good penetration and z weave ???

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dont mind the rough cut i cut it with a hack sawvertical welds. just woundering what z weave you guys think is better Attached ImagesLast edited by BlackGT97; 07-13-2011 at 01:20 PM.
Reply:Is this two passes or three? and it looks like a slight hesitation in the middle otherwise ok.are you pratcicing your technique?wbolden
Reply:the first pass was an inverted u technique with a z weave for the second pass. i practise when im in school but its summer now and i dont have a welder. was gonna buy one but dads worried about the electric bill and i dont blame him lol.any advice would help thanks.wfs at about 175 and volts 17.6 (around there  i did it alittle while ago)
Reply:get an inverter welder they are very efficient on electric usage..  less than half the current of a similar transformer machineTiger Sales:  AHP Distributor    www.tigersalesco.comAHP200x; AHP 160ST; MM350P,  Spoolmatic 30A; Everlast PowerTig 185; Thermal Dynamics 60i plasma.  For Sale:  Cobra Mig 250 w/ Push-pull gun.  Lincoln Wirematic 250
Reply:What kind of machine are you looking for JP mig, stick or tig and what kind of budget do you have? maybe someone here can help. And where are you located?wbolden
Reply:Last pict the bead looks consistant and the toes look tied in well with out much undercut that I can see. The vertical rise on each motion is a bit large for my taste. I do mine tighter personally. The one with all the seperate weaves is tough to get a good scale on. Again the weave isn't as tight as I'd do it, and some look a bit on the wide side. The one to the far right of the 4 looks the best to me.Welding doesn't use as much electric as many think. Lets use my mig as a rough example. It draws 26 amps at full power on 230v. That means it draws about 5980 watts per hour ( amps x volts = watts) So lets call it 6kw/ hour. Your dad should be able to tell you how much you pay a kilowatt hour from your electric bill. I don't have mine handy but I guarantee it's less than $1 / kilowatt hr. ( my guess is it's actually less than 1/2 if not 1/3rd that in reality) That means my machine would cost me $6/ hr to run it full tilt. How many hours do you plan to practice? Multiply that times the number you got above. Remember that's running full tilt with no stops. The machine uses less power at idle. It wouldn't surprise me if  idling it uses less than 15% of the power running full tilt.Compare this to an electric space heater you plug in. They usually draw 1500 watts, or 1.5 kw / hr. They do run full tilt all the time. Running the space heater for 4 hrs would eat up as much electric as welding nonstop for 1 hr on max. A good sized window AC would draw roughly the same power as the heater.This example would be for about a 200 amp class mig running on 230v power. You'd need to look at the machine you wanted to get an idea how much juice it needs. My tig would draw about 2x as much, and my 110v mig about 1/2.Last edited by DSW; 07-13-2011 at 03:06 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:Not to nitpick but what's up with the void/hollow spot at the root of the weld in the first pic?
Reply:there's actually one in both picts, it's just hard to see it in pict #2. My guess is the plates didn't fit well and he didn't get a tight fit up. Not all that unusual with the steel the tech school shears near me..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:Power usually runs around $0.9-0.25/Kwh so they really arent that bad to run unless your doing production work. I read a report at one time from a fab shop that went from all older transformer machines to inverter machines and the machines had paid for themselves inside of 2 years just in power savings.For reference My older Lincoln 175 squarewave tig (transformer) would draw up 80amps from the wall (might be different im going off of memory) and my new Dynasty200 maxes out at around 30-35 amps.
Reply:i was looking at getting a lincoln stick welder (there all over craigslist for 125) because they can weld thick stuff and thinner stuff (not like sheet metal but i just ran 1/16 7018 on a 1/16 muffler)i kinda figured they didnt use a lot of electricity and like you said your not running it for hours at a timethe void is kinda why i posted it. i was woundering if there was good penetration even thought that void is there
Reply:A lincoln stick machine wants 50 amps to run at full power on 230v, but many guys easily manage to run most electrodes ona 30 amp dryer line and not trip the breaker. If you run smaller rods, you use less power.If the "hole" wasn't a fit up issue, then you probably needed to run a better root. Understand that 100% penetration doesn't usually happen with a T joint unless you bevel the material or it's fairly thin. If you want to really see what sort of penetration you had, you need to polish that face and then etch the face. Edit: I see you saw the thread I linked earlier on the etching....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:I've watched my electric bill closely for years and my welding doesn't make a measurable difference unless it's a large project and then I'm running the air compressor and other tools too. A (get DC capable) Thunderbolt/Stickmate (preferable for the adjustability) or an AC-225/DC-125 Lincoln is a good first machine you can keep a lifetime. Considering how profitable welding can be, I encourage your father to let you run one. Feel free to show him this post! Welding is one of the few jobs where you can make serious money with a modest education. Our students often went from "broke on the block" to more than 70K a year after a few years experience. They came back to thank us or just to visit, with pay stubs to prove it. (Then State funding dried up and we closed. Figures they'd shut a program that turned people from collecting unemployment to paying taxes!  )Welding is a perishable skill. Weld as much as you can.Last edited by farmall; 07-13-2011 at 03:43 PM.