I don't know how to weld

[Condor]

But I guess I'm gonna have to learn.... :-)

 

Picked up this Lincoln 140C Mig in an auction yesterday. It's reported to have a wire feed problem, but I do know how to wrench...

 

They also had a Millermatic 211 but being a frugal sort I saved about $600 going this route. For the few odd jobs I need it for, it didn't make sense

to And although it will do gas/wire I'll probably stick to flux-core....

 

[Roadflyer]

My neighbor has a few welders. If I needed something welded, he would point me in the direction and say do it yourself.

Now, I had gas welded before and TIG is sort of like that, so I wasn't terrible at that. But, my MIG and stick welding was almost the worst I've seen.

 

So, I decided rather than being humiliated, I would buy my own welder and learn how.

Some utube video's and a bunch of practice and my welding is at least better than a lot that I've seen.

I built a utility trailer a couple years ago that was quite a bit of welding, I can see the difference between where I started and how much better my welds looked towards the end.

 

BTW, get the gas bottle, you'll be happy you did.

 

[Condor]

My neighbor has a few welders. If I needed something welded, he would point me in the direction and say do it yourself.

Now, I had gas welded before and TIG is sort of like that, so I wasn't terrible at that. But, my MIG and stick welding was almost the worst I've seen.

 

So, I decided rather than being humiliated, I would buy my own welder and learn how.

Some utube video's and a bunch of practice and my welding is at least better than a lot that I've seen.

I built a utility trailer a couple years ago that was quite a bit of welding, I can see the difference between where I started and how much better my welds looked towards the end.

 

BTW, get the gas bottle, you'll be happy you did.

 

https://www.venturerider.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=117979

 

 

I've been studying YouTube a lot in the last week.... What did we ever do before it came along?? I used to take my stuff up to the muffler shop... For $5 bucks they'd tack a bunch....

[Argo]

Condor,

 

You will still probably need to at least use CO2 even with the flux-core wire.

Use a helmet with an auto darkening shield to make your life easier. Worth every penny.

Get some wax type nozzle shield, anti-spatter spray, extra nozzles and tips.

If you don't have them a pair of MIG nozzle pliers is nice.

Of course gloves, hat and welding jacket are required also.

 

Best advice is to not look at the arc. Learn to watch the shadows it throws to know what is happening.

Arc should sound a lot like crackling bacon in an open pan.

 

Oh and just so you know, there are three types of welds.

1. Ones that hold.

2. Ones that look good.

3. Ones that hold and look good. (This is the most difficult.)

 

Have fun learning.

 

Argo

[Condor]

Condor,

 

You will still probably need to at least use CO2 even with the flux-core wire.

Use a helmet with an auto darkening shield to make your life easier. Worth every penny.

Get some wax type nozzle shield, anti-spatter spray, extra nozzles and tips.

If you don't have them a pair of MIG nozzle pliers is nice.

Of course gloves, hat and welding jacket are required also.

 

Best advice is to not look at the arc. Learn to watch the shadows it throws to know what is happening.

Arc should sound a lot like crackling bacon in an open pan.

 

Oh and just so you know, there are three types of welds.

1. Ones that hold.

2. Ones that look good.

3. Ones that hold and look good. (This is the most difficult.)

 

Have fun learning.

 

Argo

 

A lot of that stuff is available from Harbor Freight. That'll probably be my first shopping trip... After I take a look at the wire feed problem... I will go GW in the future.. Probably a 75/25 mix... That seems to be the most popular... But for now and some of the outside odd jobs I have the FC should do... Don't really care if they're ugly welds... :-)

[uncledj]

DEFINITLEY go with the gas shielding over flux core. Mig welding is mostly about getting it set up right for what you're doing. Once you get in the zone, you can make some beautiful welds that'll penetrate. Like someone said, when you're in the zone you'll hear a consistent sizzling. I just use CO2 and it suits me just fine. Maybe not as good as ultramix or the like, but as I get the CO2 for free, that's what I use and have done quite well with it.

Practice makes perfect, and once you get the knack, you'll be amazed when you see all that you can do and will wonder how you ever got by without it.

I've a Lincoln Weldpak 120v mig, A Lincoln 225 AC/DC stick welder and an old oxy acetelyne setup from my days in the steel mill.

99% of what I weld is with the Lincoln Weldpak mig. I only resort to stick welding when I've something really heavy to weld. (1/4" and over).

Have fun with it.

[Sylvester]

I have had a Forney 220 amp buzz box welder for forty years. Does what I need. Never used wire feed.

 

[uhfradarwill]

I have had a Forney 220 amp buzz box welder for forty years. Does what I need. Never used wire feed.

 

 

Yup, but, those vacuum tubes and paper capacitors are sure to give out soon!!

[djh3]

I have an old Lincoln 220 Bar Box stick and a 110 Craftsman Wire Feed. I bought the bottle after trying the flux stuff and it looking like boogers thrown out the window. But it sat for a long time and I guess the seal in the regulator went bad and bottle leaked out the minute I opened the valve last time. So I dunno what I would do next time I need it. The gas defiantly makes a nicer weld.

[saddlebum]

Condor,

 

You will still probably need to at least use CO2 even with the flux-core wire.

Use a helmet with an auto darkening shield to make your life easier. Worth every penny.

Get some wax type nozzle shield, anti-spatter spray, extra nozzles and tips.

If you don't have them a pair of MIG nozzle pliers is nice.

Of course gloves, hat and welding jacket are required also.

 

Best advice is to not look at the arc. Learn to watch the shadows it throws to know what is happening.

Arc should sound a lot like crackling bacon in an open pan.

 

Oh and just so you know, there are three types of welds.

1. Ones that hold.

2. Ones that look good.

3. Ones that hold and look good. (This is the most difficult.)

 

Have fun learning.

 

Argo

And a gaurd for the front of your neck seems I often forget and end up coming home from work with a nice red triangular sunburn/welding burn covering my Adams apple.

[Condor]

And a gaurd for the front of your neck seems I often forget and end up coming home from work with a nice red triangular sunburn/welding burn covering my Adams apple.

 

I've been thinkin' about using a heavy leather buffalo hide riding jacket that I no longer use for welding. Closes up at the neck and protects the arms. Plus it fits my portly frame quite well... :-) I do wonder if SPF lotion would work on the adams apple tan?? I get to go pick up the Lincoln here in a couple of hours... Looking forward to playing... :-0 It's gonna be a couple of days before using. It show'd a 10# spool in the pics, but the label is on the back side... I think?? I just guessed that it was flux since the tip is set up to do flux... no gas hood... If not I'll be in the market for a bottle.... Maybe two??

[saddlebum]

Two biggest beginner mistakes is A) moving along the seam too fast and B) keeping the arc too long (stick welding) or holding the nozzle too far away from the weld (mig welding) if your wire keeps sticking or grounding out your feed is two fast or your currant to low. If your wire seems to be disapearing into the nozzle and just burning back your feed is too slow or your currant set too high. if your burning through your currant is too high. You want to stay with the puddle and just sort of draw it along at a nice pace. LISTEN if it sounds like a nice soft hiss or in the case of an arc welder like bacon softly sissling your pretty much right on the money. if it sounds like your sending a telegraph you need to make some adjustments. This are the simple tips the rest you will pick up on as you progress.

[RDawson]

Flux core is much more expensive to buy and gas welds are much smoother. CO2 makes a hotter weld but produces more spatter than 75/25. 75/25 is by far my choice unless I'm doing aluminum or stainless when I use straight argon. This is my favorite project I've done using my mig with a spool gun.

[djh3]

How do you change a rear tire on that truck?

[RDawson]

How do you change a rear tire on that truck?

If you look close there is a piano hinge above the tire. You remove two bolts in the ledger board and that door hinges up to get to the tire. They brought me their smaller trucks after this one to add that door, before that they had to remove the glass racks for tires. I built this one from cab n chassis.

Edited November 11, 2019 by RDawson

[cowpuc]

IMHO, besides understanding that welding is sort of similar to painting in that it tends to be alot about prep and cleaniness, beyond that it is alot about being able to actually see "the puddle". If you can see the puddle then you can use the puddle like an artist/painter delicately uses the paint brush tip to apply his trade with remarkable accuracy. Undercutting and goose poop welds become a thing of the past as now the person doing the welding is actually seeing the fusing between the two objects taking place and knows exactly what the weld is going to look like and perform like before he/she even raises the weld hood..

Also, IMHO, it seems (for some us anyway) that it is easier to learn the skill of "seeing the puddle" by using an Oxy/Act torch (you got a torch Jack?) set up for brazing and practice some without the additional alloy being added as your trying to see the puddle. Adjust the flame to a nice cone like you are gonna braze up a piece of tin then just use the tip of the cone on a hunk of steel to push the puddle around without adding filler. Practice keeping the puddle consistently at one size by both speed you are moving and distance between cone and steel..

I know, as usual I am getting long winded..

Have fun playing with the new toy brother!!!

Puc

[saddlebum]

How do you change a rear tire on that truck?

You Don't ...You call a mobile tire service

[RDawson]

IMHO, besides understanding that welding is sort of similar to painting in that it tends to be alot about prep and cleaniness, beyond that it is alot about being able to actually see "the puddle". If you can see the puddle then you can use the puddle like an artist/painter delicately uses the paint brush tip to apply his trade with remarkable accuracy. Undercutting and goose poop welds become a thing of the past as now the person doing the welding is actually seeing the fusing between the two objects taking place and knows exactly what the weld is going to look like and perform like before he/she even raises the weld hood..

Also, IMHO, it seems (for some us anyway) that it is easier to learn the skill of "seeing the puddle" by using an Oxy/Act torch (you got a torch Jack?) set up for brazing and practice some without the additional alloy being added as your trying to see the puddle. Adjust the flame to a nice cone like you are gonna braze up a piece of tin then just use the tip of the cone on a hunk of steel to push the puddle around without adding filler. Practice keeping the puddle consistently at one size by both speed you are moving and distance between cone and steel..

I know, as usual I am getting long winded..

Have fun playing with the new toy brother!!!

Puc

That is exactly how I learned to weld. Back in the day we would weld quarter panels in cars with a torch before migs came out.

[cowpuc]

That is exactly how I learned to weld. Back in the day we would weld quarter panels in cars with a torch before migs came out.

 

Hear Hear!! Wasn't long ago (ok,, maybe it was but I aint admitten it Corporal Newkirk ) a few wrenches and a set of torches was all I had to work with... Coat hangers for weld rod = amazing how much fun a grease covered youngen can have.. I could get two pieces of steel to hang together ok.. Even had a couple years of welding in shop class back then (talking 60's here,, back when schools still had "shop classes"). 70's I landed a really FUN and good paying job with the Boilermakers = they were building a new Power House on our side of Lake Michigan and were willing to hire almost anyone not afraid of heights. When the "push" announced the local was gonna be needing welders and asked for volunteers interested in attending Weld School, my hand couldn't get up fast enough (always looking for more "tools" for my life's "tool box").. Class was taught by a Pipe Fitter and WOWZY could he weld and, better yet,, a VERY patient teacher.. Before he even began teaching us to Tig (a class only available to those who passed bend and x-ray on an open butt over head plate = 6010 root/7018 woven cap,, he started with all positions of plate.. LOTS OF FUN!! About 1 week into the course,, he pulled me aside and complimented my welding abilities, his words "you weld really well for someone who cant see what he is doing :big-grin-emoticon:"... I went home over that one Newkirk!! Next class he pulls me aside and ask if I would like to REALLY learn the art of welding,, OF COURSE was my answer.. He then told me that I would have to work HARD and learn to see the puddle.. Took some time and LOTS of practice with a lowely Oxy/Acet torch but,, I will NEVER forget the day it connected,,, watching the puddle lines overlap each other and tie in to the edges was amazing,,, sort of my version of how someone who really understands Algebra (I tried,, I REALLY tried but never got there in Math),, kind of strange eh?

From there on out, sky was the limit in learning Welding.. "Walking The Cup" was a BIG thing in Tiggin Pipe back then and before I "graduated" his class,, Terry (the instructer) had me Tiggin mild steel like I had been doing it all my life.. No more riggin,, no more dragging 1 inch cable between Buckstays and hanging upside down from 300 feet to hang pullies or unloading box cars... Full time Pipe Welder including lots of Stainless (REAL PURDY STUFF,, a little patience and practice = welds look good enough to use for a Wedding Ring) and "pimps" (what we called helpers back then) to boot... All because a very highly skilled individual took the time to work with me till I could "see the puddle", never had one weld fail to xray (that I know of) in 3 years of welding pipe.. Probably all sounds crazy but that is the way it happened to me...

[RDawson]

Puc you mentioned shop class, mine was in an auto body class at vocational school during high school. Our town was built on the car business. We were known as the used car capital of the world for years. Part of that was buying wrecks and rebuilding, one hit in front- one hit in rear- cut em in half and weld the good parts together. This was before internet and car fax. The less scrupulous guys would then buy a car without a title and attach the vin plate from one of the wrecks and sell it. Won't mention where they got the untitled cars. Used cars, wrecked cars, 90,000 mile cars with odometer cut, chop shops, forged titles, you name it. Literally hundreds per week rolled thru here. Then the insurance companies got together and started branding the titles on the internet and a bunch of dealers went to jail. When it all went down the local guys were sitting on hundreds of nice rebuilt cars they couldn't sell, many abandoned at out of state auto auctions. Some of the best welders around learned on these cars, when finished an auto expert couldn't tell the difference between a rebuilt car and a new one. They were that good.

[Condor]

IMHO, besides understanding that welding is sort of similar to painting in that it tends to be alot about prep and cleaniness, beyond that it is alot about being able to actually see "the puddle". If you can see the puddle then you can use the puddle like an artist/painter delicately uses the paint brush tip to apply his trade with remarkable accuracy. Undercutting and goose poop welds become a thing of the past as now the person doing the welding is actually seeing the fusing between the two objects taking place and knows exactly what the weld is going to look like and perform like before he/she even raises the weld hood..

Also, IMHO, it seems (for some us anyway) that it is easier to learn the skill of "seeing the puddle" by using an Oxy/Act torch (you got a torch Jack?) set up for brazing and practice some without the additional alloy being added as your trying to see the puddle. Adjust the flame to a nice cone like you are gonna braze up a piece of tin then just use the tip of the cone on a hunk of steel to push the puddle around without adding filler. Practice keeping the puddle consistently at one size by both speed you are moving and distance between cone and steel..

I know, as usual I am getting long winded..

Have fun playing with the new toy brother!!!

Puc

 

Hear Hear!! Wasn't long ago (ok,, maybe it was but I aint admitten it Corporal Newkirk ) a few wrenches and a set of torches was all I had to work with... Coat hangers for weld rod = amazing how much fun a grease covered youngen can have.. I could get two pieces of steel to hang together ok.. Even had a couple years of welding in shop class back then (talking 60's here,, back when schools still had "shop classes"). 70's I landed a really FUN and good paying job with the Boilermakers = they were building a new Power House on our side of Lake Michigan and were willing to hire almost anyone not afraid of heights. When the "push" announced the local was gonna be needing welders and asked for volunteers interested in attending Weld School, my hand couldn't get up fast enough (always looking for more "tools" for my life's "tool box").. Class was taught by a Pipe Fitter and WOWZY could he weld and, better yet,, a VERY patient teacher.. Before he even began teaching us to Tig (a class only available to those who passed bend and x-ray on an open butt over head plate = 6010 root/7018 woven cap,, he started with all positions of plate.. LOTS OF FUN!! About 1 week into the course,, he pulled me aside and complimented my welding abilities, his words "you weld really well for someone who cant see what he is doing :big-grin-emoticon:"... I went home over that one Newkirk!! Next class he pulls me aside and ask if I would like to REALLY learn the art of welding,, OF COURSE was my answer.. He then told me that I would have to work HARD and learn to see the puddle.. Took some time and LOTS of practice with a lowely Oxy/Acet torch but,, I will NEVER forget the day it connected,,, watching the puddle lines overlap each other and tie in to the edges was amazing,,, sort of my version of how someone who really understands Algebra (I tried,, I REALLY tried but never got there in Math),, kind of strange eh?

From there on out, sky was the limit in learning Welding.. "Walking The Cup" was a BIG thing in Tiggin Pipe back then and before I "graduated" his class,, Terry (the instructer) had me Tiggin mild steel like I had been doing it all my life.. No more riggin,, no more dragging 1 inch cable between Buckstays and hanging upside down from 300 feet to hang pullies or unloading box cars... Full time Pipe Welder including lots of Stainless (REAL PURDY STUFF,, a little patience and practice = welds look good enough to use for a Wedding Ring) and "pimps" (what we called helpers back then) to boot... All because a very highly skilled individual took the time to work with me till I could "see the puddle", never had one weld fail to xray (that I know of) in 3 years of welding pipe.. Probably all sounds crazy but that is the way it happened to me...

 

That's what I need to be.... A puddle jumper... :whistling: :whistling: