Farmer Welding 101

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looking for some guidence on upcomming welding projectsI have a small hobby ranch with need to weld old equipment for repair/improvement and several metal outbuildings to erect soon.  I took a few classes in the 80s and have have had small wire-feed welders ever since.  i fixed a small backhoe arm 1/4" thick that held real good and a few small things under 1/4" over the years.  fixed the front loader on my tractor but it keeps breaking (more on that in the future)with more coming up i got a new Lincoln 180 amp wire-feed with ability to do up to .045 inner-shield wire that seems to weld 1/2" steel in two passes (haven't tested the results yet but looks real good and sounded about right while doing it).  i also have .035 solid wire with gas shield available.I acquired in a trade, a 230 amp AC century buzz box with DC Lincoln add-on and another Lincoln add-on for TIG.  I have not welded stick since my classes in the 80s and made some attempts yesterday welding new 3/8 plate to old 3/16 loader bucket, ugly but looks like it will hold and survived hitting with a sledge hammer.several immediate questions:1) It seems the single pass wire-feed settings for 3/16" were good enough to weld the 3/8" plate to the 3/16" plate, sound ok?  if not please advise how to calculate.2) the wire-feed setting chart for 1/4" to 1/2" calls for .045" inner-shield NR-212 wire and two passes.  the stick setting chart calls for 1/4” STEEL AND UP Fleetweld 180 (6011) 1/8” - 5/32” ELECTRODE DIAMETER, and i believe single pass.  which is the better choice given my equipment (stick or wire-feed) and are there any alternatives i could consider given my equipment?3) in the course of assembling a run-of-the-mill 22'x32' metal building might you expect something i couldn't handle welding with the equipment mentioned above?  for example, I might have to weld i-beams, not spliced or anything like that, it should be 1/2" or less welded to it if any incline involved and if i-beam to i-beam it should be at right angles with no shear load i would think.this is a good startLast edited by jliegel; 01-04-2011 at 06:22 PM.
Reply:Hi. A 220V wire welder is a lot better for your purpose than a 110V one. As you likely know, it is possible to get a beautiful looking MIG weld that has nearly zero penetration. A buddy found that out the hard way when he built a nice spare tire bracket for his Jeep and drove off proudly only to watch horrified as his spare tire bounded away after his MIG welds broke. It's not a lot easier with fluxcore. Stick welding is really easy once you get the knack of striking an arc. I did it for years only in the horizontal position using 7014 rod, which is also called "farmer's rod". Eventually I learned how to weld with 6010 and 7018 and now those are all I use on steel except in special circumstances. For joining 3/16" plate to 3/8" you will be turning your wirefeed welder basically nearly all the way up. The settings aren't really relevant. They are dependent on what kind of weld joint you're doing anyway. For example, fillet welds require more current than butt welds; vertical up welds require less current, etc. You can certainly use 6011 (a lot like 6010 but usable with AC as well) which is excellent for rusty or painted steels with questionable fitups, but you kind of need to know what you're doing. If I were you I'd do a pass with 6010 DC electrode positive, clean the bead with a power wire brush, followed by 7018, and I'd use either 3/32" or 1/8" electrodes. One thing about stick welds - if the weld metal doesn't fall out of the puddle it freezes strong.good luck
Reply:never heard 7014 called farmers rod. usually that is reserved for 6010 / 6011....
Reply:Can you advise on how you do your joint preparation, as that I believe usaully the problem with breaks, so often I see here posts with no preparation to the weld in any manner and members not understanding why the weld fails, no penetration, even before getting to what rod is needed, here are a few links;also I belive their is a post on this site about welding i-beams and staggering the joints so if a crane is ever used the joints are not in the same place, also right type of joint.http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...+steel+weldinghttp://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...+steel+weldinghttp://www.bgstructuralengineering.c...M005/index.htmhttp://weldingdesign.com/blodgett/wdf_78335/http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...+steel+welding
Reply:great start.  my first ac attempt was with 1/8" 7014, got a pile of rods with the trade.  prepped with a 9" grinder cause they were flat.  i do weld a lot of rusty parts, i was wondering about using a brush, will try that next.  more soon, thanks again.
Reply:Real good idea: make sure you have a really excellent ground when welding on rusty painted old steel. If you're only going to grind one spot, let it be where your ground clamp connects. I like the C-clamp kind of ground clamp. Never saw one for sale but have a few used ones. They work just great.
Reply:Hey!Most of my business is centered on the "farmer"welding. A good stick welder and 6011s or 10s is the way to go. Any hint of paint or rust makes a wire feed helpless. I was called to a farm service call the other day and the guy was trying to use a wire feed to burn through paint and the weld looked like bubble gum stuck on there. The suggestions to prep the weld with grinder the best advice. I hate grinding dust all over me but its a must.I even grind the varnish off new steel before welding. Much better results all the way around.
Reply:7014 is a rod that is very forgiving. It goes on easy, deposits a lot of metal and is fast.  A drawback is the low degree of penetration.  You just drag it along where you want the bead. Your welds will look better with 7014 than with 6013 oor 6011.I crudely refer to 7014 as "welding rod for people who do not know how to weld".  I have 7014 in my supply and often use it.
Reply:welding stuff of different thicknesses..you should use a setting that will give you good penetration into the thicker metal..start the weld on the thick metal and let the puddle flow onto the thin stuff.sometimes you dont want to make the weld in one pass. on 1/4 inch  steel theoretically youd need 250 amps, most folks dont have that..or want it.. the metal will get warpy real quick. you can weld some real thick steel by multipassing it with 1/8  7018 at 120 amps...