Marlin Crawler 70” Slider install and rocker panel BS (1 Viewer)

[AlpineAccess]

This looks like not enough voltage and not enough wire speed. The spotting your getting is not enough wire, and bead sitting on the surface of the material is not enough penetration.

This is thick material and you're on 110 so you need to crank it up.

Are you using an extension cord that could be dropping your voltage? Are you cleaning the surface off completely (Marlin guys are likely oil coating before they ship raw steel, etc.)

 

[thebeedeegee]

This looks like not enough voltage and not enough wire speed. The spotting your getting is not enough wire, and bead sitting on the surface of the material is not enough penetration.

This is thick material and you're on 110 so you need to crank it up.

Are you using an extension cord that could be dropping your voltage? Are you cleaning the surface off completely (Marlin guys are likely oil coating before they ship raw steel, etc.)

Yeah that gusset is like what 3/16" at least? I had mine cranked above 1/8" door chart settings for that, at 1/4" I was all the way up on wire and voltage and even did a couple passes. With the smaller machine you might need to max it out for something over 1/8" thick as the machine isn't rated to even do that in 1 pass

Just max out both settings and see what it looks like. Lol

***Edit
Apparently the 125 is rated to do 3/16" , on my 140 the door chart only goes up to 1/8" but HF rates it to 5/16".... I guess that explains why I was able to lay a decent looking bead on 1/4" with mine.

 

[AlpineAccess]

The Titanium machines even on 110 will pump out plenty of heat for 3/16th but the challenge is getting enough wire straight into the bottom of 90 without sticking to the walls, and dragging really narrow zig or "e" movements as you pull back. The gussets aren't needing wide welds, so focus on drive the heat into that 90 and keeping the sheilding gas in the corner so it is able to keep up. That splatter is crazy and indicative of a dirty surface and/or not enough gas.

 

[AlpineAccess]

Just to give you some feedback, I popped my machine into 110 and set this up on flux. I prepped this painted surface with a flap disc, and did nick the weld after with a flap disc to show there isn't a lot of porosity.

This is vulcan .30 flux with high wire speed (250) voltage at 18 and inductance at 6.

This piece is 1/8" mild steel. I wouldnt go thicker than that on .30 flux wire and 110.

It's not a nice weld, and you can see where I missed some paint by the oval cut through (causing porosity in the weld) but overall it is plenty strong and has good penetration. I did a piss poor job of cleaning prior to running this. A better welder (person, not the machine - the machine is great) would have had a better pace to keep from driving so much heat in and burning the edge. I did not clean off all of the slag so you'll see some of that on there (grey bubbles).

I did this pass with "e" movements to hold heat in.

 

[2020 Rocks]

Thanks for the tips and suggestions. I’ll def take these pointers into the garage with me this evening.

 

[2020 Rocks]

Working kinks out of things, have the week off, welding shall resume....

 

[gasolinesunsets]

Hail yeah! Looking forward to seeing em finished.

These came in this week:

If all goes well, I’ll be working on these this week at my friend’s shop. They’re going on me man’s truck, not mine though. Ordering a set for myself down the line, just need to finish building his rig out first for our trip next month.

 

[AlpineAccess]

Working kinks out of things, have the week off, welding shall resume....

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Is this flux core mig? If so, it's not terrible but that is still a LOT of spatter. Bump up your heat a little bit and reduce wire speed a bit so that the gas can keep up. That or try a different flux core wire and/or brush your welds frequently. Remember to drag on flux.

If its solid wire mig, something is still up. Turn up your cfm on the gas to reduce the spatter on the weld at the right and make sure you're pushing at a pretty steep angle so that the gas can flare out over the whole weld (should be about 75-80* angle for your push). On the left it looks like either poor surface prep and not enough voltage as well as needing to slow down and run bigger "e's" maybe. The right half of that weld looks to have penetration and be structural, the left side isn't tying in the butt joint and is struck almost entirely on the top plate. A good hammer hit with a weld all like the left side and it will break. The right side will hold.

A good flap disc in a 40 or 80 grit will do wonders for getting things clean and help you dial in your welds. Also keep in mind that if you have a butt joint where the heat has more surface area to disperse, start your weld on the thicker/broader piece of material and spend 60% of your dwell time on that side as you roll through your zig zags, e's, or whatever pushing style you prefer. I like to drag slower on the bigger/flat piece and roll my bead up onto the piece I'm introducing in. Not sure how helpful typing that out is.

Definitely improvement!

 

[2020 Rocks]

Is this flux core mig? If so, it's not terrible but that is still a LOT of spatter. Bump up your heat a little bit and reduce wire speed a bit so that the gas can keep up. That or try a different flux core wire and/or brush your welds frequently. Remember to drag on flux.

If its solid wire mig, something is still up. Turn up your cfm on the gas to reduce the spatter on the weld at the right and make sure you're pushing at a pretty steep angle so that the gas can flare out over the whole weld (should be about 75-80* angle for your push). On the left it looks like either poor surface prep and not enough voltage as well as needing to slow down and run bigger "e's" maybe. The right half of that weld looks to have penetration and be structural, the left side isn't tying in the butt joint and is struck almost entirely on the top plate. A good hammer hit with a weld all like the left side and it will break. The right side will hold.

A good flap disc in a 40 or 80 grit will do wonders for getting things clean and help you dial in your welds. Also keep in mind that if you have a butt joint where the heat has more surface area to disperse, start your weld on the thicker/broader piece of material and spend 60% of your dwell time on that side as you roll through your zig zags, e's, or whatever pushing style you prefer. I like to drag slower on the bigger/flat piece and roll my bead up onto the piece I'm introducing in. Not sure how helpful typing that out is.

Definitely improvement!

It’s a mig Titanium from HF so no gas, part of my initial problem was using an electrical outlet starved for electric, garage fridge plugged into the only outlet. Ran an extension cord from porch outlet much better. Also some bunched up speaker wire on the ground clamp was a good tip I picked up somewhere.

 

[jLB]

Something about this thread, and my only experience welding being metal shop, in high school, in the late 70s, makes me feel a whole lot better about buying (3x) "complete" sliders, made for this platform

 

[merbesfield]

As others have said, something “ain’t “ right. Don’t try welding those sliders til you get it figured out, they will break in the field. GL. YouTube should be your friend.

 

[thebeedeegee]

How thick are those test pieces? You might be at the limit of that 120v flux welder. I had mine cranked all the way to put welds on 1/4" and laid multiple passes. I got a lot of spatter when my voltage was a bit low, or my stickout got too long. It does look like it's getting better.

Do you have a wire wheel for your grinder? Clean those welds up real good so you can see what it really looks like.

 

[nukegoat]

Check your welders polarity. It will weld terrible like that if you're DCEN when you should be DCEP or vice versa.