Welding Tips and Tricks

I've been farting around with 18-16g mostly since I am doing a lot of repair work, but I dont have many hours of welding under my belt and with no training I've been teaching myself the ropes. This is a short vid of my messing around on some chopped steel just welding streait beads. The surface wasnt super well prepped, just ground off real fast so its porous on most of the welds. But, its just for fun on this vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iCcxmgU ... cgLcYIrQpA

Hi Josh,
I hope you have enjoyed a few successes with your MIG welding since you posted your youtube video.

Several comments that might help me understand what you have done, and what you might be seeking help with.

First, spend a few minutes to clean the steel to bright metal. Not having rust or paint, etc, to contend with will set you off on a better start. Make sure the work clamp is fastened to bright metal, also.

Second, I could not be sure, but you didn't seem to be propping off of anything, the workpiece, for example. This makes steady work harder than it needs to be: you need as much control of the gun, especially early in your welding work, as you can get.

Next, using a Lincoln, you have a page of recommended machine settings you can follow: at first, until you are confident of your skills, follow Lincoln's suggestions, for they will work. Also use the recommended stick out. Go to Lincoln's site and cruise their instructional work. Good site.

I can't comment much on the welds you showed, since to me they were just wide, flat deposits of weld wire on a flat surface. One of the critical things to achieve is good penetration, and you couldn't know too much about that from what you showed us (well, I could guess you didn't get sufficient penetration, but I won't). By now I hope you have welded some joins, and on material that will allow you to burn through, back off, and get it right.

You can also put some welded joins in a vice and bang the metal around. If it is 3mm, say, you will be able to crunch it over and back, and the weld might stay put, or not. It tells you something, either way. Show your work to an experienced welder as soon as possible, and listen to what is said.

For thicker joins, use your cutting tools (band saw, or chop saw or angle grinder with cut off disc, and cut through the welds. Try to work out if you have penetrated well into the material for butt joints, and have a good throat with some penetration on T joints.

One thing you want people to help you learn is to look insightfully at the weld. An experienced welder can say a lot from the look of the weld and the surrounding metal, front and back, often.

Finally, what I really want to do is to encourage you to do some more work, take some digital still shots, and put those up here for the gurus to see. Then you will get a lot more support and the effort will repay you nicely.

(PS I hope you are actually building stuff by now, not just running beads. Good luck.)