welding critique please.

[g00kb0i]

I was wondering if you may critique my welding. If you may tell me if its worth what im doing(stitch welding). I think it's better than nothing. Any and all comments welcome, Thanks!

 

[cockerstar]

Flux core mig?

 

Really be sure you have a clean surface to weld on (a grinder and a wire wheel are musts), and make sure you have a clean solid ground too. Some of them aren't too bad, but there's a lot where you didn't really get much penetration.

Are you planning on stitch welding the body seams (seam welding) for chassis stiffening, or are you just tacking along like that?

 

If you're going from the ground up, I think seam welding is "worth it", just because it's relatively easy to do, as well as being cheap. It's one of the things that adds up when going for a stiffer ride and a very responsive car. It wouldn't be "worth it" in my opinion to pull the engine to do something, but like I said, it's a good "while you're at it" modification.

[johnc]

Spend more time cleaning the weld area as mentioned above. Also, when seam welding try to make 1" long weld beads with 1.5" between each bead. The little spot welds you're doing are not as effective and longer beads spaced a little further apart.

[g00kb0i]

Thanks! I bought a lincoln 140c as i only had 110 outlets. Will try to clean the weld area before welding.

[trwebb26]

100% agree with the comments about cleaning. Very visible in your pictures that you need to clean em' up more. Spend a lot of time prepping the metal.

 

Are you using flux or gas?

 

If you are using gas:

1) What wire are you using? I found that with my 140c - the 0.23 wire welds WAY easier than 0.30. It made a huge difference for me.

2) What gas are you using? CO2 is much more difficult to weld with because it puts more heat in the metal than an argon mix. 75% Argon (C25) is pretty common. If you are going to be doing a bunch of welding - invest in some gas.

3) The recommended settings for the welder on the inside cover of the welder based on material thickness suck ass. Using 0.23 wire - I pretty much always have my welder feed set on 5 and I vary the voltage anywhere from 1/2 to full power depending on what I'm welding. If you are welding vertical or overhead - I pull the voltage back and spend a longer time putting heat in the metal.

4) It took me a lot of hood time to understand that heat control is the game when welding. Those places you are blowing through - they got too hot. You may be saying "duh - tell me something I didn't know" - but to improve your welding you need to get better at controlling how hot the two pieces of metal you are joining get. If you are welding a thick piece to a thin piece - the arc must concentrate on the thick piece to build up the heat and just "dip" the arc into the thinner metal. The same thing applies when you are doing plug welds. You have to concentrate your arc on the piece with no edges to get some heat built up in it before you can go over and pull in the metal with an edge because the heat will increase much faster in the metal with an edge (surface area accepting the heat is smaller).

5) The wire feed setting does MUCH MORE than affect wire speed. It ups the amperage that is fed into wire - by a lot. You need to think of the wire feed setting as the "coarse" setting - and the voltage adjustment as the "fine tuning" setting. Not having enough wire speed is where I made my biggest mistake when I started welding.

 

These are the major things I can think of to pass on. I'm no expert for sure... barely an amateur. I learn every time I weld. Keep the metals clean and practice with different settings and you'll get better and better.

[tonycharger72]

Welding that sh#tty old metal together is a pain in the a@s!

 

I found it really tricky to run continuous beads when I am attaching new metal to the old stuff contained in my Z, no matter how clean I get it - my welder isn't the most fantastic in the world and could use more adjustability - because of this I am sort of stuck between it running to hot and burning holes or not hot enough and getting no penetration!

 

What I find works when welding up new metal to the Z's old metal or when just welding back together parts of the Z is running the temp a little bit hotter and spotting it, like one spot at a time for about 1.5" bead!

 

Looks very neat as well that way!

 

This method with the thinner metal gives the penetration required and makes it soooo much easier to weld then trying to run a continuous bead with some of the really thin old metal present on the Z!

[g00kb0i]

Thanks for taking the time for the help guys! Any and all comments are welcome to help the newbie.

 

100% agree with the comments about cleaning. Very visible in your pictures that you need to clean em' up more. Spend a lot of time prepping the metal.

 

Are you using flux or gas?

 

If you are using gas:

1) What wire are you using? I found that with my 140c - the 0.23 wire welds WAY easier than 0.30. It made a huge difference for me.

2) What gas are you using? CO2 is much more difficult to weld with because it puts more heat in the metal than an argon mix. 75% Argon (C25) is pretty common. If you are going to be doing a bunch of welding - invest in some gas.

3) The recommended settings for the welder on the inside cover of the welder based on material thickness suck ass. Using 0.23 wire - I pretty much always have my welder feed set on 5 and I vary the voltage anywhere from 1/2 to full power depending on what I'm welding. If you are welding vertical or overhead - I pull the voltage back and spend a longer time putting heat in the metal.

4) It took me a lot of hood time to understand that heat control is the game when welding. Those places you are blowing through - they got too hot. You may be saying "duh - tell me something I didn't know" - but to improve your welding you need to get better at controlling how hot the two pieces of metal you are joining get. If you are welding a thick piece to a thin piece - the arc must concentrate on the thick piece to build up the heat and just "dip" the arc into the thinner metal. The same thing applies when you are doing plug welds. You have to concentrate your arc on the piece with no edges to get some heat built up in it before you can go over and pull in the metal with an edge because the heat will increase much faster in the metal with an edge (surface area accepting the heat is smaller).

5) The wire feed setting does MUCH MORE than affect wire speed. It ups the amperage that is fed into wire - by a lot. You need to think of the wire feed setting as the "coarse" setting - and the voltage adjustment as the "fine tuning" setting. Not having enough wire speed is where I made my biggest mistake when I started welding.

 

These are the major things I can think of to pass on. I'm no expert for sure... barely an amateur. I learn every time I weld. Keep the metals clean and practice with different settings and you'll get better and better.

 

Not sure what wire im using, nor flux or gas, but i prefer the innershield wire a lot more than the copper one it came with. The innershield wire is very brittle compared to the copper wire. With the innershield, the penetration is far superior, practically eats the metal. Practicing lines on a 10 gauge metal, you can clearly see how hot it gets from the back side of the peice. The regular copper wire wouldnt even get it hot enough and just clump up.

 

I use c25 mix from my local airgas. What i do, under estimate the wire feed and adjust the "penetration" with the voltage. If the weld starts to clump, i would raise the voltage and if it keeps blowing through, decrease the voltage and slightly increase wire speed.

 

Welding that sh#tty old metal together is a pain in the a@s!

 

I found it really tricky to run continuous beads when I am attaching new metal to the old stuff contained in my Z, no matter how clean I get it - my welder isn't the most fantastic in the world and could use more adjustability - because of this I am sort of stuck between it running to hot and burning holes or not hot enough and getting no penetration!

 

What I find works when welding up new metal to the Z's old metal or when just welding back together parts of the Z is running the temp a little bit hotter and spotting it, like one spot at a time for about 1.5" bead!

 

Looks very neat as well that way!

 

This method with the thinner metal gives the penetration required and makes it soooo much easier to weld then trying to run a continuous bead with some of the really thin old metal present on the Z!

 

Definately agree with you. When i weld a thicker metal to that from the Z, i start with high voltage and low wire speed and start with the thicker metal. Get it hot, then i would have my partner or whomever on hand, lower the voltage and move the weld pool into the thinner Z metal. works like a charm for me.