just got a welder,

[kendelrk]

i just purchased a harbor freight 90 amp flux wire welder in black, my neighbor used it to weld up my motor mount and ive tried to weld on some scrap steel, i cannot get it to lay a good bead, any suggestions?

 

[raposak]

Practice, practice and more practice. What size metal are you trying to weld? Just take your time and try not to rush the weld. Thats where I made my mistake when first starting out. I would try and rush and move way too quick.

 

[klicky96]

Make sure you have your wire-feed speed set to where you are running a constant arc and not jumping around.

 

[Jake.B]

Yeah same here, you have to slow down and watch the bead also make sure its a constant buzzing.

 

[raposak]

One way I was taught was to hold the nozzle in one hand like a pencil and use the other to work the trigger. Than get your face real close to your work so you can see what your doing and practice like that. When you get the feel for it and consistently produce good beads, try moving your head further away but still hold it like a pencil. You may go through more welding gloves this way, but I find its the best way to have total control over where you want your weld to go.

 

[DaiSan76]

Throw the wire that came with it away and buy some Hobart wire. It works soooo much better. I have the same machine, and I had to put a C-Clamp around where the wire feed motor is, because the wire was slipping and causing the arc to stop constantly. I don't know if you would have the same problem if you switched to .35 wire or not, but you would have to change the tip.

 

[ML-TOYS]

I got rid of flux core and got a gas version, solved my problems

 

[ryf]

post pics, but the best advise is slow down and watch the bead, if your welding on 1/8" or 3/16" turn it to max and you want it to sound like bacon in a skillet when you set your wire speed. on 3/16 stuff you will have to linger an extra half second sometimes in the middle of the puddle to make the metal hot enough to be strong.

 

[Br@ndoM@n]

Ur probably not gonna be able to get a "nice" bead from a cheapy china made welder. DaiSan75 is right, get rid of the cheap wire and get some hobart wire (E71T-11) Lincoln innershild is good wire to but some think it runs to cold and needs to be ran a little more amps to run well and a lil HF welder can use all the help it can get so go with hobart since its a "hotter" wire. Also most cheaper mig machines arent setup to run inertgas and are not real MIG machines just wire feed machines that can only run self shielded flux core. Ur welds wont look nearly as pretty with flux core as it will with solid wire. My machine can do either but I only run self shielding flux core in it so far since I currently dont have a shop to do welding projects in and do 100% of my welding outside and where I live gets very windy so shielding gas would blow away.