Ok so my first weld looks like hell..... (1 Viewer)

[Zack1978]

Hi everyone,
Well after getting the wire issue sorted out on my new Millermatic 135, I attempted to weld for the first time ever. I found two L brackets that I welded together. I used the guide in the owners book to set the wire speed and voltage. So now some basic questions, How fast or slow do you move the gun along the weld area? It seems that when I am done welding it seems that I always extra wire hanging out of the gun, why? Again the welds that I did look like s***, but I was hitting it with a hammer and it would not come apart.


Thanks,
Zack

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Zack-play with the settings a bit. It sounds like your wire is feeding a bit fast, or turn up the voltage. Keep the stinger 1/2-3/4 inch and spend a day welding scrap steel. Everyone's first welds look like crap. For really good penetration, run the machine a bit hotter than the recommended settings. I usually cut the stinger tip to the length I want before each pass. The arc will start cleaner if you don't have that tiny ball of steel at the end.

 

[2mbb]

It take some practice to get the feel. The tip should be pretty close to the work piece. If the wire feed is too fast (or power too low) you will feel the wire pushing back against the gun. If the wire speed is too slow (or power too high) then the metal the wire will vaporize and you'll get some inconsistent sputtering.

When you stop welding (assuming you stop the weld by releasing the trigger not by pulling away the gun) you should have the same amount of stick out as you do when you stop. If you don't, you may be pulling the gun away from the surface, or need more power/less wire feed speed.

Like everything else, how fast you move the weld depends on your wire size, metal thickness and your settings. You want to move the gun so you get an even thickness weld. It's probably slower than you think it should be. Also when doing a filet weld (welding two pieces together at an angle) or filling a gap in a butt weld, I tend to push the puddle back and forth to try to get better coverage. It may not be "good form" but it's what I have to do with my Lincoln 135.

Start making stuff and don't worry too much how the welds look as long as they hold. A good first project is a welding cart or something like that.

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

The best thing you can do is run some beads on flat material and post pictures. No need to start fusing two pieces of metal together, there will be plenty of time for that in the future. Once you post pictures we can "diagnose" the problems and get you pointed in the right direction much faster.

Good luck!

Ary

 

[Zack1978]

This week I am going to take the welder to school and another teacher and I are going to weld some desks back together, and some broken bench's. We will se how that goes.

Zack

 

[Cuerno Largo]

just get a bunch of scrap and start practicing. It is a "get a feel for it " kind of art (plus a little metal science that has been layed out in a thread earlier in this forum). I taught myself on my granddad's old lincoln cracker box. You should have seen my first welds. They looked like a bird s*** on the metal. Most of them held though. I think starting on the arc welder made moving to the mig easier and I am glad now that I have both.

Edit: FWIW, the first mistake I was making when I started was focusing more on the arc rather than the puddle. That does not work well. Focus on the puddle and you will figure out the rest pretty easily.

 

[nuclearlemon]

hijack...i FINALLY got to play with my new welder (bought in january)...need to turn the speed down a hair i think as it just felt to fast. same story, used the settings miller recommends.

how do mine look? kinda oblong, but that's why i think i need to turn the speed down a tad. using .35 wire, 75/25 gas, on very rusty 3/16. is it good to feel a slight indent at the edge of the welds (like i was melting the original steel, if that makes sense).

the crap welds that you see in a pic are my old 110 campbell hausfield. big time p.o.s. never even tried to learn because it wouldn't feed the wire out consistantly no matter how much i screwed with the tension. that's why i don't recommend cheap welders. i'm sooooo freakin' happy with my new miller.

 

[madoc1]

ige, those look better than mine. do you push or pull? occasionly get right and sounds frying bacon. jim

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Hey Ige-

Keep your day job!

With gas and solid wire, you have to prep to bright metal to get a good weld. The rust will comtaminate your weld and fawk it up.

Disclaimer, I am no expert, but I have learned a few things the last 6 months. Keep up the practice.

 

[Junk]

Zack, it ain't supposed to be as easy as sunday morning man. That's why there are pros. Hang in there, practice and you'll be fine.

Ige, flip over the otherside - do you have any discoloration on the backside of the metal? As Cruiserdrew says, prep prep prep - but it looks like on your first pic that the bead is just layin on the top with little penetration. I certainly ain't no pro, but that's my $.015.

 

[e9999]

Zack:
if it can make you feel better, your welds could not possibly be any worse than mine. That is a physical impossibility...

 

[El Cazador]

Like the others have said, keep practicing and don't get discouraged. It's only metal. We can out think it.

 

[nuclearlemon]

you have to prep to bright metal to get a good weld. The rust will comtaminate your weld and fawk it up.
.

i'm just f'n off...that's why i didn't clean it up. just laying beads on steel and welding crap together to get a feel for it. seems to hold ok...i dropped the friggin' thing and broke the wire that i welded to plate, but not the weld (or my toe )

 

[Planet_X]

ige, those look better than mine. do you push or pull? occasionly get right and sounds frying bacon. jim

Do both.
Mig does not dig too much, so it will sit on top if your just running beads on the plate.
Set up a couple pieces into joints, butt,lap,tee... the t-joint is one of the easier ones (for mig) fwiw.
Here are two pictures of some short t-fillets, 1 is short circuit and one is spray transfer, which is what I would normally use when material is this thick (3/16").
I did not have any 1/8" or thinner stuff to try, but that is the thickness range I would practice with if I was learning your machine.

 

[Mace]

Spray transfer is a non issue with a MM135. You can't do it.


Keep practicing

 

[fj40charles]

I would recommend using .030 wire as a general purpose wire. If you had to buy one spool of wire (10 lb, 33 lb, 45lb) get the .030 wire.

It has slower deposition rate than .035 wire giving you more time to read/look at the weld puddle.

Use some 70ER-S6 wire (higher silicon) if you're welding on rusty material. It has more deoxdizers (cleaning agent) and will splatter less. The weld puddle will wet out better than 70ER-S3 wire.

 

[Planet_X]

need to turn the speed down a hair i think as it just felt to fast. same story, used the settings miller recommends.

how do mine look? kinda oblong, but that's why i think i need to turn the speed down a tad. using .35 wire, 75/25 gas, on very rusty 3/16. is it good to feel a slight indent at the edge of the welds (like i was melting the original steel, if that makes sense).

.

The little (135/175) Millers used something called wirespeed tracking, and I think the machine will try to balance the wirespeed for you according to what volt tap setting your using. I've never used a machine with this feature, so the following may be of no use-

Melt-through won't be a problem with 3/16", but the machine settings for this thickness are going to be on the high end of short circuit. And that is where things get tough with that process to control spatter because your on the cusp of going into another transfer process.

My first thought because of the type and amount of spatter, would be too much voltage. Generally use the least amount that will support your wire feed speed. So if you leave everything the same and decrease your wire speed, you should get a longer arc length and more spatter, also the arc sound will be more of a soft plop sound vs. a rapid crisp short arc sound.

Use the factory settings again, but make longer beads about 4-6". This will give you time to move your gun closer or further from your weld, and to see/hear the results of doing so.

I think if you can get the gun closer than before using the same settings your spatter level will decrease and your toes will wet better.

When you go closer the current will go up and the volts will go down, move farther away the current drops and the volts go up.

Like in the other post, I think you should skip the beads on plate practice and set up a joint. If you want to duplicate the same physical pattern, set up two plates with a 1/8" gap and do a butt weld. You could do a lap weld as well, good for practicing undercut avoidence because that top piece is going to want to cut ..

 

[Planet_X]

Something else you can do is to section your welds, and use some naval jelly to discolor the weld metal vs the base material. Just cut-apply naval jelly-wait-rinse off w/water.

So you can see the weld fusion profile: I cut the spray/short fillet above and set camera to 'macro' mode.

 

[pillguy]

naval jellyy

Excellent idea with the naval jelly. I got a Hobart 140 earlier in the year and am working on a rear bumper. I am going to check my penetration on my 1/4" steel for my brackets with some scrap metal.

 

[-Spike-]

Excellent thread revival. I wish we had a welding-specific subforum, maybe in Tools and Fab? I know it seems redundant, but the welding threads tend to get lost after a while.