Newbie looking for critique

[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

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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