At Home In The Woods

[clemsonfor]

And like someone said before GET some thinner metal so that you can learn on something within the specs of your welder. That was you can learn proper technique and not have to deal with the machine not being able to handle the task on top of your less than perfect ability.

The welder may not be able to handle the boxblade support but if so its not lost. Once you learn what you want to do to mount the ball you can easily handle that task with it. Plus a welder is very handly, fixing your equiptment when it tears on the decks or you get holes in it, if you have a stripped out bolt on the mower or truck you can weld a bigger nut to the head of the bolt, all kinds of things. It too will end up something that you cant see how you lived without esp when you do your own repairs.

 

[PAGUY]

How do you DIY welders feel about stick welders?

 

[jdonovan]

How do you DIY welders feel about stick welders?

Hard to learn on, but for the same money you can get alot more welding capacity than you can on a mig machine.

Also the techniques you HAVE to use on a stick machine to get good welds make the transition to mig VERY easy.

IMO tig, or torch welding is the place to start learning as you've got to control all the variables, heating rate, speed of movement, rate of adding filler, etc....

 

[Obed]

I made some more practice welds using my 1/4" thick pieces. Here's the first one.



Second one.



Third.



Fourth



Cutting off the practice welds wore out a cutting wheel.



Fifth



Sixth



My last one looked really good to me.



I probably should have done some more to try to burn into my memory the technique that worked. However, the weld looked so good to me, I didn't want to grind it off so I stopped.

 

[Obed]

And like someone said before GET some thinner metal so that you can learn on something within the specs of your welder. That was you can learn proper technique and not have to deal with the machine not being able to handle the task on top of your less than perfect ability.

clemsonfor, I'm sure you're right but I'm hard headed.

The welder may not be able to handle the boxblade support but if so its not lost. Once you learn what you want to do to mount the ball you can easily handle that task with it. Plus a welder is very handly, fixing your equiptment when it tears on the decks or you get holes in it, if you have a stripped out bolt on the mower or truck you can weld a bigger nut to the head of the bolt, all kinds of things. It too will end up something that you cant see how you lived without esp when you do your own repairs.

The BB crack is in 1/2" thick metal. I suspect my welder may not be up to the task even for someone who knows what they are doing. However, I don't see any harm in trying it once I get my ball mounts successfully welded. Of course, the BB could be the justification for upgrading my welder! :cloud9:
Obed

 

[dave1949]

Obed? Hard-headed and as stubborn as a Tennessee mule? Naw. :laughing:

That series of welds looks much, much improved. Congratulations!

 

[dstig1]

Welds are looking better.:thumbsup: Try watching CL for a used stick welder. There are ton's out there, and they often go for under $200 here. Find an AC/DC if you can. Then get some rods and practice with that. You are getting a better idea of what looks decent now, so stick should not be too far of a reach. You won't have to worry about not having enough power with any decent stick welder out there. Mind you I do NOT mean one of those 90A HF specials like you have now. Something like an old Lincoln Tombstone or the Miller Thunderbolt or one of the newer Hobart Stickmates. Millions of them out there. Most stick welders are 220V and should give you over 200A capacity. Once you buy the welder, the rods are very reasonable to buy in smaller quantities.

Either that or you need to get a bigger wire feed. The one you have just does not have enough power to do much, as you have found.

 

[jdonovan]

Much improved!

still seeing quite a bit of little dimples in the welds. Could be an indicator of porosity... in the mig world I generally turn up the shielding gas flow to fix it, but you really can't do that on the flux core machine.

My guess on whats changed... slower wire speed, and you've slowed down your travel speed. One of the new welder faults is they try to complete the weld too quickly and don't stay in one place long enough to get the base metals to melt.

 

[clemsonfor]

My guess on whats changed... slower wire speed, and you've slowed down your travel speed. One of the new welder faults is they try to complete the weld too quickly and don't stay in one place long enough to get the base metals to melt.

You are exactly right. This was exactly my problem when i first started. I was just moving across the seam in a straight like like i was caulking, I ended up with a splattered mess.



As as far as the recomendation for the stick welder i would get a Tomestome Lincoln welder, You can prolly find one for $150-200 with leads. A guy at work was selling one just like that for $200 a year or so ago. You can weld anything with those. If you do not have a 240v outlet at the door you will need to put one if when/if you decide to get one of those for the big stuff.

 

[Obed]

One of the local counties has a place where you can pick up leaf mulch. My wife went and got a pickup load. I unloaded them.



We are using the leaf mulch in beds around the house.