After my enforced christmas break I'm welding up my chassis again and I appear to have forgotten how to weld.

Some of my welds are lovely and some spit like b*ggery... I suspect I'm being a bit lax when it comes to cleaning the metal. I've ground back the duff welds so I can do them again and called it a day for today.

The question is, given you have a joint that you've tack welded together some weeks ago how do you go about making sure that it's clean enough to weld. Do you simply apathetically wave a wire brush over it, whizz a drill powered wire brush over it or do all of the above and wipe it with some magical cleaner fluid that I'm unaware I'm supposed to be using.

Also, anti-splatter spray... great boon or waste of time?

Cheers,

Mark

i rarely ever clean it before welding - didnt know you were meant to! i use argoshield gas, always on full flow, and it seems to work well normally. I only use my two favourite settings on the welder, cos im not very adventurous! I find that mess and splatter is sometimes caused by excessive wire speed, or insuficient amps (the two are sort of linked in my opinion). Have a fiddle, and check the gas is coming out well...

in the past ive been stitched up when ive knocked the settings and not noticed.

[Edited on 16/1/05 by JoelP]

Just as a quick side topic to this, what amps do you guys use??, I am lookingg at buying a mig and dont know if I should bother going up to a 130 or 150 or just get a 100.

Mark,

Also make sure you haven't got any magnetic welding clamps near your weld - these seem to affect the gas shield and make it splatter all over the place.
Unfortunately when I first encountered this I'd thrown the business end across the garage in a fit of pique before I discovered the cause. It's still held together with wire to this day.

Hi,
I got one of these off ebay. Service was great and it does the job perfectly.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=64818&item=3865598348&rd=1

Hope this helps
Matt

check amps and wire feed. too low on the amps makes for lumpy welds too high on wire feed also makes for lumpy welds. dont know what welder your using but if your at home set it mid way on the amps and adjust the wire feed. if you blow through knock it down a notch and adjust wire feed to suit. as for antispatter spray you dont need it.use tip dip to keep your shroud nice and clean.

good welder have in the past recommended that you get the maximum amps you can afford.

Yay, figured it out.

It occured to me (during tea) that if I was welding with the piece below the torch I'd get a good weld but if I was welding with the piece vertically (iyswim) it looked rubbish and this also happened when I was welding into a corner. It further occured to me that maybe I was getting the torch angle wrong and that on the flat I was holding the torch at the correct 70 degrees (according the book I have) but that I was holding the torch at 90 degree when welding vertically or into a corner. So I went back out and tried again but remembered to hold the torch at the correct angle and bob's your uncle, clean proper welds again.

Phew

Thanks for the tips though.

Regards,

Mark

quote:

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Originally posted by Lotusmark2
Just as a quick side topic to this, what amps do you guys use??, I am lookingg at buying a mig and dont know if I should bother going up to a 130 or 150 or just get a 100.

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