Mig Progress, all comments welcome
 

Well as the other thread titled Murex mig be quick seems to be playing hide and seek I'l post some progress here.

The difference between .6 and .8 was like night and day, so much easier

I started on the small piece and finished on the bigger one, by time I'd got to the bigger one I found the push/pull techniques coming into play, I found the push worked better on the internal joints and the pull was better on the flats.

I put a small chamfer on the edges of all the bits on the last piece which I think helped as well

I'm still not convinced I've got enough penetration, but as I'm typing I'm thinking I could cross section through the welds and post some pics, hmm later maybe.

Also the beads still seem a bit large and proud, or maybe that's just me.

Anyway criticisms, comments and advice pleeeeeeeeeeeeease :)





Ps. The guy I bought the welder from had been running the .8 wire in the .6 side of the wheel!

Do you have an adjustable wire feed as in a dial on your machine or is it a flick switch all or nothing option?

Fully adjustable from 1-10 Phil.

Edit: Was running about 4.5 on the above using .6 but before couldnt go above 2 using .8

Welds look good but either turn the heat up a little or the feed down maybe 0.3-0.4 between marks on the dial.
All the welds you should be pushing the heat so that you prewarm the material in front of the arc pool then fill with wire which gives better penetration, if you pull the torch/arc over the cold material you get a cold weld and it lays on the top which looking again is what you might have done.
The problem with doing short welds to practise with is by the time you've got your eye in you have to stop. MIG welding 1.6mm material is a balance between penetration and not blowing through, I run my MIG at 180 amps with 0.8 wire with the speed around 4.5-5.0 Yes according to the books it's too hot but it means the first arc is hot to get the root in. If you have tube spare put two lengths side by side and do a long run up the middle,when you can get a smooth bead that's not too high then try again on the short runs.

Dont listen to phil with his .8 wire and 180 amps bruce. He has had years at it so can get away with it. Stick with the .6 , there is nothing wrong with what you are doing for first attempts just keep practising and as phil said play with the amps/wire feed. One thing not touched on here is getting yourself comfy, I always try to position myself so my elbow is resting on somethng which helps steady the hand, Sounds silly but helps.

bob

who stole the mig thread. :)

Bob is right in what he says about being comfortable while welding, the best way to do this is to put a pad on your bench and write 1-2 long sentence's in your best hand writing. If your getting eye strain,cramp,back ache then guess what your work bench is too low. My wishbone and upright welding bench is 150mm lower than my nipples sounds silly try it, means my elbow falls on the bench with my hand on the side of my head and I'm comfortably slouched. When you do 6 hours working on the same jig for 6 months there is a few little tricks you learn to save your self.

lol, Cheers Bob, will def be sticking with the .6 as I found it a lot easier than when using the .8. Like you said before I have no doubt experience will let you use the .8 to good effect but I found the wire feed so sensitive with it it was hard to get to to where it felt right.

I'm assuming your referring to my wandering lines when you say about leaning on something? I'm actually finding it hard to see the metal behind the arc sometimes and finding I've wandered off line.

Phil, what you've said about using a longer length to get the settings right makes perfect sense. In my 'wisdom' I purposefully chose the short weld lengths to practice on as I was struggling with them, I think in hindsight I was just making things harder for myself, oops!

I've got just under 2m left of the box section, I was going to use it to make a wall bracket for my butler sink to go in the shed but that can wait. I'l try some long lengths, get happy with the settings and make another tree.

Thank you all :)

If you are right handed you need to work right to left with the torch at about 60' so that you can see the wire going in to the edges of the material being welded. You would not put a jig saw blade in back wards and drag it down the job and hope you hit the line some where so why do it while welding?


Next week we'll cover over head stitch welding and how to avoid getting splatter bouncing down the inside of your overalls and burning the crack of your arse....

Phil, my bench is quite high 990mm if I'm stood upright its only about an inch below my elbow (I'm a shortarse) and I had the bar in the vice so it did feel relatively comfortable to stand and weld. I have a dicky disc in my back so leaning forward just slighty even just for a few minutes can get very uncomfortable.

I said behind the arc which was a bad description and misleading, I am right handed and generally was working right to left with the torch slightly angled so I had a good line of sight view of the arc and joint but found once the arc was struck the metal was just a dark/black background. I'm using a cheapy auto helmet.

Will try all the suggestions hopefully tomorrow if I get chance to get back out there.

Always push MIG (MAGS), the only weld you pull is ARC (MMA).

Are you colour blind at all.? (I am) If not then either your shield is either too dark or you need to run a bit of french chalk down the join before you weld it ( I do sometimes on long sheet metal runs ;) ) highlights the joint loads as you go.