Hello Everybody,
I'm new on the forum, as I just started the building of my Haynes roadster (Chris Gibbs book). I'm a French guy, just turned 40, and I'm living in Sweden, building a British car, quite international, no ?
I've been working in the motor sports industry for 15 years, and I've been dealing with company (importing parts to France for big distributors) as well know as OMP, Sparco, and a lot of English companies as Think Automotive or Rally Design, as I was a purchaser. The main field of activity was hydraulic systems (brake, fuel, oil, water, air), so if I can be of any help to someone, I'll be happy to.
In the past, I've been renovating a Renault Rodeo from 1984 (if any one knows this car, made by the body maker Teilhol in the 80's it is on a Renault 4 basis), and my old motorbike Honda CB125 from 1984, so I'm not a total newbee. But...
Even though my mechanical skills are not too bad, I have to confess I am an almost absolute beginner when it comes to welding. I've been reading, documenting myself, and even watching video welding courses on you Tube, and I trained myself with the first stage of a Haynes chassis (scale 1/2 to save tube lengths !). I think such a training has been profitable, but now, I'm starting the real one, I have a new MIG, and I would like some expert opinions about the welds I'm doing, to be sure everything is OK before going further. I'm a bit isolated here, as I don't speak Swedish, and don't know a lot of of people who can advise me or teach me over here. And I'm sure that among you guys, there a lot of good and experienced welders, experts or teachers, so if you can a look at the attached pictures, and let me know what you think, it would be great.
You can watch some pictures of my latest welds at :
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/photos.php?action=gal&user=voucht&folder=Welding
Thank you very much for your help.

Welcome aboard
The welds look neat and clean, but in my amature opinion although there seems to be penetration, they look a bit raised

I'm sure teher are more experts that will comment
Good luck

Not bad you look to be producing nice consistent beads, you need to turn the current up or the wire speed down slightly so that you have more penetration and less bead on top.

Davie

I would say you need a bit more power and slightly slow down the wire speed, if you blow holes in the work then you're close to where you need to be, think your welds are sitting on the surface too much and as a result the penetration doesn't appear good.

Cheers

Rich

As all above, turn up the power, or play with the wire speed until your getting much more penetration.

[Edited on 25/5/11 by loggyboy]

Yep, obviously got good steady control just need to turn the power up a bit, wire feed down a bit. Don't be scared of it

agreed - neat welds just needing a bit more heat into them.



well done

Hello Guys,
Thank you so much to all of you for your replies, your mind, and your advises.
Let me explain the settings of my MIG
For the power, it has 2 switches : 1 is 1 and 2, the second is 3 and 4. It makes 4 combination to adjust the power, from 1-3 to 2-4.
Then there is the wire speed adjustment which is a button with a scale from 1 to 10. Yesterday's pictures had been made with the following settings :
- 1st switch on 2
- 2nd switch on 3
- wire speed on 7.5
Today, according to your advises, I turned up the power. But if I do so, I can't slow down the wire speed : if I do so, the wire is melting to quickly and it is "banging" (I can't find a proper word in English, sorry), and I have to increase the wire speed if I want it to be nicely sounding "frying bacon".
You can watch the new pictures I've done of my today's tries :
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/photos.php?action=gal&user=voucht&folder=Welding02
The setting is almost at the maximum, and I don't understand why it has to be so high. I don't have the most powerful MIG in the world, but it is 145 watts (I own an Easycraft 145, and use separated Ar/CO2 shield gaz (not fluxwire) and 0,6mm wire).
On the two first pictures (01 and 02), I welded to 2mm thick tubes together. 1st picture is how the welding appears from the inside, second picture is the welding cut through. The welding is still not going completely through, but I think the penetration is better.
With these settings :
- 1st switch on 2
- 2nd switch on 4
- wire speed on 8.7
... it sounds very nice. If I go higher, the heat is very high, and the whole face of the tube becomes red completely red.
The 3 last pictures show 2 beads done with slightly different settings, on the flat side of a 2mm tube (no cut). The picture 03 shows the 2 beads seen from the inside : the one on the left ended in blowing a hole on the edge. Picture 04 and 05 show the cut of these same two beads.
Am I wrong if I say that the settings for the one on the right is OK, and the setting for the one on the left is a bit too high ?
Another detail : I began my practice with a 0,8mm wire. As my beads were to "high", I thought is was because I has to much material added, so I changed to 0,6mm. Is it right ? Do I have to come back to 0,8mm ?
All your comments are very welcome.
Thank you.
Cheers.
S.

Are you "pushing" or "pulling" the torch? I find "pushing" much easier, you can see better and the heat input is greater.

To explain, if you are holding the torch in your right hand in front of you, pointing down and angled like the hour hand at 1.30, do you weld to the left or right?. Going left is "pushing", going right is pulling.

Cheers

Fred W B

[Edited on 26/5/11 by Fred W B]

mine is a different machine, so wire speeds and power won't mean much to your machine.

however, if the whole face of the metal is glowing red, that is a good thing, you're getting the heat into the metal, and giving a better chance for the wire to mix with the metal. as long as you don't blow through, then thats fine

when you turn the power up, automatically the wire speed increases on most machines. this is a good thing! my machine works well with the wire speed set to about 6, on all power settings.

if you have a dial for wire speed, try turning the wire speed down just a little and it should be ok. you need tiny adjustments until you get the frying bacon sound.

regarding the wire thickness. i tried 0.6mm and didn't get on with it at all. i like 0.8mm. 0.6mm never made a nice weld for me

i'm no expert welder (yet) but this is just my experiences. i'd got for 0.8mm wire, wire speed between 7 and 8, and maximum power for now

To Fred : I pull (I'm going right in the position you explain) as I've been told that the gas is more efficient (it stays longer on the weld). I'll try with pushing, and see what it gives. Thanks for the tip.
To BlakeP82 : thank you for the infos, I don't have to worry of the tube becomes all red. I'll try to slow down the wire speed a bit, and as you do, with maximum power (happy I don't have to worry about that), and may be will try all your tips with the 0.8 wire... and pushing.
Thanks again.
S.

In normal welding pushing is almost always the way to go. That way allmost all the heat goes right into your workpiece, instead of into the bead you just laid ontop of it. Thus giving better penetration. The gas is there to protect the liquid pool right under the torch. As soon as the pool solidifies it no longer needs the protecting gas. If set up right the gas will do it's job fine while pushing.

Another thing is preperation of the workpiece. For easy, reliable welding you want a 90 degree corner to weld into. Wich you won't have if you weld strips or tube head to head. It will help to make a slight V grove and/or a slight gap (1 or a few mm depending on wall thickness). It makes it easier to get a good weld with less heat and wire. Thus having getting a much cleaner weld, where the bead is just slightly raised.

I'm not an expert welder, but do some welding on almost all days at work. Although mosttimes on much bigger pieces then a locost. Building subframes to install hydraulic loader cranes onto lorries.

Hi Guys,
Sorry for the late reply, a lot of work to do... to get money to go on with the car !
Thank you to JF for your advises on pushing. I tried, and yes, right, the welds are lower and look to be more penetrating. It think I'll adopt the technique when ever I will be able to.
I have found the right setting on my "svets" ("welder" in Swedish, I like it, very short !), especially thanks to blakep82 advices. Thanks mate ! And when I try on scrap pieces of tubes, my welds improved a lot.
I though sometimes still have a problem when I'm tacking on the chassis, it depends, it can be good and it can be splattering with the same settings, same conditions, and so on. I think it is because it takes time for the metal to heat up. But the last ones I've done look pretty OK. I'll post some picture later to have your opinion.
I might need more advices when I will start the full welding of the chassis, but it is not for tomorrow.
So this post was more to thank you all than to give new infos ! But thanks to your advices, things are much better for my welding. This forum is great, and I'm happy on my side to be able to give advices and help when it comes to hydraulic systems, which s more my playground than welding ! It is definitely a win-win situation !
Bye.
S.

Glad we could help. To tack you can crank up the power.

Cheers

Fred W B