Found the perfect welder! #6

[oscaryu1]

"Bad" welding:

It was quite strong. Again, I couldn't separate. All those photos were of me holding it up (by the rod) to take a picture of it

The "better" welds (these were all in order, starting from ^ those, to one by one these, I didn't take the best of all my welds )

 

[kibble]

Looking better but it looks like you still gotta heat it up a bit more to get some better penetration.

 

[oscaryu1]

Those welds were all on high... and #7 wire feed setting... Seemed perfect...

So... raise it up to 8 or 9?

 

[kibble]

or maybe slow down your movement a bit. It doesn't look bad though.

 

[oscaryu1]

Woot thanks! I'll take it a bit slower now

 

[newrider3]

Looking better but it looks like you still gotta heat it up a bit more to get some better penetration.

12345

Slow down a bit more too.

 

[oscaryu1]

Slow down even more?

I was already going... well... slow

I'll try some more tomorrow.

 

[newrider3]

LOL I posted before I saw the other posts on page 5.

 

[Kenny_McCormic]

Have somebody watch the other side, it should be bright orange-yellow hot where your welding. Try maxing out the settings just to get a feel for it, kinda like purposely making a car spin out so you can learn to get it straight again.

 

[oscaryu1]

Hmm... interesting way to learn Kenny, I'll try tomorrow! Maybe I'll go buy some more metal.. or just use the two edger blades now

Well, I only have one welding helmet... and when I'm welding, usually it's "down under" or blocked by another piece of metal I'm welding.

 

[Kenny_McCormic]

Hmm... interesting way to learn Kenny,

Its a VERY good idea to screw around in an empty snow covered parking lot with an old truck. That way when it happens on the road you will be able to correct it.

 

[oscaryu1]

Haha, everything I got is either old, or cheap, or free

I <3 old things No matter how rusty, badly beaten, I'll try my best to resurrect it

So on the last few "better" welds, how far am I from starting to weld more... important things? Thanks guys for ALL your help!

 

[Kenny_McCormic]

Your getting there.

 

[AutoMX]

im seeing alot of slag/spatter, try holding the gun closer (but "clean" it out periodically, smack it to the floor and the little pellets will fall out). it will still work at even an inch away but theres more room for heat to escape as well as molten metal, and the result is ugly weak welds.

also, regarding the vibrations on a sawzall:
the fastest cutting blades will have the biggest teeth. they will also vibrate the most because of that. smaller teeth means less vibrations but slower cutting. if you're cutting something that shouldn't be shaken much at all, get diamond tipped blades, they're not expensive and they cut EVERYTHING but they're really slow, and thus heat the metal up more, to the point of glowing. they also last a long time which is always good. i generally stick to cutting with mid sized teeth, and i use the machine on tubing, not components.
you dont need to get an authentic sawzall, just any quality one will be better than HF. kawasaki tools are pretty **** cheap.

 

[oscaryu1]

Hmm... really? There's alot of slag? Compared to before, this is... tiny. The pictures you saw were pretty much 5 seconds before I welded, and I hadn't removed any of it with the brush.

 

[newrider3]

Spray it down with Pam to keep a lot of the slag from sticking. Also, once you get better weld yourself up a chipping hammer to clean the welds up.

 

[AutoMX]

depending on the thickness of the metal and the speed you went and a million other factors, you should be able to manage maybe like 3-5 of those weld beads per inch. its not just aesthetics, all those beads are bits of the wire that didn't make it into the weld seam, so keep that in mind. it's not like you have to be perfect with this stuff, but as you keep welding, try to perfect the technique.

 

[oscaryu1]

So compared to before, should I step up and start welding "bigger" things? Or wait some more?

 

[Kenny_McCormic]

More practice, the bead should sink into the metal.

 

[AutoMX]

what do you plan to weld? im seeing a lot of thick metal and that wont help you practice much on tubing or smaller bits. if you need tubing for cheap, check for bed frames locally, its a classic source of strong & free or near-free square tubing.
welding tubing is probably you first taste of 'burning through' cuz that welder is just not gonna burn through 1/4" steel and tubing is a fraction of that.