound tack weld. it is what I do when I have welds with too much of a build up on them, which could be what is causing your blow through as it needs too much time to get hot enough and puts too much wire in

 

[Welding Bear]

That welder is slightly different to my Clarke 135te.

On mine it goes from lowest to highest. . .

1 min
2 min
1 max
2 max

So if your machine is anything like mine then you might want to keep it on minimum but put it on setting 2 (or 3 as yours appears to have a 3rd setting with 6 overall settings).

Hope that helps

 

[octo0072000]

put some pictures up so we can see what your problems are
also what size wire what gas and regulator are you using

 

[DeanR32]

Sorry about the late reply guys.

I'm not sure what wire I'm using. I'm sure it's either 0.7 or 0.8.

Using the Co2/argon bottle from machine mart.

Ain't any of you lot from Rayleigh by any chance???

Worth a try!

 

[octo0072000]

the small throw away bottles only last about ten mins the regulators need to be fully open
you need a proper regulator and refillable bottles you will save yourself a fortune wire will be either 0.6 or 0.8 for normal gas mig wire

 

[DeanR32]

It must be 0.8 wire then I'd say.

I have a couple pictures.

As you can see, I ain't got a clue!!

 

[T0rnado69]

deanR32 im in basildon.

your welcome to bring the welder down here.
though that welder only has the thin gas tube ? that goes to the small reg for disposables ?
you will need a piece of pipe to fit that, so we can connect it to a normal size reg.

i have the clarke 155turbo. back when i brought that from MM it was the lowest industrial one they did. so was on wheels. took the large gas bottle on the back and had normal reg and hose.

 

[Rocketman]

From the picture as a side note you need to take out all that rusty steel. Firstly because it will be very hard to get decent welds and secondly it will carry on rusting and after a few years it will need it all doing again.

You can use rust remover but it can be very time consuming and might leave the metal too thin. Also grinding off a lot of rust usually leaves the steel to thin.

 

[keeny]

hi dean
to look at your pic showing wire speed at 7 and your power settings as they are, i try setting your
wire speed down a bit, if you doing car welding i use wire speed 4-5.....

 

[Kent]

Firstly you need to do more practice, second you need someone to show you, third forget butt joints unless you have to for the application lap joints melting the new metal down onto the old by "blobing in" is way easier. Pip a little tack on, pip another onto it just as the heat fades out of it and work your way along "blobing" . Yes, be brutal and cut out any unsound metal as others have said

Car welding aint easy, that's why you got a biggish price. From the starting point your at I doubt you will crack this with a few exchanges on a forum, twenty-thirty mins instruction and a good day practicing and you should be getting someplace over the frustration you might be currently facing

 

[Welding Bear]

I'm a newb too. And I was thinking ''what the heck am I doing wrong'' when you read stuff on the net like ''mig weldings easy, you should be putting decent welds down in half hour''??? lol maybe for some people. but not for me. ive done about 5 hours of trigger time now and I can say hand on heart I only just feel confident welding two pieces of metal together! lol so my point being is its not that easy!!!

Anyways, first thing... I tried in the real thin 0.8mm car metal like you. and my welds looked a billion times worse than yours lol mine looked like a burned pile of sick! however, you need to practise with thicker stuff first (2-3mm) and just laying beads cos that will get you used to what the welder will do and perfect your technique.

don't weld outdoors with gas. its just a mess! (don't know if you are, just throwing that out there)

improve your technique by cutting the wire with 10mm stick out and practise going along the metal without welding to get used to keeping that stick out (cos you will be all over the place at first prob without realising it)

then once comfortable laying a pad of beads on thicker stuff then try a lap joint. perfect that. then a butt joint. perfect that. thena fillet joint. perfect that (take in to consideration gravity's effect on the puddlewith the fillet joints).

then when you go back to your super thin car stuff..... if you don't burn through on the minimum settings youll definitely warp (bend) it! so do the pulsed method. and if youre still burning through (doubtful) then increase stick out a tad (less amps) and try that.

best of british to you but youll get there

oh and ps... watch chucke2009's teach yaself mig welding series....the ''how not to mig weld'' really helped as wel as all the free info here!!!!