My First Welds...Check 'em out..if you dare?

[Tim]

So, I had to wait for some friends to leave today before I could get it on for the first time ever...

Mig Nerves prevailed....So I re read Malcoms tutorials maybe four times.

Set my wire up and gas bottle...I may be a bit soft, but it was a bit nerve rackin' to be honest. No one ever tells you how hard to tighten the reg into the bottle or basic stuff. So I took my time, checking things over and over again.

Eventually got it all ready to go....checked it all again for good measure kept on checking my Optrel lid was working..

So check out the photo's I expect it will be obvious which welds were the first ever, I had the power down low a possible so the welds are narrow and high.

As time progressed I wound the power in to see wha happend, also played with the gas..started on 10 LPM and ended up playing around and settleing on 13 lpm. What should it be?? ( using argonshield light)

Got a bit confident and tried to stick two pieces together. I set it up, tacked the ends and went for it, weaved from side to cover both plates. Check out the pics.maybe weaved a bit big??

No good penertration really, but I tell you what I had to try hard to break it!! eventually the metal broke NOT the weld so heading the right way!!
you see both tacks gave up but the main weld held fast..well chuffed for a first effort.

Anyone got any comments or tips, good or bad..I'd be really happy for ANY points.


Gonna add some more pics below

 

[Tim]

More pics....

Check out the break...

Tip cleaned up real easy, any clues from looking at that?

 

[Masked Marauder]

How thick is the sheet?

 

[lorenzo]

Argonshield light????? is this a pure argon or a mix? If it is a mix what is the breakdown?

 

[shenion]

Lorenzo: Argoshield Lite: 93% Argon, 5% CO2, 2% O2.

Tim, that looks good. 10lpm is a good rate and is considered "standard". I have used as low a s 6 to be cheap.

What wire are you using? Seems to be some brown slag produced.

Excellent welds, you have good torch control and like you have a feel for controlling the weld pool.


Try a corner weld, that's where I first had real problems

 

[lexi]

Hard to believe that`s your first try. Very good. Using Tip Dip on your shroud will keep it clean as a whistle.

Alex

 

[malcolm]

Looking good. Try welding a little more slowly on the butt weld so that you don't see the zig-zag look, or move not quite so far from side to side, or both. The weld should look straight even when you make it welding from side to side.

The Portamigs are very good for learning, but they are very forgiving with wire speed and power setting - well worth experimenting slightly either way with the power and wire feed settings to see the effect on the weld.

 

[Tim]

The sheet is about 2-2.5 mm thick. I thought it may be best to start with the thick stuff.
The wire is 0.6mm.

I'll get some tip dip then. The guy down the fab shop (They make giant farm machines) told me to get some bit i didn't have the cash. It all cleaned up very easy with a fine brass wire bush.

Corner weld? welding an L shape around the corner? I'll give it a go. Or do you mean joining two pieces one vertical at 90 degrees..

What are the brown slag deposits indicative of?

That honestly was my first ever go with a mig welder I think the portamig may be flattering me, I'll keep practiseing.

Anything you guys can see I should be aware of at these early stages?

Cheers

T


Edit, Hi Malcom, I used the settings from the general settings from the tutorial and set the wire speed to five. I will give it a play, as some of the fat welds toward the end sounded a bit harsh, just like the video. So when I crank the power up I may just back the wire speed down a little. Experiment..could be the key. I'll go slower next time, got a bit excited

 

[shenion]

The brown slag is fine, just seemed to be a bit more than IIhave on mine. I was wondering what wire you were using. I use ER70S-6 here. Could be you use 0.6mm. I use .8 here.

I meant welding one piece flat, another vertical. As I was using too slow a wire speed, my welds got worse welding along an inside corner. The wire was burning back a bit then the arc would stray sideways.

Do a T-weld. Gives you two corners to play with. Also try welding vertical.

 

[Tim]

The brown slag is fine, just seemed to be a bit more than IIhave on mine. I was wondering what wire you were using. I use ER70S-6 here. Could be you use 0.6mm. I use .8 here.

I meant welding one piece flat, another vertical. As I was using too slow a wire speed, my welds got worse welding along an inside corner. The wire was burning back a bit then the arc would stray sideways.

Do a T-weld. Gives you two corners to play with. Also try welding vertical.

I see, defo have a go this afternoon when Rose gets back from bootsaleing some of our old bits and bobs. The wire os 0.6, not sure what make it was.

Lots of stuff to learn and try before I attempt my sunroof.

 

[shenion]

The wire os 0.6, not sure what make it was.

It should have some designation on the type of wire and cladding. Usually ER56-X or ER70S-X. I found the ER70S-6 worked better on stuff that wasn't pristine

Lots of stuff to learn and try before I attempt my sunroof.

Look at some of the other "my first welds". Some real ugly stuff. You obviously am doing lots of practice before doing "real" work. I was the same, ran through an entire 2lb roll. Then welded expanded steel mesh to trailer as first real job (200 spot welds ).

Sunroof? Hmm if it is overhead welding, then that is another thing to practice. My first overhead was adding another cross support to my trailer. Good thing it is hidden and not a major structure point. Was real ugly

There are safety issues doing overhead (my mask is not rated for overhead.) Had to stay as far off side as possible.

 

[Tim]

The sunroof, I think will be welded from above.

So far my thoughts are to cut and old roof panel to size and joddle the edges on the van roof.

This I can set the panel flush, tack it in place, then weld it in slowly hoping to avoid distortion.

Someone advised me to screw self tapers into the new roof section as this helps to maintain the radius. The screws would be in a line across the piece to welded in, make sense?

 

[Tim]

Day 2, did I learn anything?

I just nipped out to garage for a quick go before roast dinner

What do you think? I will pull it apart later to see how it breaks.
Just for the record cutting the 1mm steel with a set of tins snips took a bit of effort, got there in the though .

It feels very strong, I welded both sides. side one was shooting straight into the join. Side two, i tried to weave across the two plates, this looks neater I think. Is it stronger though?

Settings I used.
Portamig 181.
Argoshield lite @ 10 LPM
0.6 wire set at wire speed 4
power set to 1 coarse 2 fine. (Second lowest power.)
Steel was 1mm

(Nice sizzleing sound)

 

[Masked Marauder]

The sheet is about 2-2.5 mm thick. I thought it may be best to start with the thick stuff.
The wire is 0.6mm.

That will be the only reason you did not get good penetration on the butt joint then, you need a bit more power on.

 

[Drains]

Like the smiley. You could use that as your avatar!
Re the weaving - you might be overdoing it a little. The sort of ideal weld size will be the same as the thickness of the material (ish). It doesn't need to be bigger. In the case of your welds, I think you might have a little trouble breaking them before the sheet breaks!

You will notice that with the weave, you risk having bad edges to the weld. You also risk putting too much heat into the job and causing distortion.

I see a bit of overhang on the straight weld. Maybe you were moving a little slow/had the wire feed up a little high/ could have turned up the heat a bit...(probably not that - thin plate) The idea would be to have a less convex weld, as in the weave, but without weaving!

Anyway, you're doing very well, and a good deal of experimentation is definitely the thing to do.
Si

 

[Tim]

ahhh, I see the the light!!! better put my mask on!!!

Cheers Simon,

Right, I understand what I am aiming for tommorow. I'll try the exact same thing again.
The metal warped quite a lot, so I've defo got to get a handle on that.

If the weld is only supposed to be as wide and the the depth of the plate I think I laid about five or six times to much weld down...no wonder it bent a bit

So in an ideal weld (World.. ) should I try for the weave or straight run on that kind of job?

I reckon I will use the smiley as my avatar, great idea...the little grinner can evolve as my welding progresses..

Cheers

T

 

[manny]

may i also suggest bi secting the angle u hold the torch, ie 45 degrees, my own preference on a fillet, not gospel, but i personally dont weave, i just aim for the mid point between the 90 degrees of the t fillet, its hard to explain wot i mean , if the weld is too shallow and tall, i turn the amps up and weld a bit quicker, like i say, each to their own, but thats how i would do it myself, although havent touched a welding plant in anger since 2004, which was also the time i qualified as a CSWIP welding inspector lol
Think the message is , keep on trying and it all comes to you in the end, take breaks between welds and keep that frustration at bay, when we were doing our Aircraft welding course, we were welding titanium and ANY draughts would mess the welds up so we were always making barriers and wedging doors shut, extreme huh? lol
Good on ya anyway and sorry for the massive post lol

 

[Tim]

Tried again today, set up a piece to practise fillets and vertical welds.
I wanted to play a bit more with the power settings and reference this against differing torch speeds.

No picture todays, had to rush in for food

I think I learnt a lot about how I move the torch, generaly it's been a little fast, but on the 1mm steel today I managed some consistent even welds that showed some even penertration.

One thing i noticed was the height of the tip above the work piece, if I can keep the deviation within a 1mm as I move along I get a nice looking weld, also if the movement speed is correct the penretration is also nice and even.

All sounds a but obvious now I write it, but I guess you have to work it our for yourself sometimes.

I also made myself slow right down to watch what happens in the pool before it melts through. Worth doing I think.

 

[Tim]

Damn!! I'm going cold turkey, only been away from my new MIG for three nights....need to get back home soon