Anything welding

Doooo it.

 

X2

 

I’ve never taken a test for welding or been to school for it. Been welding 34+ years

 

Post them up, I also started a tractor thread. Post them over there too. If you are on your phone turn it sideways and it will show the link in my signature.

 

Dad was a union pipe fitter, worked a bunch of nuke plants and retired from the GE turbine plant in Greenville, SC. He had to test at every one of those jobs he worked on. Most of their stuff was xrayed to ensure quality.

 

That’s how welding jobs are. If you don’t test for it then it’s usually a small overnight company or a buddy buddy thing.

 

Welding is hard!

Inexperienced hobbiest here.

Having trouble getting penetration thru 3/16 with my mig setup. I am doing butt joints and outside corners using .030 wire in a cheap "200A" welder from HF. I am beveling and gapping the butt joints, and doing touching but no overlap on the outside corners. Gas is 75 CO2 at 30 L/m according to regulator, wire rates are 250-325 and voltage is 20-25.

The welds always look okay from the bead side but I can't seem to get it to penetrate to the other side. It seems like if I turn up the wire feed, it just goops up a huge bead, but if I turn up the volts, it gets really squirrelly with smoke and splatter. I can definitely burn through if I turn the knobs up but I'm lost trying to find controllable or repeatable conditions for penetration

Any suggestions beyond 'keep practicing?'







There is always the original gap on the back side of each bead, unless I blow a hole through it.

 

That’s 3/16 in that second pic? Man my eyes aren’t calibrated because that looks real thick

 

I think there are plenty of us though that worked in jobs where welding was a huge part of what we did that never tested. I worked in semi-trailer wreck rebuild for 13 of my 20yrs as a heavy eqpt mechanic. I welded some as a truck mechanic but the trailer stuff is tons of fab, cutting and welding.

 

Yep 3/16 angle.

I've got the real deal parts prepped now, I think I'm going to just weld it and hope for the best. This assembly is fairly over engineered and is not safety critical... and it's getting too late to make noise.

Wish I was better at this though!



UPDATE: A big portion of my problem was that I didn't have the tension set right on the wire feeder. It was slipping randomly, leading to a very inconsistent wire feed speed from seam to seam, as I was usually working my way around the table and changing the route of the mig gun cable each time. I think that's why sometimes the weld would burn through pretty quickly, then other times, it would just poop out a gigantic weld bead without doing much to the base metal. Now I know to check that.

I welded up the first part of my project. None of the seams were perfect, or even good, but I was starting to get good penetration on some parts of the corner welds. The butt joints remain elusive, although I can sometimes get a good seam on practice samples.

 

The weld closest to your camera in the first picture and your last picture look good.

 

My father isn't a welder, but he's really good with an old Lincoln Tombstone. He never wore any respirator or anything like that. My older brother learned to stick weld from my father. He also doesn't wear anything. I gave myself the shakes once while welding galvanized. Never. Again. After I started to pay attention to what I blew out of my nose after welding/grinding, I bought an inexpensive 3M mask with the 2097(i think?) pancake filters. Fits under my mask, no more black snot and hacking up black gunk for two days after working on a project. My brother said the same thing: "Man up, Nancy!" until he gave himself the shakes. Still no respirator, but he sets up a fan to blow the fumes away from him and only welds outside.

Set the tension on your wire feed so that when you hold your torch at a 45* angle and pull the trigger against a hard surface, the wire will come out and spin into a spiral without stopping or jamming. I've always done it that way and it's always served me well. Never any stuttering, globs, etc...

 

I learned to weld on my dads Lincoln tombstone in 1985, I was 10 and remember it like it was yesterday. He still has it and still uses it at 70 years old.

 

nevermind, it's just branding.

 

Not needed. You can get by just fine with 10 gauge and a 30 amp breaker and it's code.

 

i re read everything on the class k.

also I plan on just over doing it for 50 amps at 6, maybe even 60 at 4. I’d like to be able to run my hypertherm 45 and maybe upgrade to a 65 one day and run my compressor at same time.

If I could support it I’d run welder on same breaker, but I imagine I’m going to go ahead and run another breaker. I’d be looking at around a Miller 255 or Hobart 230.

 

Also @koditten my brother was talking about he’d buy this cord and hook it straight to the box on a breaker and have it coiled up hanging till needed. Then it’s easier to remove and not have much money tied into it if I move.

 

Why not put that cord on the welder? Get rid of the 6' cord.

 

well I guess that works as well, and then just have multiple outlets hanging from the wall. Either way I do it this seems cheaper than buying all of the 6awg wiring.

I don't understand this though, this wire is said to be rated for 230v 50amps, but it's only 8 gauge, I'm assuming it's rated for 50 amps because it's insulation is better?

https://www.wireandcableyourway.com/8-3-heavy-duty-welder-extension-cord-25ft-or-50ft-amps.html

 

I've got 1 of my welders, a plasma cutter and my air compressor all on one circuit. I've never tripped the 30 amp breaker. It's difficult to use all 3 devices at the same time. I can use 2 at once, but never the 3.

I'm from the school that would rather have the breaker trip. Those big conductors in the wall spook me. You are really gaining little by going big.