Jusepy82 Posted August 17, 2023 Share Posted August 17, 2023 Good night for practice. Very slowly learning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Hill Posted August 17, 2023 Share Posted August 17, 2023 On 14/08/2023 at 23:03, Dudley said: I’d probably buy anything but a strata machine I use a Strata mig at work. Has a duty cycle of one gecko shart. Is okay on medium duty work but still overheats much faster than you would expect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bling Posted August 17, 2023 Share Posted August 17, 2023 1 hour ago, Jusepy82 said: Good night for practice. Very slowly learning. Underside? A lot look quite proud of the base material so seems like they are on top rather than penetrating. I'd want to be closer to 50% of the bead on the top and 50% showing on underside. This is one I had to do, 5mm holes punched in the section I welded into the car, welded from below. Top half is topside, so showing penetration. Bottom half was where I was in my boot on my back in pain. This was good enough to get the tick for filling in a speaker hole. But shows the welds are quite flat on underside and showing some penetration and heat rings around the welds. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jusepy82 Posted August 17, 2023 Share Posted August 17, 2023 This is the underside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bling Posted August 17, 2023 Share Posted August 17, 2023 Maybe try pulling back the wire speed to get it a bit lower profile. Good penetration though on a lot. Just maybe more wire into the job than needed. Pros feel free to chime in lol. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jusepy82 Posted August 17, 2023 Share Posted August 17, 2023 What gas flow rate are you set to on your regulator ? Im using straight c02 , I wonder if that is what is making the weld profile higher ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bling Posted August 17, 2023 Share Posted August 17, 2023 If anything Co2 will give more penetration, profile should be down to wire speed, or speed of torch I guess. Flow rate i'm not sure, maybe 10-15l/minute? Been a while. That's pure CO2. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rusty360 Posted August 20, 2023 Share Posted August 20, 2023 On 17/08/2023 at 19:44, Jusepy82 said: Good night for practice. Very slowly learning. Question are you pushing the torch or pulling it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jusepy82 Posted August 20, 2023 Share Posted August 20, 2023 Pushing. I was practicing today again and noticed that I was going straight with no weaves. I started weaving and doing c shapes and the weld looks much nice and seems to be spread out alot nicer. I 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rusty360 Posted August 20, 2023 Share Posted August 20, 2023 You left or right handed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jusepy82 Posted August 20, 2023 Share Posted August 20, 2023 1 minute ago, rusty360 said: You left or right handed? Right handed. So I was going right to left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rusty360 Posted August 20, 2023 Share Posted August 20, 2023 1 minute ago, Jusepy82 said: Right handed. So I was going right to left. Cool as, looking at that I'd say you ethier need more heat and move faster or less wire speed. How thick is that test piece? If it's panel steel you might find hot tacks all joined together works much better. Hot tacks means that if you run a full bead it melts pretty much straight though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jusepy82 Posted August 20, 2023 Share Posted August 20, 2023 That lot of steel welded togeather is 1.0mm and I think there is some pannel steel .6 aswell. I kinda set myself up as I was welding away happy as Larry, then moved onto another piece and it would blow though. The difference between .6 and 1.0mm I'm trying run nice beads so I can get used to the weld and watching the bead and pool. Getting used to the sound of when it's going to blow through and how fast to move the torch/angle. I'm getting better each time I practice so I'm happy bout that. Thanks for your help friends Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rusty360 Posted August 20, 2023 Share Posted August 20, 2023 Just now, Jusepy82 said: That lot of steel welded togeather is 1.0mm and I think there is some pannel steel .6 aswell. I kinda set myself up as I was welding away happy as Larry, then moved onto another piece and it would blow though. The difference between .6 and 1.0mm I'm trying run nice beads so I can get used to the weld and watching the bead and pool. Getting used to the sound of when it's going to blow through and how fast to move the torch/angle. I'm getting better each time I practice so I'm happy bout that. Thanks for your help friends If you wana learn how to run beads start with 3mm plate, you will get much better results and learn fast. Another trick is to start the weld with one hand on the wire speed knob and adjust while you are welding to see what happens. If you look at your picture you will see your weld into the bevel looks much better, that's because it's got some meat behind it. Keep going you will get there! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jusepy82 Posted August 20, 2023 Share Posted August 20, 2023 Ok thanks man ! I will jack up some 3mm plate from work ! Does it allow for more heat or somthing ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rusty360 Posted August 20, 2023 Share Posted August 20, 2023 1 minute ago, Jusepy82 said: Ok thanks man ! I will jack up some 3mm plate from work ! Does it allow for more heat or somthing ? Absolutely your bevel weld is prob similar to 2.5 mm as the heat goes into both bits of steel. TBH full beads on panel steel is hard and always look average. Plus normaly puts to much heat into to the area and causes distortion. That's were the interlinked hot tacks works better and sits much flater. Start at 3mm and work backwards. A good setting on 3mm full weld is prob close were you wana be for ya hot panel steel tacks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bling Posted August 20, 2023 Share Posted August 20, 2023 Agreed on the hot spots vs beads for panel work. Sure it's doable to do beads, but the panel is going to banana pretty bad. Hot spot and leave time between hitting the same spot again. I don't think I did anything other than spot welding on all of my car repairs. It's all tuna can spec thickness so doing spots is sweet. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jusepy82 Posted August 20, 2023 Share Posted August 20, 2023 I found some 3mm plate in the shed and had a tinker with it. Not too bad. No pics as I'm inside now 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bling Posted August 20, 2023 Share Posted August 20, 2023 It depends what you want to be welding too. If just panel steel, then just learn on that. I'd have to relearn thicker material welding as 99% of mine is sub 1mm thickness. With practice the settings don't tend to matter too much, for spot welding at least. As long as you're in the ballpark, it will work. Might just be shorter or longer on the trigger to do the spot. Not long enough and it will just sit on the top. Too long and you have a bigger hole to weld up... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jusepy82 Posted August 20, 2023 Share Posted August 20, 2023 Thanks bling , I want to learn to weld all types/thickness but mainly pannel steel . Its mainly spending time on the welder seeing how different thickness of metal weld and getting the penetration correct. I finished a little project in weekend involving a creeper which needed its wheels reattached. I cut the box section of the creeper and welded a nut inside the box section , then welded it all back togeather. Went well and I'm happy with it so I'm getting there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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