Newbie to mig. Need your opinion.

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Hi all,I have been reading a lot about mig here on the forum and watching some of your beautiful welds with admiration. Just started mig welding as a hobbyist. Here are some sample welds I made with mine. Machine is a Eastwood 175 (220V) machine and, while I do not have experience to compare it to any other, I love it. I tried to etch my welding cross sections with HCl (muriatic acid) but probably the results are not as good with Nitric acid which I couldn't buy. This is a multi-pass T joint. Please let me know your thoughts about penetration of the weld.Other pics are that of my weld cart and some welds on it.I would eventually (well! a long time into future and lot more practice) like to weld some structural parts in a car chassis. So any honest, straightforward criticism is really appreciated which could possibly save my life as well as others' one day Attached Images
Reply:How long have you been welding? And what do you plan to weld on a car chasis sturctually and why? are you a car builder or something? your welds are basically beginners but not bad for that, the cart I would get a lot mor practice before weldig on a car but you are on the right track just practice,practice and more practice.Good luckwbolden
Reply:Thanks wbonden,I have been welding for about 2-3 weeks occationally and no, I am not a car builder. I am planning on shortening a vw chassis for a fiberglass buggy probably in about a year's time. Yes. Planning on practicing a LOT before I do anything serious.
Reply:HiThe thing I see is on the “T” where the two parts intersect you should bevel the base so the weld will penetrate more.  It looks like neither of the side welds melts into the metal at the base.  Also you could use a little more heat as the weld looks piled up.  Like everything it gets better with age keep on trucking. Attached Images
Reply:3rd pic down-did you gap the metal or just weld on top of the tubing?
Reply:Originally Posted by jpmiller3rd pic down-did you gap the metal or just weld on top of the tubing?
Reply:Originally Posted by acourtjesterHiThe thing I see is on the “T” where the two parts intersect you should bevel the base so the weld will penetrate more.  It looks like neither of the side welds melts into the metal at the base.  Also you could use a little more heat as the weld looks piled up.  Like everything it gets better with age keep on trucking.
Reply:Those fillet welds are oversized roughly 3x larger than they they need to be on material of that thickness.Also, get in the habit of wrapping the corners with your bead, rather than stopping at the edge, such as in your box tubing connection.
Reply:Keep at it, you'll do fine.  With no more time than you have invested you're doing pretty good.
Reply:When you post up questions like this it helps if we know all the info. machine used (110v or 220v if it's not a common machine). settings used on the machine, (heat and wire speed) Gas used material thickness and so on.I agree the beads are too large for the material, but I'll give it a pass as I'll assume you did that to save material. ( we have the guys at the tech school do the same thing just to get a feel for this before they move to the heavy 3/8" plate) Keep in mind that for a filet weld like you are doing, anything more than about the thickness of the material is waste, and may actually weaken the joint, not strengthen it due to the amount of heat put into the material.The penetration looks light to me. Knowing the settings you used would help get an idea how hot you were running. I'd guess you needed to turn up the heat and wire speed some..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Originally Posted by DSWWhen you post up questions like this it helps if we know all the info. machine used (110v or 220v if it's not a common machine). settings used on the machine, (heat and wire speed) Gas used material thickness and so on.I agree the beads are too large for the material, but I'll give it a pass as I'll assume you did that to save material. ( we have the guys at the tech school do the same thing just to get a feel for this before they move to the heavy 3/8" plate) Keep in mind that for a filet weld like you are doing, anything more than about the thickness of the material is waste, and may actually weaken the joint, not strengthen it due to the amount of heat put into the material.The penetration looks light to me. Knowing the settings you used would help get an idea how hot you were running. I'd guess you needed to turn up the heat and wire speed some.
Reply:It looks like you have good potential :]
Reply:Originally Posted by DSWWhen you post up questions like this it helps if we know all the info. machine used (110v or 220v if it's not a common machine). settings used on the machine, (heat and wire speed) Gas used material thickness and so on.I agree the beads are too large for the material, but I'll give it a pass as I'll assume you did that to save material. ( we have the guys at the tech school do the same thing just to get a feel for this before they move to the heavy 3/8" plate) Keep in mind that for a filet weld like you are doing, anything more than about the thickness of the material is waste, and may actually weaken the joint, not strengthen it due to the amount of heat put into the material.The penetration looks light to me. Knowing the settings you used would help get an idea how hot you were running. I'd guess you needed to turn up the heat and wire speed some.
Reply:Originally Posted by justinTIt looks like you have good potential :]
Reply:Originally Posted by karuProblem with wire speed and voltage is, in my machine, it is not indicated as such. I am using E for voltage in a scale from a to j and 8 for wire speed with max 10. Both are continuously variable.
Reply:Have some more sample welding. Need your opinion.All the welds are done with Eastwood 175 (220 V) with .023 wire, C25 gas, on 1/8" thick Mild steel.Also if you have pics of any etched cross sections of welds, please post them. That would be really helpful.I see some really beautiful welds done by some of you guys. Love to weld like that one of these days but first I want to get it structurally right and then think about the looks. Attached Images
Reply:Could just be the angle of the pic? But it looks like your T-joint has unequal legs, there's more weld on the upright piece than the bottom plate, you want equal legs. The bottom plate will take more heat than the upright as well, since the edge will heat up more easily than the middle of a plate. Looks like you have the right idea on the lap jointGive me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire.
Reply:The beads look a little large, but not bad.  Remember a fillet bead thats bigger than the thickness of the steel is wasted and can be detrimental. It's a bit tough to run an 1/8" fillet with mig when starting out, but a 3/16" one is very doable especially with .023 wire. You need to work a bit on your consistancy of movement. It shows up very clearly in the T joint pict.  Concentrate on trying to do exactly the same thing over and over and watch the puddle not the arc. At some point you will begin to see whats actually hapening and at that point it becomes much easier since you react to what the metal is doing vs just doing a timing pattern. You don't list the machine settings, so I'll guess they are close to what the suggested settings are on the lid of the machine.I'm guessing you are doing a cursive "e" pattern. You need to make the motions smaller and move a bit faster to decrease the bead size. One other option would be to go to a "C" pattern so you aren't in the puddle as long or run straight stringers with little or no motion, but thats usually harder for new guys to do and get both toes tied in well. Lap joints I barely use any motion at all. Just a tiny bit of swing maybe a 1/16"-1/32"  ( more of a wiggle than anything else) to pull the puddle over to the  upper plate until I see the edge melt and then shift back to the lower plate. Your bead is very wide on this one compared to what it should be. I'm guessing it's because you are using the "e" movement.As far as etching beads Rick did some go picts and info on that in this thread.http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=44005&page=2Look down at post 38 and forward for how he did it. There have also been several posts on how to do bends to test your welds when you get a bit farther along.Last edited by DSW; 08-05-2011 at 08:36 PM..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Thanks guys. Appreciate the input. Back to welding. Only problem: Darn steel is so expensive!!!!!!
Reply:Use a little bit of thought as to how you use the steel and you can make the most of what you buy.With the lap joints just keep adding more plates to the "stack" rather than just doing one pair at a time. If doing outside corners keep altenating so you end up with something like a long Z, up, down, up, down... T's can be cut apart with a torch, saw or grinder, ground even and reused. Also remember that laps can be used to do T's or outside corners and so on  if you keep the edges even.Also don't just toss the pieces when you are done and they can't be used any more. save them up in a can and sell them to the scrap guy. You might find he has some scrap you can pick up as well since you are already there. Remember places like Depot/Lowes are the worst places to get steel for practice. You will pay a lot less if you go to a steel supplier and get full lengths and cut them up.Also if you haven't looked into a class you might want to do so. The school I help out at, offers unlimited amounts of 1/8" for use in class. It's very easy to get a lot more than what you paid in tuition in just materials if you are dedicated and apply yourself. Not all schools are like that, but many times the amount you pay is easily equal to the materials you get to use.Last edited by DSW; 08-05-2011 at 10:23 PM..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan