Anything welding

so i almost entirely hate welding uphill-vertical. too many times, the heat stays in the bottom and i end up with a gigantic puddle that must be ground off. i almost always weld downhill. not saying it can't be done, only that it's a technique in and of itself, and one that i'm not entirely sure where the advantage lies in most cases.

i will generally weld facing down, up, or sideways, and if i go vertical, i try to always 'chase' the puddle down. most of my verticals are on 1/8-1/4" mild and stainless.

welding up can somewhat be mitigated by pointing the tip/shielding gas upwards, but my experience it's still inconsistent with puddling.

also be sure to have some '

$12 Forney 37031 Nozzle Gel For Mig Welding, 16-Ounce , White

tip-dip', and to check/clean the business end of the welder often-- vertical-facing-up, and facing-up welding has similar problems where you're forcing the melted metal upwards into the weld, which sometimes means the spatter easily falls back into the welder tip. cleaning often reduces the chances of clogging up the gas nozzle--spatter can also electrify the metal tips as well, and using a tip coating like the above linked helps keep the spatter from sticking to the gun, which makes cleaning it often between passes that much easier.

so far, i haven't done much with the voltage-- i tend to set it for the lightest material being welded(i've done a lot of solid-steel to formed components). for the most part though i agree. rough baseline, depending on temperament of the person welding, is +50ipm for each change in direction from welding facing down onto the workpiece. lately i've been impatient and been pushing closer to +100 on top of that, but generally keep the voltage the same to keep from blowing/cutting too far into the thinner material.

 

Weld professionally, and you will always find yourself doing several welds uphill.

So yes it's done far more often than one would think, and is treated just like a bead on a flat surface and not at all different.

The advantage as mentioned is better penetration/fusion.

You run into lack of fusion running downhill on thick steel (even turning up the heat) because the heat isn't soaked into the metal as well versus up, and the high heat leads to undercut and other possible welding defects.

 

Again, just a hobbyist so take anything I say with a grain of salt

 

I've been happy with describing my MIG welding abilities as:

Skilled amateur

I never earned my living as a welder, but I greatly subsidized my income with my welding.

 

Them "you know how to weld?"

Me "I know enough to get stuff done"

 

Where are you advertising for selling stuff? I mostly just posted on Instagram and orders come in waves sadly and would like to try to be more consistent. I mainly do tabs and brackets and axle stands and not much art work because of the flood of Etsy guys etc.

 

Looks good!

It's a combination of word of mouth, repeat customers (since I'm low cost with fast turn around), and threads I've done work in/on and a PM suddenly comes in asking if "I can do this/that"

For CNC stuff, I've said no only once and that was because it was on 5/8" steel and I flat out said unless he had extra to spare, I don't have my settings dialed in for 5/8".

Some of my repeat stuff is local as well as there are two shops I make parts for.

 

Likely the last job of the year.

 

I appreciate the response. I was just practicing - but have learned uphill and downhill are different, and for different purposes. I had no idea.

This forum is great for asking questions - I really do appreciate all the responses, and watching what you all do. Really cool.

I have and use tip dip as well. That stuff works wonders. Although, it can catch on fire...

 

Thank you for the thank you.

I just use Crisco or similar vegetable shortening for nozzle dip.

Don't use the butter flavored. It will make you hungry.

 

Hey guys, just a novice here, but I'm having fun building a railing for my deck. This is mig, .023 wire for 16ga steel. I'm having trouble with the "upside down" joints here, and am looking for suggestions.



These are where I have to angle the torch up, towards the sky. Almost vertical for the acute joints on the stairs. Blobs are falling down into the mig torch and interfering with the process. Any tips for welding at this angle?

 

Don't try to carry a bead upside down when MIG.

There is no sin in doing long tack welds.

For that matter, I always leave a "weep hole" when welding tubing. It will always accumulate water. The water freezes, then the tube bursts or deforms.

My choice is to start at the top and weld down to about the 5 o'clock position and do the opposite side to the 7 o'clock position.

You will have great looking welds as well as a place for water to escape.

Your welds do look like you are getting the hang of it. Keep practicing.

 

7018 rod that shit and push it in as you run it

It'll freeze quickly and leave a beautiful weld

But for a novice? I'd say MIG welding overhead is going to be plenty hard without proper technique

 

Thanks guys. I was wondering about water drainage, but was hoping to just get it watertight on both ends. I realize the impossibility of that, and have dealt with leaky weldments even from somewhat skilled welders with immaculate looking beads (thru work of course). But I can always dream.

Problem now is that I can't get the uphill ends, on this bottom edge. And all the other seams are already done, doh!

Maybe I'll drill little holes at the bottom of each rod... on the bright side we don't get much rain in socal, and never a hard freeze. Wish I hadn't welded across the downhill bottoms, I was kind of on autopilot there.

Edit: lol, I do have 7018 rod, and a stick paddle for this welder. But sadly I've never even tried striking an arc to scrap metal, much less a nearly completed project! I think I'm going to double down, smear body panel adhesive over the seams, paint the thing, and hope for the best.

 

So, those Dino Kits?

I sold a few already; one was picked up yesterday but before it was...I decided to re-cut 3 individual pieces to replace. Mainly because the faces had some gouging from handling.

Nested a few parts to cut out as 'extras' for future orders in case they got lost by a customer or damaged via welding. Well, it wasn't until after I cut the entire group of parts that I saw I used the wrong set; I accidentally picked parts from my +5' variant!

Customer came by to pick up some parts today so I thought I'd cut a few more of that +5' Dino.

The assembled one there is my +3' variant; you wouldn't have thought that considering the size of the parts laid out



Here's the +3' along with the 20" variant -



Just assembling one of the legs (below the hip) it's already taller than my big one -



This is going to be so badass

Not to mention, the customer that had swung by wants a parts kit as well so have to cut 2 more.

 

@Kwikvette those dinos are rad

 

Thanks!

It's fun as hell making them and even more satisfying how well they interlock cause the cutting is done so well

 

what settings are you using? are you already adding the +100ipm for the wire speed like was mentioned earlier?

it really doesn't look that bad to me. it looks like you could narrow up your side-to-side swinging, as you appear to be swinging a little further than needed, but the overall penetration and bead looks pretty good.

*just another backyard metal-sticker that sometimes gets paid to act like i know what i'm doing at work, but still learning all the same

 

I need to mig weld some axle tubes to the center section center section should he cast steel and axle tubes are just mild steel. I don’t have the option to preheat because it’s already built with seals etc. I’ve seen guys talk about special nickel wire but looking for anyone wirh real world experience. Any suggestions for wire?

 

Just weld it; pre-heat is something you'd want to do on say the Ford HD axles.

Hell, even my Land Cruiser's front axle didn't need pre-heat when I welded on the front armor.