Got out the welder and played around

[Guest jdllaugh]

I have a cheap Craftsman welder than can do both flux core and gas shielded mig welding. $300 bucks at Sears. A couple weeks ago I cut out the rusty floor on the driver's side of my 240z. I've been putting off doing the new floor because of a deep down fear of welding.

 

Tonight I took some of the rusty scrap pieces from the floor and some new 18 gauge sheet metal and tried my hand at welding them together.

 

At first I used .30 (8 mm) flux core wire, cause that's what was in the machine. I kept blowing holes through the rusty sheet metal and the welds were crappy at best.

 

So I switched over to .24 (6 mm) gas shielded wire and tried again. This time no burn through, but ugly, raised up welds and poor penetration. After about 10 minutes of frustration, I got up to take and break and started to turn off the gas cylinder. It was already off! I hadn't been using any gas.

 

So I tried it again with gas (75/25 mix). It worked fantastic! I got nice clean welds with no burn through, and that was welding 18 gauge to some some pretty thin, rusty crap.

 

Sometimes I wonder why I let fear hold me back. I let a straight-forward task build up in my mind until it's a monster that I'm afraid to tackle. When I get around to actually doing the project, it almost always turns out to be no big deal.

 

Funny, it's when I dive head first into a "simple" project that I find the real monsters.

[Guest Anonymous]

James i have the "Crudsman" mig welder that can only weld the small diameter (.023 solid wire) wire reasonably well.I use the Argon/co2 mix. In welding thin sheet metal and to avoid burning thru when metal is too hot I trigger off and on in rapid fashion rather than trying to lay a steady bead. If I see a burn thru developing , I let off the trigger waiting for the sheetmetal to cool before proceeding. There appears to be only one dial setting for the wire feed speed that I scratched a witness mark to locate. Any deviation from this mark produces bad welds. I only use the high heat setting too. Any thing approaching 1/8 inch, the welder works good with out standing penetration. It also works great in welding different size metal together by concentrating the arc and heat on the thicker metal. The sucker will not weld after usage of 15 minutes or more. It acts like it will weld but no weld penetration. You have to wait until the duty cycle re-sets.I used to hate this machine but now tolerate it. . It was a replacement after ,my Lincoln mig was stolen which was 10 times the welder

[Guest m35514h]

That sucks that you guys have to put up with that crapsman welder stuff i am one of the lucky ones that have a miller millermatic 185 that thing has so many adjustable features, i suggest getting one if you can.

[denny411]

You may want to look into a new rehastat for your wire speed, or maybe clean it out with some electrical contact cleaner. That may enable you to use a larger diameter wire. just a thought anyway

[Guest Anonymous]

Denny ....Owen used to post a picture of his Craftsman after he took a sledge hammer to it Funniest picture ever posted on here since I know the frustration of ownership(LOL).....Sears rebuilt mine twice... the third time they saw me coming and ... locked the doors.( I bought it used with a Co2 and argon bottle for $175.00...the first owner used it about two times with the .035 wire and couldn't weld with it but lied to me....not enuff spark for that size wire) After Sears "rebuilt" it twice under warranty;....it still would not weld... a friend suggested going to the smaller wire... which would weld. I used to have a good Lincoln until it was stolen. No worry about the "crudsman" I could not give it away. I have learned to weld with it using .023 wire..If I had a Miller matic .. I could weld up a 2 story steel house with it after all the experience with the Crudsman

[Guest Night_rider_383]

Where can I find the smaller wire for a flux core welder? I got a cheap campbell hausfeld 80 amp flux core wire welder it came with .030'' wire and seems like even the 1st time I ever used it I got a pretty good weld down, but after that roll was used up I could'nt find nothing but .035'' flux wire and it don't do too good at all. The beeds are heavy, lumpy, patchy, and if I turn the wire speed down it does better but burns through everything thin.

[Guest jdllaugh]

When I decided to embark on my Z project, I took a welding class at the area Vo-Tech. Only problem is all the training was on these really nice, heavy duty industrial Lincoln welders.

 

That said, the Craftsman seems to do fine as long as you don't exceed it's duty rating and stick to relatively thin stuff.

 

Night Rider, I could be wrong, but I think .30 wire is the smallest availabe in flux core. I couldn't get that stuff to work on the thin sheet of my floors. I think Sears carries the .30 flux core wire.

 

Going with the gas shielded .024 weld wire really makes welding the thin sheet metal a breeze.

[denny411]

If you want to go to .023, you will need to get the argon bottle and regulator.

 

My mig is a snapon Ya212 230amp/220volt. It kicks a$$ , I`ve got rolls of .023,.035 and .045 wire. I use the .045 for heavy duty stuff that I used to use a stick welder for, like the tow dolly I built out of 1/4". The .023 is for sheet metal, and the .035 is the most popular size,(and cheapest)so I use it for everything in between.