Newbie looking for critique

[WranglerX]

Ok, I'll check but I'm fairly confident the wires are correct and plug into the front of the machine. Where is a good source for a beginner to but good but not expensive wire?

Typically all welders have the work lead (ground) and whip (GUN) lead connected front of machine.... Typical the place where polarity of welding cable is internal in cabinet area with wire spool and feeder..... As for wire, Hobart, Forney, ESAB, Miller... Try to stay with known brand names....

Image below is for my Hobart welder, but its typical of most welders for changing polarity

 

[etpm]

The wire is the .30 that came with the welder. 2 wires? I only have the one .30.

Just out of curiosity, what color is your wire? Is it copper colored? Like it's been copper plated? Or is it kinda grey, or steel colored? I'm asking because you said the wire is .30. What you really meant was .030. Which is a very common size for solid wire. Which will be copper colored. And must be used with gas.
Thanks,
Eric

 

[Pixguy]

Just out of curiosity, what color is your wire? Is it copper colored? Like it's been copper plated? Or is it kinda grey, or steel colored? I'm asking because you said the wire is .30. What you really meant was .030. Which is a very common size for solid wire. Which will be copper colored. And must be used with gas.
Thanks,
Eric

Thanks to all.
My wire is silver. I will buy Miller flux wire, check the polarity and try a bit more when I'm able.

 

[Fxfymn413]

There are a couple of "self tests" that you can do to evaluate how you are doing. The easiest is to just try to break the weld to see how it comes apart. Do a butt weld on a piece of 1/8" thick sheet a couple of inches long then put it in a vise and work it until it fractures. If the metal fails you probably doing OK, if the weld fails you need to keep trying. You can also cut through the weld to see if you are getting proper penetration. Look on-line for pictures of proper welds to compare them to.

To me the key to MIG is the sound of the weld. It should sound like bacon sizzling in a pan. The biggest mistake I made when I first started to weld was not setting the heat high enough to get good penetration because of my fear of burn through.

 

[mwemaxxowner]

Following, I'm in the same boat! Just bought a little 110 welder.

I've done a little welding at work that turned out well and looked okay, but I was using our nice Miller mig machine, and somebody else set it up for me.

 

[Kschwennsen]

I'm not an expert welder by any means but I am an Engineer and it looks like you have porous welds with no slag so I'm thinking you aren't running gas or flux core wire in a MIG setup, correct? It also looks like as others noted that you aren't getting any penetration and are moving the torch too slow.

I've self taught welding and have the YouTube certificate but seriously, alot of it is just practice and try your best to get better. the easiest welds are fillet welds where two pieces come together at a 90° angle. Cast needs to be heated so as not to crack, and deep welds should be filled with multiple passes.

I would suggest looking at welding videos online to explain the different wires and speeds. your welders owners manual can be indispensable as well. I was lucky to start out with a Millermatic 211 so I just set the plate thickness and forget it. I get nice looking welds, try weaving/swirling the pool or just make continuous lines of tack welds.

 

[Tony H]

Looking at the two beads on the hook shaped piece: I would slow down wire feed speed. When I weld, I push forward over my weld. Doing that seems to preheat the area about to be welded. Also you welds look like you slowly drew a line.
Try slowing the wire speed, push over what you welded and as you push, make small circles. Like a child drawing a Spring on a piece of paper. 1/4 to 3/8 circles

 

[athomp]

I'm not an expert welder by any means but I am an Engineer and it looks like you have porous welds with no slag so I'm thinking you aren't running gas or flux core wire in a MIG setup, correct? It also looks like as others noted that you aren't getting any penetration and are moving the torch too slow.

I've self taught welding and have the YouTube certificate but seriously, alot of it is just practice and try your best to get better. the easiest welds are fillet welds where two pieces come together at a 90° angle. Cast needs to be heated so as not to crack, and deep welds should be filled with multiple passes.

I would suggest looking at welding videos online to explain the different wires and speeds. your welders owners manual can be indispensable as well. I was lucky to start out with a Millermatic 211 so I just set the plate thickness and forget it. I get nice looking welds, try weaving/swirling the pool or just make continuous lines of tack welds.

I will second this comment - the weld is so porous that it looks like no shielding gas is being used. OP said he’s going gasless with a mig so he may not be aware that he needs to use flux-core wire. His welds look exactly like what happens when your argon runs out or welding outside in the wind and the gas blows away. Many years ago when all I had was a 110v fluxcore welder i was able to make decent welds in spite of no training. The pictures the OP shows do not look like just a lack of training problem, it looks like a (lack of) gas problem.

 

[ironhardware.com]

With flux core wire, chipping away your slag will reveal a more accurate result. Turn the heat up all the way and the wire speed at around 75% to start. Clean grind the edges of two pieces of steel and butt them together, use a steady hand and let off the trigger if you start to burn through. You can get a decent result with a little welder if you max it out and control the weld by starting and stopping (pulse welding). Burn that roll of wire up doing practice welds and then get some good wire. Hotter is better, if you can’t get the welder to burn through the material, turn down the wire speed until you get good penetration, then adjust your hand speed and settings in small increments. Keep a steady hand.

 

[Pixguy]

Ok, first, I could've sworn my wire was silver but instead it was gold. Bought Miller .30 flux wire today and at the settings you'll see, the results were worse. The photos below is with the newer wire.
Im open for more advise and curious what I'm screwing up

ignore the stick holders, they are from the previous stick welder.

 

[etpm]

Ok, first, I could've sworn my wire was silver but instead it was gold. Bought Miller .30 flux wire today and at the settings you'll see, the results were worse. The photos below is with the newer wire.
Im open for more advise and curious what I'm screwing up

View attachment 719289
View attachment 719290

Ok, now change the polarity. That means swap the ground and hot leads.
Eric

 

[Pixguy]

Ok, now change the polarity. That means swap the ground and hot leads.
Eric

Even though i followed the instructions? Let me go take a pic of the page

 

[Pixguy]

 

[WranglerX]

Your polarity is correct for fluxcore... But don't understand why all your dials are maxed out.... Is there a chart on door the give you presets (ball park settings) for setting vs material..
thickness?...

And with flux core wire you always drag your bead...

 

[LD1]

You have good advise so far. Check polarity...

Always chip slag. The slag reveals nothing. Whats the actual metal look like underneath.

And try some more realistic welds. globing weld on the surface of a piece of metal is not representative of real world scenerios or an accurate depiction of your ability. Try welding two pieces together and breaking them. You dont want tight fit-ups with mig. A gap half the thickness of the metal is desirable because you need the penetration. The ONLY time I like tight fitup with no root opening is TIG welding.

 

[GeneV]

I have a couple of tractor projects I'm looking to do so I bought a 110 140V mig welder.

My budget and future needs dictated that welder so here we go....

I grabbed a pic of steel I had and started practicing going gasless. I really have little knowledge of settings.


My first try.




A few more lines. Started from the right/bottom. The surface started off brushed clean.



I'm looking for constructive criticism or advise

Can't help you much coz a) I suck at welding, and b) I totally suck at wire welding. All's I could recommend is for practice, turn up the heat till you're frying through your material, than dial it down till you hear that perfect sizzle.

My first welder was a 110v Century flux core, and I just could not get down wit it. I dunno, some sort of mental block dealing with that wire coming out, and dialing in the wire speed and all that...it was all just no good for me. I took to stick welding much easier, which isn't saying much coz like I told you in another thread, I'm a grinder not a welder hahaha!!

 

[etpm]

Even though i followed the instructions? Let me go take a pic of the page

I did not realize you had the polarity correct. Since you were running solid wire thinking it was flux core I thought you might have also have the incorrect polarity. You would be very well served to look on YouTube for flux core wire feed welding videos. Wire feed welding is pretty easy and you should be able to pick it up quickly. If, after watching a video or two, and with your machine set correctly, you are still unable to get even a half way decent weld I suggest going to the welding supplier where you bought the wire and asking them if they have a similar machine to yours that you can run a few beads with. Then you can compare your performance on a different machine.
Eric

 

[alexpops]

1. Are you "pushing" or "pulling" your weld puddle? I find that pulling (leaving the bead behind the area you are welding) works better for flux core/stick & Push or pull works on MIG. Your porosity could be slag being trapped in the weld instead of floating to the top OR lack of shielding since your weld is cooling with no flux gas pouring over it if you are trying to push the weld. (Drag the weld) 2. Try slowing down & letting the heat do the work. When I first started with wire feed, I was so concerned with wire sticking & burn through that I moved WAY too fast. Slow it down so you melt the base metal & then move on when it fills with wire. 3. PRACTICE then practice more. Cut lots of coupons from your dump yard steel, clean them up along the weld edges & try welding them together in the patterns you'll need (butt weld, tee joint, lap joint, etc.) Flux IS forgiving for contamination (rust paint oil), but clean steel welds infinitely better & lets you gauge your progress without extraneous problems. 4. I never tried the Titanium welders from HF, but their old Chicago Electric ones were pure crap. See if you can run a bead on a friend's Lincoln/Hobart/Miller & if the results are any better. Could be bad internals on the HF equipment. 5. Like others have said, turn the heat to max & see how that works. If you're burning through cool it down a tad & try again. The HF stuff i tried (CE) was WAY under powered even for it's stated power. 6. Don't know the types of projects you bought this for, but until you can get clean strong welds on the coupons don't try doing anything structural on the tractor that might hurt you or someone else if the weld comes apart under load. Get good at 1/8" then 3/16" before moving to 1/4" or thicker & multipass. If this is for sheet metal type welding, you probably want to drop down to .023 solid wire & gas (with appropriate liners/tips/etc.) as the flux core is ok (if sloppy) for structural stuff, but almost guaranteed to burn through thin sheet metal. Fitzee fab actually did a youtube on it & he couldn't do a decent job with flux core on 18 gauge.

 

[mwemaxxowner]

The CE flux core machine was AC. The Titanium is an inverter DC type welder, and is supposedly a much better machine. Also costs about twice as much but it should be worth it.

I have bought the same one based on reviews in various places, but haven't used it yet.

 

[Pixguy]

Here's my latest "welding" two edges of angle iron and the settings. Still lousy.

i guess I need lots of practice