Anything welding

Where’d you order those from?

 

It was cheaper to buy these than some 3/4” thick ones from someone else. So, overkill it is.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/382996363124

 

Did some welding on a project I have been working on on and off for a week or two. This tip of weld I have done before on DOM tube but on a lift at face height. Doing it this low was definitely more challenging.

First pass was awful.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

But got into a decent rhythm:

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

And then a bunch of ideal position stuff:

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Really trying to work on consistency.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Final product:

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

 

For those that don’t know, Klingspor has a quick attach flap disc. We use them at work. Have had this one for years and saw it was cracked the other day so got the boss to get a new one.

 

Since I’m sure everyone has been losing sleep wondering about my extension cord situation I wanted to provide closure. After buying the Vulcan I learned that it has two separate cords for 120/240 rather than an adapter. So I picked up the right plug and now essentially have one long lead coming off the welder. I will repurpose the lead it came with as a 10’ extension cord if I ever need that extra little bit.

 

Anybody have any tips for MIG welding thin walled tubing? Specifically I'm trying to weld 16ga 1" square tubing with a multimatic 215 using the auto set function, 0.030 ER70S-6 wire, and 75/25 gas.

Every time if I move fast enough to not burn through I get a cold start and then if I go slow enough to get a good puddle going I blow right through. The best looking welds are usually right before I punch through. I've played with backing off the voltage and wire feed speeds but haven't had much success.

I'm building a cart out of 16ga tube because I have some bigger projects planned that will be using the same gauge material so I figure it'll be good practice. I'm pretty new to MIG (and all of that on thicker stuff) with 98% my experience on TIG machines welding thin walled tubing so in the back of my head I'm really tempted to just say eff this and spend some of my trump check on a tig torch, pedal, and bottle of argon to start laying dimes. But at the same time I know people do MIG stuff this thin so I'd like to try to get it to work with what I already have.

Any pointers?

 

I have no issue using the tack weld methode when welding thin material.

You can get a bead that will look like a continuous weld with a bit of practice.

 

something that thin I’d think .023 wire would be easier to weld with. It always has been for me anyways. I use a smaller welder, a miller 140 autoset, but have had better luck overall with .023.

 

Honestly whenever I blew through I'd start doing a series of stacked spot welds to fill in the hole and those were some of the best looking welds. I just didn't know whether or not that was the best practice

Thanks, Thinner wire was one thing I was considering trying

 

I really have to break down and try thinner wire. 25 years of MIG welding and I've only used .035 iron and .030 aluminum.

I've never thought the situation required me to change wire, so I never have.

 

Those stacked welds will still be much stronger than the base material. As long as the weld is visually appealing, the style of welding is secondary.

 

honestly I’m the same way, just with thinner stuff. I don’t weld anything thicker than 3/16 for the most part so just use thinner stuff. Any aluminum I attempt to weld is done with a tig welder. But I’m an electrician, not a welder so take my advice with a grain of salt.

 

hows the fit up where you’re welding? If there’s gaps it’ll be more prone to punching through the material.

I’ve found that the auto set functions almost always weld too hot for me especially with just about any material. Try checking the chart on the side of the welder (if it has one) and moving down a thickness of material. I always use .030 wire which helps a bit vs the .035 wire for thinner stuff at least. Then it comes mostly down to reading the puddle and adjusting speed from there not to blow through it. If I blow through something I wait until it’s not super hot and use the tack method to fill also

 

Fit up is pretty good, everything was miter cut on a dry metal chop saw. There are 1 or 2 small gaps but most of the joints fit very well and I'm using some 90° fixtures I made to hold the corners when welding. I agree about the too hot with auto set which is why I've been turning down the heat and speed but that is a good idea to bump it down to to a thinner thickness. I'll try knocking it down to 17 or 18ga tonite and see if that helps.

 

Never seen this before I might need to look into this since even trying to keep the grinder wrenches in one spot it takes me 20 minutes to change a disc I no doubt have enough boxes of assorted Discs to last very long.

 

Good deal!!

 

To each there own I use .023 for just about any of the Vehicle welding I do I like the better control .

If I need to get serious all it takes is swapping drive rolls and gun. I do like running dual shield wire above .045

Depending how much welding just stick weld it and be done.

It comes down to what ever works for you. What you have at the time you need to do the job.

 

Grinder wrench... grinder wrench... that's just a leather glove right?

 

The grinder wrench and the guard are usually in the scrap bin before install the 1st disc.

 

It sounds like thinner wire is the ticket on the thin walled stuff so I just picked up some 0.023 contact tips and a spool of wire on my lunch break to try this weekend. I love having 2 welding shops right next to work!