next try

[skeen]

Pics from my second time with the welder.
Have overhauled the welder and fitted a decent new clamp. Also made myself a wind and rain shelter so I can weld properly and my welds have gone a lot better. Haven't got perfect penetration but I thinks its getting there. Struggling with lap joints (the little square weld) a bit, butt joints are half way there.
Think it's going to be a case of practicing but any tips to help me improved are greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[Wozzaaah]

Not quite worthy of a round of applause yet but it won't be long
Are you pulsing the trigger on and off? That's a good technique for butt welding thin steel but for just practising you're better off doing continuous runs, it's much easier to see if you're doing things right or not.
When doing lap joints, concentrate most of the heat onto the lower piece and just let the weld lap onto the edge of the other piece.
You have quite good penetration so you've got the power setting pretty much right, especially as that steel looks quite thin. The welds are quite tall though but that is probably due to you pulsing and not allowing the weld pool to properly form.
Have a play about with different voltage and wire feed settings and see which ones give the best results. Do multiple runs on the same sheet and write the settings used in marker pen next to the runs so you can analyse them or post them here.
Hope this helps .

 

[Drains]

What thickness steel is that Skeen? Do you have to do those horrible little "dime" welds? They're not as strong as continuous welds, but if the steel is thin - well maybe fair enough. Also, don't worry about your welds penetrating through solid sheet - they're not meant to. If you used the same voltage on a properly set gapped weld, you make mincemeat of it.

 

[skeen]

Ah right, that makes sense, when trying butt joints it did blows holes very easily. It is thin steel because I'm trying to get used to it as most of what I'll be welding is going to be car body stuff but I have got some different thickness to practice with. Hopefully now I've got some shelter to weld in I can practice with the different thicknesses. I did quite a lot today but mainly turned out like the above.
Thanks for help.

 

[malcolm]

It's funny - I had a discussion about welding and thin metal in the pub this evening. For practicing welding go for 1.5 to 2mm and run continuous beads. You'll have the chance to up the power and blow holes and get the hang of getting around all that before working towards thinner stuff.

My friend in the pub had only done 3mm welding. I thought his first timer results were amazing. Of course this weekend he's trying positional welding on 0.8mm sheet and things are not going quite so well. He's just not developed the technique. Start thick, work downwards, and always continuous welds until you absolutely can't.

Stop start welds should be done quicker than the photos. The first blob should still be yellow hot when the second blob goes on. That way it melts in seamlessly. You've got a lot of heat in your welds - wants to be on minimum for anything remotely thin.