critique my welds

[chris609]

Hello, I have been practicing my welds on mainly 1'' square tube with a wall thickness of .080. I have a 115volt Lincoln with 75/25 gas the settings I used were full voltage and slow wire feed. Wire is .030 this seemed to give good penetration when I ran beads along the tube in practice. These are the welds for the start of the frame I had a hard time judging penetration because I could not see under some welds. Hopefully this start is a keeper but doing it again would be no bother the tube is cheap stuff. Thanks

 

[DeathStarr89]

Heat marks show that the penetration is pretty good other than the last pic where they must have been scuffed off. If you are un-sure just weld some scrap then cut through it and check out the cross section.

What pattern are you using? It almost looks like a slow straight drag with the tight ripples. if so there are a ton of others that will give you a cleaner bead. http://www.spartanmechanics.net/images/weave patterns.JPG

Are you pushing or pulling the puddle?


Good job otherwise!



PS, on that last one... make sure to connect those beads.

 

[chris609]

Thanks and for replying. I am draging slow as you noticed. I
read some say draging is better penetration. I also saw little e's and zigzag pattern.my main worry is the strength. Other samples i did i tried pounding the hound out of and they kept intact.

 

[chris609]

By the way great link do any of those patterns give better penetration?

 

[landuse]

I would also agree that the last pic does not look as good.

 

[OzFab]

A simple guide to penetration is the flatter the weld, the better the penetration; heat marks are also a good indicator, as stated by deathstarr.

By the way great link do any of those patterns give better penetration?

They all will because the heat is spread across the job as opposed to simply running through the middle.

It's a bit of a balancing act; too little heat & you don't penetrate, too much heat & you burn through. It seems you've found the sweet spot, nice work

As for wire speed & technique: As long as you have a constant buzz, wire feed is good. When welding with MIG, it's better to push rather than pull, that way the gas is pushed into the weld promoting a better burn

 

[chris609]

Thanks for all the input I have more stuff to think about next time. I like welding more and more now. Getting the auto dark helmet made it sooo much better. I should have gotten the 220 first time around tho but this is working for now.

 

[DaiSan76]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned. At the end of most of your welds, you have a large crater. Those craters can crack under stress. You need to pause at the end of each weld and fill in that crater. It probably won't be a problem in this application, but since you asked, that is a minor flaw in your welds.

 

[chris609]

Better?

Hello again, How are these looking? I did a cursive e as best I could still the same welding settings. Thanks

 

[KartFab]

looks good enough. If you are going to paint after the welds, use an angle grinder with wire cup or wheel attachment to remove the small bits of silicon and impurities that you can see on the beads. Looks like a good bead to me, but Im just a newbie welder that was self taught so I could be off.

If you look at the puddle, on the last picture, the metal/settings look like they were hot because the bead is flatter, it looks like it was colder, the lower you go on the picture.

Another thing to help you get more consistent beads, is to pay attention to the leading edge of the puddle and the left/right side of the puddle. The E's are a great start to help you get consistent travel speed. If you look at the edge of the metal, sometimes your puddle nips a bit too much out of it, and other times it is further away, if you keep track of side to side and just barely nip the edge as you go with each e, you will get an even better looking weld.

 

[OzFab]

Could've had a little more heat towards the square tube but, it looks pretty good to me, well done

 

[chris609]

Thanks I see what you both mean I put more heat on the hanger because it was thicker. It seemed like a good strategy at the time I really want a hotter mig welder now. This is a very fun project so far I find myself thinking about this kart all the time.

 

[OzFab]

Thanks I see what you both mean I put more heat on the hanger because it was thicker. It seemed like a good strategy at the time

Lap & fillet welds are always tricky because you need less heat to penetrate the edge of the steel than you do to penetrate the surface