Amen to that. When they say welding is mostly about prep work, they arent kidding!

Another update and progress I think. Okay so I was on the YouTube and saw a reference to the jflf.org or the John F Lincoln Foundation. They sell practice kits (plates of metal cut and polished) to practice welding on. These are great! I put together a sculpture of sorts to practice long consistent ...

thanks for the replies so far. Here are more specifics. HH190 using 0.030" wire and C25 shield gas Not sure what my volts and speeds are as I havent measured them. I tried 2 and 3 on the voltage setting and 35-40 on the wire feed. I did make one good outside corner with the "tack tack tack...

Been building projects and the latest is a cart for the welder and gas bottle. I am using 1x2x0.065 square tube. I am finding that I am burning through the side wall and am looking for hints and tricks. I have tried cutting down the feed speed and voltage. Is it a matter of just adjusting with speed...

First project under my belt! I know you cant really tell what the welds look like, but this was more about the entire process. Learned a lot. First off about cutting things accurately. I have been a woodworker for decades, but turns out that accuracy in metal work is just as important :o SEcond off,...

20200929_174650.jpg 20200929_174650.jpg First project under my belt! I know you cant really tell what the welds look like, but this was more about the entire process. Learned a lot. First off about cutting things accurately. I have been a woodworker for decades, but turns out that accuracy in metal...

Yes, it was a good session and I think I am making progress. I did another one where I flap disc'ed the entire surface of the piece. That one didnt appear to show much difference. The mill scale on this looks much lighter than on the angle that I first tried. I'm gaining an appreciation of how much ...

No, used a flap disc sander on the edges

Update on my second attempt.

Okay, lots of progress I think.

I reversed the polarity to DCEP as per the manual
I cleaned the pieces before welding

I practiced on a couple of T joints with 1/8" thick 2x2 square tube

Thanks for the reality check on prices!

Ill call around and see what I get.

Edit: Wow, thanks for the metals supermarket suggestion. About 1/3 the cost of the other place!

Just ordered the materials for my welding table. We'll see what this turns into!

thanks very much for your feedback. I did some more watching at YouTube U (haha) and came to that same conclusion. Sounds like flux core and stick can deal with mill scale much better. Solid core depends more on clean surface and joints. I also realized I had the polarity wrong. Was running DCEN ins...

Hello everyone. I am trying to teach myself to weld and I would like to start asking for pointers. Look these over. To me they look like they are cold, however I am still playing with wire speed and voltage. It also seems like the wire speed might be too high. I was suprised that the welds on flat s...