Hi guys, new to the forum and new to welding in general.
I have a pretty good idea of the weld technique, etc, but I think I'm having problems getting my welder setup properly. I have the chicago electric 90 amp flux wire welder I bought about 3 months ago.
Since then, I've been welding just any random pieces of metal I can get my hands on. I began welding an old broken jackstand to some pieces of exhaust pipe, then welded a few spare sockets to the exhaust pipe. All the welds seem strong, but they look horrifying.
Unfortunately, my digital camera is on the fritz, or I'd post specifics. Basically, I bought the welder to do only exhaust pipe welding on a few of my vehicles, and some friends. I was hoping in the end to be good enough to possibly weld up turbo piping for an upcoming project. At this point, I'm thinking gasless wasn't the way to go.
My welder has 2 amp settings, min and max, I believe min is 65 amps, and max is 90. I'm pretty sure based on what I've read that I need to be using min on exhaust tubing, and even 65 amps is probably too hot. I'm using .030 wire (which is what it came with.) I'm using a drag technique. I've tried weaving, criss-cross, and a straight drag, and my exhaust pipe welds look really bad. I welded a replacement muffler on my jeep, and after grinding the welds back down with an angle grinder, it looks more like a bunch of holes than anything. There appear to be no obvious spots where it looks like it's solid.
Now, when I welded that jackstand, just doing random drags, playing with the wire speed settings, I was able to get some really nice looking welds. Some of them had full penetration, others didn't. After about 2 hours of just playing around, I had quite a few stacked dime looking welds. However, I'm concerned that I am not progressing at all on what I originally set out to do (exhaust pipe stuff.) Using wire speed of about 3, I tried going around about an inch long section of one piece overlapping another. It seemed to just basically melt the top layer, and leave nothing left for the bottom layer to grab on to. I then tried striking the arc on the bottom layer, then drag quickly over to the top layer, and although it joins the 2 together, it's definately not clean looking at all. I've tried cranking the wire speed.. it still looks terrible.
Any advice for me? Am I right in thinking this welder is just too hot to do exhaust pipe?
I have a pretty good idea of the weld technique, etc, but I think I'm having problems getting my welder setup properly. I have the chicago electric 90 amp flux wire welder I bought about 3 months ago.
Since then, I've been welding just any random pieces of metal I can get my hands on. I began welding an old broken jackstand to some pieces of exhaust pipe, then welded a few spare sockets to the exhaust pipe. All the welds seem strong, but they look horrifying.
Unfortunately, my digital camera is on the fritz, or I'd post specifics. Basically, I bought the welder to do only exhaust pipe welding on a few of my vehicles, and some friends. I was hoping in the end to be good enough to possibly weld up turbo piping for an upcoming project. At this point, I'm thinking gasless wasn't the way to go.
My welder has 2 amp settings, min and max, I believe min is 65 amps, and max is 90. I'm pretty sure based on what I've read that I need to be using min on exhaust tubing, and even 65 amps is probably too hot. I'm using .030 wire (which is what it came with.) I'm using a drag technique. I've tried weaving, criss-cross, and a straight drag, and my exhaust pipe welds look really bad. I welded a replacement muffler on my jeep, and after grinding the welds back down with an angle grinder, it looks more like a bunch of holes than anything. There appear to be no obvious spots where it looks like it's solid.
Now, when I welded that jackstand, just doing random drags, playing with the wire speed settings, I was able to get some really nice looking welds. Some of them had full penetration, others didn't. After about 2 hours of just playing around, I had quite a few stacked dime looking welds. However, I'm concerned that I am not progressing at all on what I originally set out to do (exhaust pipe stuff.) Using wire speed of about 3, I tried going around about an inch long section of one piece overlapping another. It seemed to just basically melt the top layer, and leave nothing left for the bottom layer to grab on to. I then tried striking the arc on the bottom layer, then drag quickly over to the top layer, and although it joins the 2 together, it's definately not clean looking at all. I've tried cranking the wire speed.. it still looks terrible.
Any advice for me? Am I right in thinking this welder is just too hot to do exhaust pipe?