Newb to MIG, some advice please.

[Maddog]

Hi all,

Been on here a while, but not been welding before.

A friend has given me an old, but barely used SIP Migmate super 120a. My first project was to make a trolley for it so I can wheel it around.. this was successful and worked very well... welds were not pretty, but after a bit of grinding down and paint looked ok.

My next project is to make a milk bottle holder to carry 6 milk bottles. I thought I'd make it out of 4mm steel rod.

I have a design, but was wondering if anyone has any advice on welding thin rod at intersections.

Thanks in advance guys.

 

[chunkolini]

Done lots of this stuff, down to 3mm and thinner.
Eventully it becomes easy to do, but at first drives you mad.
Have the ends of the bits butted up against each other or crossed over.
To set up the welder get some bits of the bar and turn the power down until you can lay a short bead of weld on a piece of the bar. It can help to lightly pulse the trigger on the torch.
It is usually an all or nothing event, all melted to hell and collapsed or barely melted at all.
Cut a pile of bits and weld them together into a random structure to get a feel for it.
If the joints fail when you pull them about turn the power up a notch. If it is a load bearing joint it might help to build up a small fillet on the join.

for a 3d structure I would tack the whole thing together first then finish the welds off as a whole otherwise they tend to move about as they cool down and go all over the place.

This was made of 2mm welding rods, mig welded and then brazed over the top, done using a Clarke 130amp welder.


Also involves lots of tiny burns on the hand holding the bits together.
Have fun, a useful skill to get the hang of.

 

[Maddog]

Thanks for the advice mate, i'll let you know how I get on.