Tips for better welds?

[user53]

Alright, well, I am by no means a master welder. I can weld something, and have it look..well, good enough for me. My welds are plenty strong, too. When I have a material I am testing with/setting up welder voltage/feed speed, I often give it the "sledge hammer" test, where I take it "out back" and beat it up

Here's a weld I used to set up the voltage/feed, to show what my idea of an "acceptable" looking weld is...

I know it's nothing to look at, but it's plenty strong, and looks good enough.

Now, here's where the problem is. All of the things I've welded are single beads (not stopping/starting again) and I have plenty of room to maneuver. Now, I was welding some 1" square tube onto some 1/4" steel, where I need to stop and start, to get the whole base welded, and don't have much room to work with-here's what I'm talking about--it's only been cleaned up with about 5 seconds with a wire brush--

The top and bottom bar are 3" apart. Since I've never welded things like this, not much room, and needing to stop/start the weld for each side, it looks like sh!t - here's zoomed in on the welds--

As you can see, along the side where I'm not limited in room, it looks up to my standards, like the first picture. On the sides though, it looks horrible. Also, you can see where I joined the first welds (area where I had more room to work) with the second welds, where I was somewhat limited in space.

Now, all of the welds on this are plenty strong, but it's the visual part that's bothering me. Any tips for getting better welds in areas like this, and any tips for starting/stopping the bead, and making it look decent?

Oh, and before you say it, yes, I know I need to practice this more. I just want to know if you have any tips/things to try/watch out for when practicing.

Thanks--

Also-please no "your welds suck" responses I know they do already. Any tips for making the ones I call "acceptable" better would be great, too.

 

[Cotmullion]

Are they Arc welds? Maybe lower the amperage.

 

[kibble]

Looks like you're getting a lot of spattering. What kind of motion are you using? Are you just dragging the wire in a linear motion or going side to side?

 

[Laidback.985]

I would start by turning my wire speed down a little. It looks like you are putting too much wire down for the speed you are traveling. Lowering the wire speed will smooth out the weld and reduce the amount of undercut you see along the edges of the weld. Leave your heat as is, and adjust wire feed.

 

[Sdannenberg3]

Well the thing that really helped me was the auto darkening helmet. IDK if it helped other people that much but I noticed sometimes you would miss the joint completely. As soon as I got the helmet I could see what I was doing the whole time. And also, your beads look like they are "bulky" Are you holding the welding in a spot for too long and then moving the welding tip a lot and then holding it there for a bit and so on? It looks like you need to go back and forth more across the joint and try to move down the joint a little more steady.

As far as the hard to reach places, I just stuck the welder in there at some weird angles and just went for it and I kinda got lucky. You shouldnt have to stop and start again.

 

[iwanttogofast]

They don't look good but if you are using a wire welder move in a half moon pattern.wire speed makes no difference if you know how to weld and are using gas wire speed isn't that big of a deal because you can either speed up or slow down. amps is the big getter though, got to know what isn't enough and whats to much. and yes auto darking helmets help ten fold. the main thing is the weld is strong.

 

[user53]

Well, it is a cheap wire welder. I use a circular pattern with it. I don't have an auto darkening helmet, but that is on the list.

It's sounding like I'm moving too slow, with either too much voltage, or too much wire feed, or both. I'm guessing that it is that I'm moving too slow, given the testing I've done with different wire speeds and voltages.

Sdannenberg3, you mention that I shouldn't need to stop and start again, but then how to I weld the entire base of the square tube?

 

[MDMike]

I think if your comfortable at the speed your welding, try use bigger "circles" if you move faster go with bigger circle movements, just my 2 cents

Correction, Actually should be more like ovals not circles when going slow.

 

[Sdannenberg3]

oh I'm sorry, I misunderstood what you were saying. I though you meant that you couldn't even finish one of the 4 sides when weldng. Yes I did the same thing. I actually tack welded the 4 corners to keep the piece from warping while I was welding. Then I connected the 4 tack welds one side at a time!

 

[iwanttogofast]

Well, it is a cheap wire welder. I use a circular pattern with it. I don't have an auto darkening helmet, but that is on the list.

It's sounding like I'm moving too slow, with either too much voltage, or too much wire feed, or both. I'm guessing that it is that I'm moving too slow, given the testing I've done with different wire speeds and voltages.

Sdannenberg3, you mention that I shouldn't need to stop and start again, but then how to I weld the entire base of the square tube?

Play around with the wire speed a little bit and amperage on different sizes of metal. I have figured all of what i know out by trial and error. Didn't learn a whole lot in welding class just got a lot of time on a welder.

my bud has a cheaper one we use for small metal. But if your not using gas it is hard to make a nice looking bead.
Also if you are welding thicker metal its better to goto 210. But again if your not looking for appearance it really don't matter since you can make a strong weld with the one you have.

 

[jr dragster T]

This is what a good looking and strong weld should look like. Ask Oscar for some nice flux core welding pictures.

 

[iwanttogofast]

nice bead i love how it looks like a line of coins. Joint welds even look nicer with wire welders

 

[jr dragster T]

Thanks for the complements.

 

[iwanttogofast]

how much did you spend on that welder? All the flux core welders i have used never turned out very nice, they have all been cheap ones also.

 

[jr dragster T]

how much did you spend on that welder? All the flux core welders i have used never turned out very nice, they have all been cheap ones also.

$900 without the aluminum welding kit and without the 2 bottles of gas. gas bottles are around $140 each filled. And my mask is a $200 Miller auto shade. Everything works like a charm.

 

[iwanttogofast]

I see why they look nice lol. Do you use the gas though? I know you don't need gas with flux core but i thought when you used gas you used uncoated wire.

 

[jr dragster T]

Yes I use the gas all the time. And yes when using gas its just plain wire. I have use flux cored wire and it turned out great and the beads look awsome after some chipping. After chipping you couldnt even tell it was flux core welded. It's just too smoky I find though even with the vent hood in our garage.

 

[Kenny_McCormic]

Yea, only mig and tig should be considered indoors, everything else is outside only.unless you enjoy cancer and passing out form fumes.

 

[iwanttogofast]

Yes unless there is proper ventilation.

 

[Sdannenberg3]

This is what my wire feed flux core bead looks like. And this is with the cheapo chicago electric and the ****ty wire it comes with. Ill go do a joint weld and see how that turns out.