opinions on welds

[james3004]

Please can you give me you opinions on the following welds?

I'm not really sure if i need to make them hotter, my welder is a clarke 150EN with argonsheild gas





Thanks

[Rik178m]

I'm not sure about them. I had some welds looking fairly similar and the had no penetration. Checked them at work. Try breaking the welds with a lump hammer to check how deep the penetration is.

If you pause for a few seconds will you burn a hole through the steel? The heat pattern does look ok tho so I could very well be wrong

[james3004]

thanks for the replies, I'm using 0.8mm, I was worried that they were to high i didn't even think that i would be caused by the wire thickness

I will do a destructive test another day.

Thanks again

[james3004]

looks like i'm off to buy some 0.6mm wire then

[mr henderson]

Originally Posted by james3004

looks like i'm off to buy some 0.6mm wire then

My Haynes Roadster book is at the workshop, bit I seem to remember Martin Keene (in the section on welding) saying that .8 was the stuff to use

[mr henderson]

Originally Posted by Bonzo

Any particular, technical reason as to why .8mm wire is superior to .6mm wire !!?

I think we need to bear in mind that MK engineering will be using industrial MIG welders.

My own set is a Cebora 180amp semi-pro MIG welder & I use .6mm wire full time.

You would need to ask Martin. In any case, I would assume that (and this of course depends on whether I am remembering correctly) he would have written it as advice to amateur builders (it's in the section on welding)

[drury318]

For years I used 0.6 wire, mainly on bodywork etc & upto building my chassis I would have said exactly the same as Bonzo, 0.6 all the time no probs.Then I ran out of wire whilst building my chassis & got some 0.8, what a difference.
I can turn the power down and wire speed down, I have less tendency to blow through on butt welds and generally everything is just a bit easier I find, it may be just me but I wish I`d tried it years ago
Dennis

[mr henderson]

Originally Posted by Bonzo

I have just read the welding section of my first edition of the book.
No reccomenation of wire thickness is mentioned

I guess it must be a case of me using the welder wrong for the las 20 years, not to mention wasting good money on becoming an ASME coded welder.

I just feel sorry for all of my students that I have miss-lead

Well I did keep saying if I was remembering correctly! Must have not been (although I will have a look when I get to the workshop tomorrow (if I remember )

[Chris Gibbs]

It's on page 144 (0.8)

I think that you should try both and see which gives you the best result or you feel more comfortable with. It's a pretty good feeling when everything clicks and you know that your welds are good.

Those welds look pretty good to me James

Cheers

Chris

[james3004]

I think i'm gonna try 0.6 wire to see if i feel more comfortable and confident with the welds produced, I'd rather they were flatter then at least i know they are penertrated well and won't have to worry as much about the weakening when it comes to grinding them off