1988 BII Build

[88_Eddie]

Yeah see Viva has some good welds.

Here is a quick mspaint rendering....

If the black line is your joint, the red line represents your motion with the wire. Get in a rhythm, and stay slow and steady. You'll be making great welds in no time

yeah, i remember my shop teacher in college teaching me that. i'm pretty sure i had the wire speed up too high. i have it on 2.5 right now, so i think i need to take it down to 2 or 1.5 and see what happens.

 

[Viva*the*Ranger]

Yeah see Viva has some good welds.

Thank man!

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Yeah like I said, volts cranked all the way up, and feed at just under 2 should be perfect for your setup. I've used that model Lincoln before on some 3/8" plate, as well as some exhaust patching. I have the 140C, which is pretty close in comparison to the 125. Great little machines

 

[88_Eddie]

well i took it down to 2, kept it on E (voltage goes from A-E, E is the highest) and i did my 8.8 tubes.....they look almost the same as the bracket i welded.

i did what you said BlackBII and had a few that looked pretty close to what you posted.

i'll put up a pic later, but i'm not too proud of it

 

[Viva*the*Ranger]

Patience my friend....patience.. Get yourself a bunch of scrap metal, and practice practice practice. It took me a little while to get good with the flux core.

Steady hand, good ground, and a clean workpiece is the key. If you weld over paint or powder coat, you will have a pretty hard time getting a good clean weld. Make sure your ground is as close to your focus area as possible without getting in the way, and that it's only touching bare metal.

Just remember to take your time, and get good penetration. That's really all that matters. A good looking cold weld will only leave you stranded. Make sure it's hot!!

-Denny

 

[88_Eddie]

Patience my friend....patience.. Get yourself a bunch of scrap metal, and practice practice practice. It took me a little while to get good with the flux core.

Steady hand, good ground, and a clean workpiece is the key. If you weld over paint or powder coat, you will have a pretty hard time getting a good clean weld. Make sure your ground is as close to your focus area as possible without getting in the way, and that it's only touching bare metal.

Just remember to take your time, and get good penetration. That's really all that matters. A good looking cold weld will only leave you stranded. Make sure it's hot!!

-Denny

LOL-well see the pics below and you'll see that i didnt do ANY of that

i grounded on the vent tube since there really wasnt anything else close

keeping the distance the same was hard since it is a cylindrical shape, so yeah, they look like shit. i mainly used this axle to practice on. i think i'm going to try and find an 8.8 with 373's and disc brakes already on it.

you can sorta see in the top pic where i was doing what BlackBII recommended with his Paint rendering. a few came out ok. but i'm still gettin alot of splatter.

i dont think i'm penetrating enough (gigity) maybe? and what causes the splatter? going too slow?

 

[kris97ranger]

flux core is what causes the splatter i hate it id rather just use a stick. my one automotive teacher only had flux core and it sucked. luckily he was cool and let us take the a project down to the manufafcturing class to tig it or even mig if it was a part that had to look good

 

[88_Eddie]

flux core is what causes the splatter

so what if i added gas? would that eliminate some of the splatter?

i think i'd have to change the wire i'm using since it's an innershield wire

 

[88_Eddie]

almost forgot, i ordered my shock tabs from ballistic fab yesterday....they were on sale for .99 cents a set, so i went ahead and got them....they're made for a 3.25" axle tube

i think i'm gonna attempt to build my own diff cover down the line as well, so i got one of their skulls to throw on it

 

[kris97ranger]

if you added gas to it then you could get away from the flux core wire and get to a proper sized wire and yea that should help the spatter.

as for using the flux core wire with the gas i dunno how that would work at first it seems like it would help but im thinking the wire itself would still cause it to spatter

 

[Viva*the*Ranger]

For the ground: Disconnect the ground from the clamp like so

Clamp it to the tube like so

Turn your feed down even more, like 1-1/2, and make bigger/slower passes. The splatter should lessen with better penetration, but unfortunately splatter is going to happen no matter what with flux core. There isn't anything you can do about it.

Get yourself one of these too. They work great for knocking off the schlag and cleaning up them there welds.

 

[Viva*the*Ranger]

if you added gas to it then you could get away from the flux core wire and get to a proper sized wire and yea that should help the spatter.

as for using the flux core wire with the gas i dunno how that would work at first it seems like it would help but im thinking the wire itself would still cause it to spatter

I would not recommend using flux core and gas. The O2 content would be way to high. Gas is the way to go for sure. But if you can get good with flux core, you will be a professional with gas. Gas is much easier/cleaner. Flux core is great in it's applications. I don't mind using it at all.

Keep in mind, if you switch to gas, you won't be able to weld as thick of steel, as you can with flux core.....Why, I'm not sure, but that's just the way it works. The weld will be stronger with gas though.

 

[Robert_1967]

Also, when you ad a gas system to a flux core welder, you have to switch the leads in the machine, and of course use non-flux core wire, my little welder I got from TS has a kit that can make it a gas system, but I'm already use to the flux core, I do have the kit, but the bottles cost are a bit high for my taste.




Robert

 

[88_Eddie]

Also, when you ad a gas system to a flux core welder, you have to switch the leads in the machine, and of course use non-flux core wire, my little welder I got from TS has a kit that can make it a gas system, but I'm already use to the flux core, I do have the kit, but the bottles cost are a bit high for my taste.




Robert

i know what you mean, i saw a 20# bottle of argon at harbor freight for $85......i think i'm just gonna master the flux core and use the innershielded wire for now. maybe one day i'll get a little more fancy with it

 

[88_Eddie]

started bracing the pass. side drop bracket tonight. trying to practice my welds on crap that doesnt really matter.

i dont have any good plate laying around (well, not enough really) but i did have some 3/8" stock laying around, so i decided to use it to do the bracing.

still unpackinggggggggggg......my tools are very unhappy right now. gonna build the workbench this weekend, i really need my vice.....but at least i got the dart board up. the beer pong table is on the way

had a cutting wheel fly apart on me as well, in 8 years of owning this angle grinder, it's the first time it's ever happened. i guess that's somehow good, but the piece nailed me in the hand. it hurts, but i think it should be fine. i ALWAYS wear gloves with those things....not to mention eye protection and hearing protectors

 

[88_Eddie]

oh and viva, i did the thing with the ground cable you showed, i think it helped, but i dont know. i think it probably does create a better connection