Welding Question (FCAW)

First off, this is my first project and my first time welding anything, so please be kind.

I have a practical question: If some of my welds are ugly as sin but penetrated both metals and joined them is it okay? I know ideally you want every weld to have a nice, smooth, even coverage, but if I make some ugly-ass welds in certain harder to reach places is it better than nothing?

(I'm currently using a cheapie flux welder from Harbor Freight. It splatters a bit and sometimes fails to feed smoothly. This leads to some crap welds that are always my fault.)

 

are you using HF wire? It's crap.

 

Nope. I switched out for some Lincoln stuff from Lowes. Put in my second roll today and it seems to be flowing a lot better than before. I'm just gonna keep at, but I was wondering if the weld looks like shit, but has noticeable penetration to the second piece of metal that's better than nothing right?

 

More heat and slower.

 

Those little HF machines really don't have the heat to penetrate enough. I have one around for lawn mowers and stuff but tried once to do what your doing and it just balls up globs of metal.

 

What would you suggest for a beginner? This thing was like 85 bucks and I mainly got it to see if I'd be interested in welding.

As you can see from the above, I'm pretty interested. haha

 

For MIG, (best bang for buck on assorted sizes, metals) you would be worlds better with even a cheap Miller.

I know flux core can be half assed pretty with everything going your way but if you get something gas capable (Co2 at least) you'll be amazed how professional a weld can look with really no experience.

Helps MIG to downhill also.

When I have to weld aluminum, I just oxy/acyl. Never bought all the gear needed to do it electric.

 

Let's see some of these welds up close.

 

I can tell from that far away it's not enough heat.
The machine has High/Low right?
Even high isn't much heat esp on 110V.

I know it's easy to get carried away but a decent machine running on 220V with a dial can give you much more capabilities for bigger stuff.

Right now you're having to pile it up on the heavy side and splash it over to the thin huh? I mean that's how it's done but the cheap machines just make it hard. The puddle isn't molten enough to flow nor penetrate the thicker side.

 

Yeah, exactly. I'll get a picture of some of the welds up close when I get home. I know they're getting through on the stock vehicle metal because they were burning/cooking the paint on the other side. As for the barstock and the angle iron that I bought, I can see the heat marks on most of it. When I shake the bumper the whole car moves. I can even wail on it with a hammer to knock the slag off and join some seems closer for future welds, but some of these welds are ugly as sin. haha

 

I bought a hobart handler mig welder an bought a cylinder of argon/co2 been laying down some beautiful welds and fixing a lot of stuff I otherwise would have thrown away.

 

FAILED!

I've gotta make the "bumper" slightly taller. That's what I get for not measuring!

 

Those welds did not penetrate. Smack it with a hammer and see if it cracks.

 

I thought the same thing, but I beat the hell out of it and nothing cracked.

As I've been going I've been getting a bit better. I also switched extension cords to a thicker gauge and I've had much better results as far as flow goes.



I wouldn't exactly bolt a winch to it, but its serving my purpose of being much sturdier than the stock, flimsy, sheet metal bumper.

 

Thats fine then. I guess if it breaks you'll be better at welding anyways so you can fab up an even better one!

 

Thats the plan! This project taught me a lot and I definitely want to get better. I want to save up for a "real" welder now.