Some practice welds

[swordfish210]

Hey all, i was doing some practice welds last week and i was hoping you guys could take a look and offer any tips

These few were on some thin sheet, 16G iirc

Then i moved on to some thicker stuff

Then i had a go at doing a weld with the Arc plant. I prepped two pieces of 8mm steel and did a single weld on either side

and i decided that since the weld on the other side was a little better i would try to go over it twice more to make a proper fillet weld but it didn't go very well

no too sure what i did wrong but it doesn't look right at all.

So, any constructive criticism, sorry about the crummy pictures but my camera is older than Brunel

 

[barny]

Very neat welds, have you been welding long?

 

[Lawnmowerboy]

you call em practice welds!!!!!! :0

 

[swordfish210]

Very neat welds, have you been welding long?

Not really, i've welded in the past but they allways came up looking like crap. I'm really trying hard now to get good at it.

 

[swordfish210]

you call em practice welds!!!!!! :0

Thanks, thats a big compliment

 

[Lawnmowerboy]

one question are you just doing a loads of little tacks on the first pics

 

[barny]

one question are you just doing a loads of little tacks on the first pics

This metal so thats a way of welding and not blowing holes.

 

[welshpug]

try turning the power down and welding for longer, though with thin metal like that the heat does build up and can warp stuff.

have those bits been left a while? just wondering as I can't see much evidence of cleaning, you really do need to grind back to shiny metal, most importantly on treated stuff as it gives off nasty gases and mucks up the weld.


Setting up the machine is a massive part of getting a good weld, I'd be impressed with those welds too, I'm getting there using a mates welder when I get the chance.

 

[swordfish210]

one question are you just doing a loads of little tacks on the first pics

Yeah, i can't seem to get it to stop warping when doing a constant weld. I find that if i keep moving fast enough and keep the previous weld glowing it seems to come out allright

 

[swordfish210]

try turning the power down and welding for longer, though with thin metal like that the heat does build up and can warp stuff.

have those bits been left a while? just wondering as I can't see much evidence of cleaning, you really do need to grind back to shiny metal, most importantly on treated stuff as it gives off nasty gases and mucks up the weld.


Setting up the machine is a massive part of getting a good weld, I'd be impressed with those welds too, I'm getting there using a mates welder when I get the chance.

I didn't do anything after finishing, just left it as it is and these were done about a week ago.

 

[Wayne.]

They are practice weld's ?? bloody hell will be great to see what you do when you get the hang of it lol what setup do you have

 

[swordfish210]

They are practice weld's ?? bloody hell will be great to see what you do when you get the hang of it lol what setup do you have

Thanks, my head is going to get so big . I personally have a Clarke 135TE but it's always broken and i'm constantly fixing it. Those welds were done on a large professional plant with Argoshield gas but the actual name of the machine escapes me.