Newbie confusion :-)

[WelshAdam]

How do all. Have been having a good mess around with my new Clarke 151EN today and am having very mixed results with the quality of the welds I am laying. Have managed to build myself a welding table which is solid as a rock but the some of the welds look dreadful. I am using it Gasless with 0.9 wire. I know the general opinion on here is not to use gasless but gas is not an option for me at the moment.

I watched loads of videos and looked at hundreds of how-to's before I bought the machine but have now got myself a bit confused. Should I be welding with the same technique as you would with Gas ie: staggering the wire or doing little e's or u's or should I be using it more like an arc welder and just running straight'ish beads?? There does not seem to be much info out there about using gasless and most videos only show technique using Gas.

Many thanks

 

[the snooper]

just the same as gas but the welds dont look quite the same what do you mean by e' or u's are you weaving the torch around to create a wider bead if so there is no need

 

[WelshAdam]

A lot of the videos I have watched show that you weave the wire between the two pieces that you are welding together, but some show a sort of e shape motion (sort of like drawing little circles with the wire). So I should just aim my wire into the middle of the two pieces and dont weave at all???

 

[the snooper]

yes if you a butting 2 pieces together then aim for the gap as it is the gap you want to fill and any weld either side will just be wasted wire, if the steel is quite thick you should also prep the joint to ensure penetration

 

[WelshAdam]

Thanks mate. Will have another play tomorrow and throw some pic up for observation.

 

[the snooper]

yeah pics are better, obviously there are times you will need to move the torch using a pattern but straight welds are the way to go especially when just getting to grips with welding

 

[WelshAdam]

Had a quick play this morning but my grinder has blown up so could not clean up the steel as well as I would have liked. Slowly getting better and I am still only using one hand to hold the torch as I have not bought a decent helmet yet and using the cheap ass flat packed thing that came with the machine. I beat seven lumps out of it with a mallet after it cooled down and could not break it so I must be getting decent penetration. Looks a bit of a mess but i'm sure that will improve with some more practice and two hands on the torch.

What ya all think???

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2gygceulobm3w4z/IMAG0125.jpg

 

[WelshAdam]

This one looks a lot better. Think I had the wire speed too low.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/18wwgl8q3ptail5/IMAG0133.jpg

 

[Wozzaaah]

They're both pretty awful.
The first attempt you've pretty much missed most of the joint and the second one looks very cold.
How thick is that steel?
Your welder is good for 4mm, maybe 5 at a push but that looks way thicker than that.

 

[WelshAdam]

I agree the first attempt was pretty bad, but thought the second one was not bad?? The steel is maybe 8mm thick. Too thick I know but just some scrap pieces for practicing on. What do you mean by very cold?? I need to turn up the power some more??

 

[slimjim]

I agree the first attempt was pretty bad, but thought the second one was not bad?? The steel is maybe 8mm thick. Too thick I know but just some scrap pieces for practicing on. What do you mean by very cold?? I need to turn up the power some more??

You need about 200 amps to weld 8mm, they are cold because there is not enough heat to create a decent weld pool, so the wire is melting then sitting on top of the metal

 

[WelshAdam]

So its just to cold because the steel is to thick?? I knew it was to thick but just goofing about with some junk pieces that I dont mind chucking in the scrap bin. Got plenty of thinner stuff but got no way of cutting it up as my grinder melted!!! Will cut some thinner stuff up in work over the weekend and try that.

 

[Marc.]

How did you get on with the thinner material?

 

[WelshAdam]

Have not tried yet. Waiting for my new auto mask to turn up in the post so I can use both hands and get better control. Finding it difficult with one hand. Will post up some pics when I get chance to have a play.