Anything welding

And unless you have the means to transport 20' pieces, consider sketching out and figuring out how many "pieces" you need in various lengths.

Planning is key here as someone that didn't have a truck to carry such long square tube pieces, I'd ask for it to get cut down at specific lengths as to not "sacrifice" a 6' required length all because I had it chopped down in 5' pieces.

 

On a side note, I put the big pumpkins out on the yard







The little ones I had posted were for my MIL, the larger ones are ours

 

Yeah, it'll need to support 1000lbs. I figure 2" built right will hold 10x that. And yes, I can't transport the full length so I have the breakdowns to minimize waste. I've played this game before.

 

You could go 2" x 3" at slightly thinner wall if you wanted; the larger contact surface will yield the same strength compared to smaller but thicker tubing.

 

So the budget didn’t allow for a tig welder. I am trying to weld an exhaust reroute out of 304 for my truck. This here is some 20ga 304 scrap to practice.

wire is blue demon 308 LFC-O 0.035 fluxcore running around 15 amps at 150 inches per minute for the “best” looking ones.

anyone have any tips? I know for a few I need better lighting so I don’t miss the joint.

 

Need more heat and you need to slow down.

When doing any sheet metal work, I lose no sleep over just doing closely spaced tack welds.

You will learn how much heat and wire you actually need, then you can work up to longer welds.

With sheet metal, long weld really deform the metal, so long welds really aren't your friend.

I hope this makes a bit of sense.

Everyone wants the pretty Tig welds, but they aren't easy to do unless you have gobs of time to learn the needed technique.

Wire welding can give you some great welds if you keep practicing.

Please keep sharing pics. We got some great self learned welding cat's here and we all like to help.

 

Clamps arrived



Test fitting them on the table and they're really tight but they'll loosen up over time

So far I'm digging it



Just need to gain the motivation to make my table legs

 

Looks like I'll be getting this table done sooner than later

Hung out with a buddy for a few hours only to realize, he has tons of extra metal like me

Got 23' of 1.5" square tube for the table



And yes @soundman98 that's the plug I'm going to use for my raw voltage, and I'll be mounting that port to the rear of the machine



Definitely overkill but it'll be better than what's set up now

 

Thanks for the tips, I will give it a try tomorrow. I get good welds on mild but this is my first different material.

 

@koditten shared some helpful advice but I have to ask, and suggest some things -

Flux core tends to penetrate very well, and welding on really thin stuff is just going to make it that much harder; going tri-mix or 98/2 would be my first suggestion if TIG is out of the question. Did you price out scratch TIG? If your machine can do stick, it can do scratch TIG.

Also, stainless is one of those metals that doesn't absorb heat very well...until it reaches a specific point then it just easily blows through like you witnessed.

More heat for sure believe it or not, as you want to get it to that "melting" point right away as you run your bead versus heat soaking it like a MFer.

Have you considered using aluminum backing? I've done this successfully for really thin stuff in the past and it works really well.

I also take it .030 flux core isn't available? Smaller diameter wire will introduce "less heat" and would be easier to run on a higher setting without blowing through easily as well.

 

I did not know that the mig 180 could do scratch tig, maybe that’s something I will look into. Also getting another bottle wasn’t quite a possibility either at the moment.

I do see what you mean about more heat would help. I could get it to a point about 0.5” into the weld where it would weld decently then 1” in it would blow through sometimes. Getting it to weld nicely from the start would be great and then a shorter weld so it doesn’t heat soak.

20ga isn’t what the project will be made out of. I think 0.035” wire will be fine for 16ga. 0.030 wire is available though. I will pick up some aluminium and keep that around but for this project I won’t be able to rely on it(exhaust work).

thanks for all the tips guys, now I just need more scrap to practice on.

 

+1/52"?!?

machinists are a screwy bunch

 

Stainless stick= sucks to weld
Any stainless through a gun = sucks to weld.

stainless tig? Sucks less but still sucks unless you practice a ton.

stainless tig on thin metal? Yep sucks even more.

 

1/32" it's just scribbled

Two are dead on at 34" and one is a 1/16" over and one 1/32" over

Just a note for me to knock off the excess before welding the cross bars and all since I'll need it all even so it comes out square

 

Bottle of argon, TIG torch with built-in valve, and consumables is all you need

You'll want to run straight polarity too.

 

Damn I just reread this and noticed you'll be welding exhaust

You'll definitely want to TIG, and back purge as well

 

Told myself I'd get started on my table today



But the ADD in me told me to work on something else





Not only is the install much cleaner looking



If I need to pull my plasma cutter from my table (I have a machine torch and hand torch), I don't have those stupid banana plugs hanging over the side

 

Looks ok, I'm not sure what it's going to look like with the back ground sheet painted, but I still think you need to fix the bottom of the AF symbol. I get that the flag is supposed to look wavy, but bare the symbol looks wanky. Just my 2¢

 

i laughed when this video popped up in my youtube feed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCGAOPb8Q6g