Where have I been???

[koda6966]

Kids got passion, I'll give him that.

 

[prerunnerwannabe]

Forgive me if I'm wrong (I'm a bit of a noob when if comes to welding) but Kip was saying his power was 3 out of 4, and his wire speed was 2 out of 8. Wouldn't it be a good idea to turn up the wire speed?

 

[AngryLepercon]

Forgive me if I'm wrong (I'm a bit of a noob when if comes to welding) but Kip was saying his power was 3 out of 4, and his wire speed was 2 out of 8. Wouldn't it be a good idea to turn up the wire speed?

You can tell Kip is not getting penetration.

Also


If you turn the wire up it will splatter and pop everywhere.

 

[slinky]

damn man, those are some nasty lookin welds....and your blending them off?...

if your doing this lighter duty welding, you should invest in a tig unit, that lower grade mig isnt doing you any favor's.

as much as i hate there equipment usually, harbor freight sells a somewhat decent compact tig unit, assuming you have a harbor freight in your area. they go from 350-500 depending on area/sales. i picked one up about a year ago, my miller syncrowaze 250 runs circles around it any day, but for being a compact, it does the job.

 

[adsm08]

You can tell Kip is not getting penetration.

So that's why he can't keep a girlfriend for more than a few months.

 

[adsm08]

as much as i hate there equipment usually, harbor freight sells a somewhat decent compact tig unit, assuming you have a harbor freight in your area. they go from 350-500 depending on area/sales. i picked one up about a year ago, my miller syncrowaze 250 runs circles around it any day, but for being a compact, it does the job.

His nearest HF is almost 45 min away.

 

[a31ford]

Ranger Kip.

I'd like to make a real suggestion (Honestly trying to be helpful here).

When welding, many people do the same mistake, they butt the parts together, and then weld the line, this is incorrect, use your magnet to hold the parts slightly apart AND/OR use a flat washer to create a space between the parts, the weld goes in the space, NOT on top,

Go one less heat setting, about the same wire speed (actually you might have to speed the wire up a bit).

The "sound" the arc should make is bacon on a grill, buzzzzzzz, no real "crackles" per say, instead a nice consistent crisping sound.

the make/break of the wire contacting the metal should be very consistant, this is what makes the buzz/crispling sound, when it crackles is when the weld gets cold for a micro second and the arc process stops, then "BANG" restarts (hard start), this can be caused by the following.

rust interfering with the arc process (rust changes the type of arc produced because it is entrained with oxygen.

wire contaminated (eg: oil on the wire, or welding surface)

Wire speed to fast, or to slow

Heat range to high or low.

The reason I asked you to go 1 heat range down, is the ends of the pipe will heat much quicker than the "body" of the pipe, even being 1/16" from the end will take much more heat then the end itself, SO, you might find that trying this on some scraps, you might get welds that are NOT needing so much (or any) grinding (saving time).

Like this, the 2 parts are NOT touching each other before the weld, after.... well you can see for yourself.

Greg

 

[upnsmoke]

answer:

For what it's worth, this weld looks pretty good to me.^ I still have one of the the first things I ever welded. It's a booger welded old piece of junk I pieced together from some .060 square tube and and .083 round tube, using a Harbor freight flux core mig welder that I got used. I still use it almost every day to do upright rows, and it has yet to come apart on me. To this day, I consider my welds marginal, and myself still inexperienced, but I am reminded of how far I have come every time I look at that P.O.S. Anyway, Ranger Kip, carry on making stuff as you are, and in time people will be asking you how to weld.

 

[shane96ranger]

To get a decent weld out of my HF MIG welder, I have to have the wire feed all the way down and have the current at max. I've used my Dad's Lincoln MIG, and it's night and day. I'm not that great of a welder, but my stuff isn't falling apart. I'm actually going to try and get into a welding class at the community college.

EDIT: Keep at it Kip, they will look real purdy soon.

I made this bumper out of stuff we had laying around at work. It wasn't the best, but it held up great (sold the trailer a few weeks ago).

 

[slinky]

His nearest HF is almost 45 min away.

bout the same drive time for me as well. i make a run out there every sunday for my weekly tool replacement run my job eats vice grips like there going out of style

i haven't seen it asked yet in the thread (sorry if i missed it) but what voltage are you plugged into? 220?