Welding advice, please

[JimRB]

On my Hobart Handler 140 I have to change polarity if I try to use flux core wire. Solid wire with shielding gas makes for prettier welds on clean material. Wire feed can stutter if I have extreme twists in cable/liner assembly. Clean material with a nice grinder makes a big difference. I do some pretty ugly wekds sometimes but other times they look good. May not pass an xray but usually they hold for the intended purpose. My machine I thought was rated at 3/16" but the current web site shows 1/4".

 

[Transit]

i've had an older century 120v wire feed welder and my experience is that when you get into the upper 1/2 of its capability range you're going to have to run up close to the high end in the heat setting. i'd try setting f or higher, and then tune your wire speed until it isn't "popping" (too slow) or trying to push the gun away from the metal (too fast). i'm sure your welder is more advanced that mine, seeing that it's 15 years newer and about 25a higher in the rating, but i found that trying to handle 1/4" and thicker i had to run at the max heat setting.

another thing to try is leaving a gap. what i will often do is use a couple left over stubs from stick welding to position the pieces with an 1/8" gap between them. it will give you a chance to learn a good technique for weaving the bead to fill the gap. it also will allow you more penetration for the same heat setting.

You may also use scrap 0.030, 0.035 wire to set the gap and tack weld every 3 to 4 inches to keep the heat from changing the gap. all in the videos.

 

[Perplexed]

An update after a weekend of practice. I spent most of the day Friday welding a vertical piece of steel to a horizontal piece (much like I was doing before), trying different amperage and WF settings. Finally I hit on a combination of settings where the edges on both pieces were subsumed in a satisfactory manner into the weld along with the flux core wire. The results aren't pretty - I still get a lot of spatter - but the welds are strong enough that hitting the vertical piece with a 4-lb sledgehammer doesn't do anything.

By the time I finished, my back and legs were so sore from welding on the concrete floor, I had trouble getting up and walking around So I decided to try my hand at welding up a work table the next day.

Saturday morning, bright and early, I went back to the shop and started. First, I flipped the 28" x 40" x 3/16" sheet of steel upside down, and welded a section of 3/16" angle iron along the front and back edges, 2" in from each edge. I used a newly-purchased angle grinder to clean the surfaces being welded, and that really helped compared to wire brushing. After hitting the two pieces of angle iron with the sledgehammer and getting nowhere, I started with the legs, which were made out of 2" square steel tubing, also 3/16" thick. I used long pipe clamps to clamp each leg to the table top, and welded them to the top and to the ends of the angle iron. Then I cut pieces of 1" square steel tube, also 3/16" thick, and clamped them in between each pair of legs (front-back and side-side) and welded them in place, 1' off the ground.

I did most of the work Saturday morning, but I quit around noon with the temps rising over 80 outside. Wearing a t-shirt, a long-sleeved shirt, a leather apron, a helmet, and thick leather gloves... not very pleasant when it gets warm out, even with a 42" shop fan blowing fresh air through the open door. Kudos to you professionals who weld outside for a living at the height of the summer! :thumbsup:

Sunday I went back to work, and finished up all the welding. Then I righted the table...... hey, not too shabby, if I may say so I'll probably find some sheet steel to weld to the bottom of the cross-braces to create a lower shelf with a raised lip (the braces) to keep stuff from rolling off the shelf.

If anyone is interested, I'll post pics. Really, just a basic table - no fancy scroll work or flying buttresses or any such

To all of you who offered helpful advice without sneering about "cheap Chinese" equipment, many thanks!

 

[dcyrilc]

I'm interested in those pix.:thumbsup:

 

[Perplexed]

Can't say I didn't warn you

 

[vwnotrunning]

You might consider welding and angle to one side that will provide a place to put a pipe in that will not roll off. It is also nice to put a chain vice on one end of the angle to hold round or irregular shapes in place.

 

[EE_Bota]

Can't say I didn't warn you

I think that is a good looking table. I would like to have it in my shop.
Good Job!

 

[Perplexed]

Thanks for the compliments and the tips! It's a work in progress - I like the idea of a "stop" to keep round stock from rolling off the table, and I also plan to weld a bolt to the underside of the lip at both ends of the table. Then I can use either bolt for the ground clamp.

I admit, I had to google "chain vise" but that looks like it'd be handy for clamping down round stock. Thanks for mentioning yet another gadget to buy

 

[dcyrilc]

Can't say I didn't warn you

There sure isn't anything to be ashamed of with that table. Great job! If you have any doubts as to how well it turned out, then just ship it my way and I'll keep it out of sight for you.

 

[Perplexed]

Thanks, but if you saw the table up close, you'd see why I consider it a "decent" first attempt. Two of the legs aren't exactly square to the top, so if you look closely, you can see the legs aren't all parallel :ashamed: I tried hammering the worst back into line, but the welds weren't giving up anything! How do you folks position - and hold - a table leg so it's perpendicular to the top in both axes, before welding it in place?

Here's a shot of the best welds on this table. Trust me, the other welds aren't as neat-looking I did notice a lot of splatter up to 2-3" away from each weld, plus a lot of tan-colored "soot" (for lack of a better word). The splatter can only be scraped or ground off, but the "soot" comes off with a paper towel. From what I've read, a certain amount of splatter is to be expected with flux core welding, but is there a way to minimize the splatter? I tried different wire feed speeds, holding the gun at different angles and distances from the work, fast/slow welding, etc. But nothing seemed to help reduce the splatter. Also, what's with the "soot" ? Is that normal?