what am i doing wrong here?

so i went out and bought one of those cheap ass chicago electric 90 amp flux core welders. yes, it's a POS and doesnt work that great for most stuff, thats not the problem. i got it cause meineke wanted over $400 to redo my exhaust.

when i go to weld the exhaust tubes, the dang thing is cutting right through it like a plasma cutter. i have it on the lower speeds right now (1-3), does it need to be faster? or is this thing just a POS and wont work no matter what i do?

400 dollars?

man, i went to a hole in the wall muffler shop and he replaced everything aft of the cat for 70.

my recomendation is go find "bob's muffler shop"
you'll be glad you did.

you need to turn the amperage down. the reason it is blowing holes is because the amperage is to high or because you are moving to slow. if i was you i would get some scrap exhaust pipe and play with the speed and amperage till you get the wire speed and amperage right.

get get about 6 of these:

I've found that exhaust pipe can be tricky to weld.

I never did it with a MIG style welder before though and haven't tried Arc welding it either. I used the old standby Oxy-Acet rig. Took a small tip and lots of care to keep from just melting giant holes but I did it. That was back when I was patching together the exhaust for my Ranger for about the 10th time. I had gotten to the point where I felt there was just too many clamps holding things together so I started welding stuff. When I get the truck fixed back up again and get the money I'm doing a new stainless exhaust on it, I found a shop that would bend up the pipe I needed for around $70.

Chances are you either have the amps too high or you're moving too slow. I don't know a whole lot about flux-core and MIG welding, but I know that sometimes you have to crank up the speed and move faster to keep from burning through.

So far I've only ARC welded and used an oxy-act rig, and I'm far better with the old-school oxy-act than the stick, so I gas weld when I need the control.

heptofite said:

400 dollars?

man, i went to a hole in the wall muffler shop and he replaced everything aft of the cat for 70.

my recomendation is go find "bob's muffler shop"
you'll be glad you did.

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i agree, the only reason i even looked there was cause my dad suggested it. the last muffler that got put on was one of there $100 meineke "lifetime warrranty" deals. my cat was clogged as hell and completely destroyed, so they were gonna put a new factory style one on (which autozone sells for $240, so i'm sure thats where most of the $400 went)

adsm08 said:

get get about 6 of these:

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yeah i thought about that, but i really just wanted an excuse to give my wife about buying a welder.

lil_Blue_Ford said:

I've found that exhaust pipe can be tricky to weld.

I never did it with a MIG style welder before though and haven't tried Arc welding it either. I used the old standby Oxy-Acet rig. Took a small tip and lots of care to keep from just melting giant holes but I did it. That was back when I was patching together the exhaust for my Ranger for about the 10th time. I had gotten to the point where I felt there was just too many clamps holding things together so I started welding stuff. When I get the truck fixed back up again and get the money I'm doing a new stainless exhaust on it, I found a shop that would bend up the pipe I needed for around $70.

Chances are you either have the amps too high or you're moving too slow. I don't know a whole lot about flux-core and MIG welding, but I know that sometimes you have to crank up the speed and move faster to keep from burning through.

So far I've only ARC welded and used an oxy-act rig, and I'm far better with the old-school oxy-act than the stick, so I gas weld when I need the control.

Click to expand...

i've only done MIG myself. that and i've soldered copper pipes lol

thanks for the advice guys, i'm gonna try turning down the amps and going a little faster.

I used my stick welder to weld some of my exhaust stuff together. It doesn't look good, but I don't think it really leaks anywhere. I think I had my current down real low, like 45 amps, and moved pretty quickly so I wouldn't burn through.

I hope this helps.

Bronco_Chuck said:

you need to turn the amperage down. the reason it is blowing holes is because the amperage is to high or because you are moving to slow. if i was you i would get some scrap exhaust pipe and play with the speed and amperage till you get the wire speed and amperage right.

Click to expand...

I agree, its definitely amps. You might also want to start bouncing around alot to disperse the heat. Definitely not the welder itself.

You should run it really low with a slow wire speed. If you still have the book for the welder, it should have recommendations for amps and wire speed based on the thickness of the metal you are using. If you dont have it, let me know. I should have something.

Also, the type of metal you are welding matters too.

I Just arc'd mine last week with an A/C welder. I welded it up with a 1/8 7014 electrode @ about 70 amps (which is cold for that electrode) all the way around. It ran really cold but it worked fine.

I have done a ton of exhaust work with a welder like that. Just keep it on low, move quickly, and I have my wire speed set on 4-5. Works great.

heptofite said:

my recomendation is go find "bob's muffler shop"
you'll be glad you did.

Click to expand...

Heh, funny you mention that, there's a Bob's Muffler Shop in town here that does really good work.

jhammel85 said:

I agree, its definitely amps. You might also want to start bouncing around alot to disperse the heat. Definitely not the welder itself.

You should run it really low with a slow wire speed. If you still have the book for the welder, it should have recommendations for amps and wire speed based on the thickness of the metal you are using. If you dont have it, let me know. I should have something.

Also, the type of metal you are welding matters too.

I Just arc'd mine last week with an A/C welder. I welded it up with a 1/8 7014 electrode @ about 70 amps (which is cold for that electrode) all the way around. It ran really cold but it worked fine.

Click to expand...

i'm gonna try to mess with it tomorrow (thurs) evening, i've got a ton of crap to do between now and then.

jhammel, i dont know if you read my first post, but i said i got this thing at harbor freight, LOL. i did, however, get a very nice, extremely helpful, 7 page pamphlet, lol. i look through it tonight and then mess around some tomorrow.

lol, I've never soldiered pipes before. Plumbing scares me because my dad has never been able to touch plumbing work without having giant problems (he went to replace the float in a downstairs toilet at our old house, while working on it he bumped the filler tube, which broke off. No problem, replace that too. Except then the tank cracked trying to get the old filler tube off. That's when the cussing started. Then when the toilet was pulled up, it took the tile and the underlayment up with it. At that point everyone (including the dog) dove for cover as tools started flying and the air turned blue.... so after remodeling the ENTIRE bathroom, the toilet was finally back in working condition. )

I've tried practicing some with an ARC welder but I seem to be having difficulty overcoming the problem of a rod sticking or boogering it up really bad. I had to do a bit of grinding on the welds I did on my ladder rack to fix 'em. When it came time to weld on the toolbox flanges I tried the first one with the ARC. Gave me so much trouble that I shut it off and pulled out my oxy-act tanks and finished the work.

I have never spent time practicing with the oxy-act. If I did, I would probably be able to lay a row of dimes all the time, neat as you please. My first attempt was some horizontal welding and although it wasn't perfect, it was a pretty decent weld. Then I did my exhaust with it, and then I did three vertical joints. I guess you could say that I'm a bit of a natural with it. Either that or it's just the coffee jitters are right on target.

If you keep burning through, turn the Amps down. If you continue to burn through, stitch-weld the thing until you get enough practice to run a bead on such thin metal. Remeber....push the puddle, dont pull it.

^
ok, is anyone reading my first post? lol, i got this thing at harbor freight. my cordless drill cost more than this welder. i can set the amps to max or min and the wire speed from 1-10.

but thanks for the advice everyone, i just got done working and I aint even gonna go in my garage let alone fire up the welder. i'm takin it down to my grandpa's tomorrow and i'm gonna get him to give me some pointers. he used to teach welding at community college and he worked at camp lejeune. he's got some good metal fabbing tools i'm gonna try to borrow.

Yeah, that welder has a two position switch for the amps... too hot, and surface of the sun...

Totalled said:

Yeah, that welder has a two position switch for the amps... too hot, and surface of the sun...

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That's great!