another help me weld thread

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I bought a hobart Ironman 230 yesterday and started using it today. These are my very first MIG welds with it. Starting from left to right, (I did the left side first) All of these done on 1/4" mild steel, with .035 solid hobart wire, and 75/25 mixture, and regulator set at 20cfh when I let off the trigger. The first weld was done with the voltage on 6 and the wire speed at 44, and using an e technique. The next 4 are at voltage 6 and 45. With the first one of these four with an e pattern and the last three with a weave from side to side. The last ones all the way to the right are just random settings. So basicly what direction do I need to go, and what should I do to better these? Also I have no idea where the gas pressure is when I push the trigger.. where should it be? Thanks for any and all info. Attached ImagesLast edited by Ezalycasaid; 07-23-2012 at 10:30 PM.
Reply:Not bad for first welds.  Being consistent on pattern and speed is key.  Also make sure metal is clean when mig welding.  You'll know your machine is tuned in when it sounds like cooking grease popping consistently in a fryer.Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
Reply:Originally Posted by StainlessNot bad for first welds.  Being consistent on pattern and speed is key.  Also make sure metal is clean when mig welding.
Reply:Originally Posted by StainlessNot bad for first welds.  Being consistent on pattern and speed is key.  Also make sure metal is clean when mig welding.  You'll know your machine is tuned in when it sounds like cooking grease popping consistently in a fryer.Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
Reply:Got some more welds done today. I took the pictures after all of them were done so I dont know wich ones made what splatter. These were done with heat on 6 and wire speed at 45. Same 1/4" mild steel, and .035 wire. I did away with the weaves and e pattern like DSW suggested and just a straight push and pull. The vertical ones are pushing and pulling away and towards my body. The horrizontal are me pushing and pulling from left to right, or right to left. Im not sure how much I like these. Attached Images
Reply:Also burned these in. This time heat setting on 7 and wire speed on 50. Same steel and wire diameter. The vertical pushing and pulling towards and away from my body and the two horrizontal ones left to right and right to left. I find that the pushing from right to left seems to be my cleaner beads. Attached Images
Reply:Have you tried tying any plate together yet?Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
Reply:I Welded a box/bracket. All made of 3/16" mild. Had the welder on heat 5 and wire speed 40. I only welded on one side of each piece of the bracket. I didnt do any beveling. I grabbed an 8lb sledge and started beating the hell out of it. The metal and the weld bent. No cracks were found in the weld... By me anyway. It looks to be pretty strong. Attached ImagesLast edited by Ezalycasaid; 07-24-2012 at 05:47 PM.
Reply:That picture is a little deceiving.. from my phone anyways.  Looks bigger than 3/16". Either way, the welds will get better with time and practice. Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
Reply:Got a good 90degree weld. Did something a little different this time though. Cranked my regulator up to 25 while not hitting the trigger and runs about 21.5 while pulling the trigger. Welded a piece of 1/4" to 1/4" only on the inside of the 90, with .035 wire, 6heat and 44 wire speed. The extra gas pressure seems to have helped with weld visual prettiness. Got it welded up and beat the hell out of it with the 8pound sledge. The last pic is what the weld looked like after bending the bracket. I think its doing pretty good. Attached Images
Reply:Not bad for first welds. I would suggest cleaning off theMill scale on your material, and also the weld looks a big cold, try a little less wire speed.The biggest thing to making a mug weld look nice is consistency. Have funMiller bobcat 225g  - spoolmatic 1Mm250 - 30a spoolMiller spectrum 375Thermal arc 95 Everlast Ex 250As the boiler turns, these are the days of our lives
Reply:Note sure I'd call that last weld "good"...I'm not even sure I'd give it a "fair" rating, but it's definitely not "poor" or "ugly". Maybe "so so at best" would be the right choice.I see a lot of inconsistency in that bead. You have a lot of areas at the toes that were missed and your travel speed seems irregular. All those areas are places where cracks will want to start. I'd say you need to slow down and make sure you watch the puddle better.Also note when bending a weld to test it, you bend towards the weld, not away like you did. The idea is to bend it towards the weak side of the weld and see if it holds.The other beads show some promise in a few of them. Note that generally with solid wire, you push rather than drag. if you do drag, then you have to adjust your weld style to adapt to the change in technique. I'd suggest you do longer welds also. I see tons of students who can make pretty 1-2" long beads, but when it comes to actually doing 6" of weld, everything falls apart. The can do short beads because they don't have to adjust their hands. Since mig welds usually have poor penetration at the very start, lots of small short welds are a poor option vs a longer bead many times. Even talking to a friend who hires kids from the tech school, his biggest complaint is most cant weld more than 6-8" in one shot. When you need to lay down 20-30 FEET of bead, that's not the most efficient way to do it many times..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 for all the encouragement guys. I got about 3 mins away from moving boxes and cleaning the house to put it on the market today to lay down a few beads. This time using .035 solid, heat at 6 and wire speed at 44, 21.5 cfh gas pressure, 1/4" steel, no bevel. Most of the splatter u see is because the metal Im useing, was used for me to learn how to AC stick weld.. never really learned it though. So heres the only 3 I was able to weld today. This time I slowed myself down, controlled my breathing before I started, and then remembered it wasnt a race. The first three pics I used a drag with a C weave, the last was an e pattern. How do these look? Haha be gentle Ive got 6 mins total of trigger time Attached ImagesLast edited by Ezalycasaid; 07-25-2012 at 10:11 PM.
Reply:1st half on the left of pict 1-2 is fairly decent, but you got sloppy on the 2nd half. There's some undercut at the top and you didn't wash into the bottom as well as you did in the beginning. You also aren't as consistent in your movements there either. My guess is that you are having issues shifting your hands once you pass a certain point. Work on getting your whole bead to look like the area between maybe 1/2" to 3" from the left.Personally I'm not a big fan of dragging with solid wire. Usually to get decent welds, the beads are too large. Most people I know who want to do it that way, do it simply because they don't know how to weld and see well pushing. They want to sit behind the gun and weld. A typical "rookie" mistake. To push, you usually want to be out in front of the gun and weld slightly towards you so you are looking down the "barrel" so to speak.When you push you keep the heat input down and create a smaller HAZ area. If you need more penetration, either do better prep, or turn up the volts.The last welds aren't bad, but I'd tighten up your motions by at least 50%. I'd want to see the ripples at least 2 or 3 for every one you have now personally. Also the weld looks very large for a filet. Normally a fillet is only supposed to have legs the same size or just slightly larger than the material thickness. For 1/4" steel, I'd expect to see legs that are 1/4" to maybe 5/16" at most. Yours look like they are at least 3/8"- 7/16" if not larger. All that extra weld does is waste material at best, and weaken the base material with a larger HAZ at worst. More weld isn't really "better".Over all you are improving. Get this down, then try lap joints and then outside corners..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 for the advice DSW.Got some more done today. This time I switched up to the thin stuff. Bought some solid .030 ER70S-6 Mig wire. Anchor brand. Tried welding some 1/4" with it and did great, just added a little more voltage and wire speed then with the .035. First pic is of my wire specs. Second is of my first weave with 16gauge steel, done with voltage on 3 and wire speed at 36, all with brand new clean steel. Came out pretty crappy. Then I welded 16gauge steel to 1.5x.120 steel tubing vertically. Going from up down. Then I welded from up down on the other side but for some reason it went way worst then the first time. LOL I Definitely need practice for verts. Then I swapped over to 1/8 steel Dont remember the Voltage or wire speed. Doing some E patterns. Comments, advice, suggestions welcomed. Thanks guys. Attached Images
Reply:you need to learn how to watch the puddle and move the gun side to side where needed to keep puddle filled up.  Also stop trying to make it look like a TIG weld.   its not supposed to.  the tig weld look will come from a continous movement  such as a cursive "e" but you should not be concerned about that..  stringer bees should be a consistent appearance. I see a lot of undercut and looks too cold.  the pipe to flat you would want to do 2 passes.  a stringer on the root and some sort of weave for the second pass.  there are lots of different torch movement patterns you can use.  you will need to find what works for youTiger 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:Just my opinion, STOP FREESTYLING, and get get back to basics.I was more impressed with your progress doing stringers.I hate being bi-polar it's awsomeMy Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
Reply:Vertical down has it's uses with thin sheet, but for other stuff even though you get a pretty weld, you don't get any penetration. You need to learn vert up 1st. After that down is easy.You are nowhere near ready to be trying to do vertical. You are still having some issues with flat. You are still rushing on that fillet and need to slow down. You haven't learned to see the puddle yet and it shows. You won't be able to do vertical until you can see and read the puddle. Get that down 1st. When you can make nice consistent lap, T and outside corners in the flat position every time, then move on to horizontal. Trying to jump straight to vert is doing it the hard way and you won't get anywhere faster. You'll actually make less progress because you don't have the fundamentals down yet..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 for the info. Did some welding earlier today a couple hours after those. First one is .030 wire and 1/8" steel. Second is 14gauge with .030 wire. I think these look better. I slowed down as much as I could without burning through the metal. On my previous piece I did burn through. Attached Images
Reply:Better. Now tighten up your motions. If you are doing circles or "e"'s, do 2-3 times as many while traveling at the same speed. This gets the "dimes" closer together..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:Ill move back to basics tomorow with straight stringers. As of now I was just playing around with the e and weave.Last edited by Ezalycasaid; 07-27-2012 at 11:57 PM.
Reply:Which is going to be a better joint?  "Stingers" or movements like above on a butt joint?
Reply:Heres mine from today. .030 solid wire, 1/4" mild steel. Attached Images
Reply:Improving. Still might be a bit on the fast side since I still see points on your "dimes". Again I'd suggest tightening up your movements/ oscillations to reduce the space between "dimes", but other than that it looks like you are becoming more consistent..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 DSWImproving. Still might be a bit on the fast side since I still see points on your "dimes". Again I'd suggest tightening up your movements/ oscillations to reduce the space between "dimes", but other than that it looks like you are becoming more consistent."professionally proficient" can mean a lot of things. I knew one student that after 2 classes ( 6 hrs) managed to land a PT job welding up dumpsters for a company. You are WAY beyond their skill level already... All the company really wanted was a warm body who would work cheap. Several of the guys coming out of the night school program can manage to land mig jobs at a local shop that manufactures exhaust parts. That's after 40 hours of training, but they'd still have a long ways to go if they needed to pass cert tests for serious stuff. The qualifications for the job will have a lot to do with how much skill is needed to be "proficient" enough to do the job correctly.Also the answer to this is some what dependent on the person who's learning. I've seen guys who can blow thru flat and horizontal in 2 classes, and others that even after 2 semesters still can't manage a semi decent flat lap or T joint. In general some one learning DIY will have a longer learning curve compared to some one who's taking a decent class and take longer to get to the same point..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 DSW"professionally proficient" can mean a lot of things. I knew one student that after 2 classes ( 6 hrs) managed to land a PT job welding up dumpsters for a company. You are WAY beyond their skill level already... All the company really wanted was a warm body who would work cheap. Several of the guys coming out of the night school program can manage to land mig jobs at a local shop that manufactures exhaust parts. That's after 40 hours of training, but they'd still have a long ways to go if they needed to pass cert tests for serious stuff. The qualifications for the job will have a lot to do with how much skill is needed to be "proficient" enough to do the job correctly.Also the answer to this is some what dependent on the person who's learning. I've seen guys who can blow thru flat and horizontal in 2 classes, and others that even after 2 semesters still can't manage a semi decent flat lap or T joint. In general some one learning DIY will have a longer learning curve compared to some one who's taking a decent class and take longer to get to the same point.
Reply:Learned the importance of warming up before I weld. Attached Images
Reply:Your vertical looks nice, but now do it going bottom to top. Doing vertical down gives you very little penetration. Vert up is the better way to go most of the time unless you are doing thin sheet and want to limit penetration.If you need a line, simply draw one with a piece of soap stone. You can also guide you hand along the side of the plate and use that as a guide to stay straight..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:Be careful going bottom to top.  You will more than likely need to adjust how you move the torch to avoid not building up in the middle...least I did.  I moved side to side in a upside down v motion pausing on each side a tad.  Seemed to work better for me, but I am a novice as well.
Reply:just wanted to compliment you on your improvements in just a couple wks... your pic you posted  in #23 on the first page is a 1000% improvement... shows your a quik learner and wanting to improve... that horozontal bead looks better than 90% of what i see from welding school graduates... as has been stated earlier tighten up your circles some.. just try keeping your gun straight,instead of pushing or pulling.. don't go to fast.. just slower and steady like your drawing your circles with a pencil!! watch your puddle as your pulling out and back in.. nice and easy...there's guy's that pay 5 to 10,000.00 for welding school that cannot match your improved welds.... if you were close to tulsa i would try to help you....keep up the good work..
Reply:Then after that is all good, go weld up a roll cage and realize how much nothing you learned on the bench is going to apply, lol.  Well technique might a bit, but you will have to CONSTANTLY adjust to weird situations and positions....weld with your left hand while upside down holding the torch backwords and hitting the trigger with your pinky.  Sorry been a very trying past few days.  You seriously are doing great.  Just realize when you start projects you WILL have to improvise.  My first roll cage this weekend in my car has been a challenge.  One thing that helped a lot was doing dry runs (just looking and holding the torch without pulling the trigger) helped a ton.  Try some of this stuff on the bench.  I had done a lot of flat work and verticle work but none of it prepares you for weird positions.  Thankfully I took my time and had a tig torch as well that allowed me to get in some places my mig would not allow (and no welding supply place around had any different smaller nozzles!) Due to the size of the torch.
Reply:Originally Posted by vernonsjust wanted to compliment you on your improvements in just a couple wks... your pic you posted  in #23 on the first page is a 1000% improvement... shows your a quik learner and wanting to improve... that horozontal bead looks better than 90% of what i see from welding school graduates... as has been stated earlier tighten up your circles some.. just try keeping your gun straight,instead of pushing or pulling.. don't go to fast.. just slower and steady like your drawing your circles with a pencil!! watch your puddle as your pulling out and back in.. nice and easy...there's guy's that pay 5 to 10,000.00 for welding school that cannot match your improved welds.... if you were close to tulsa i would try to help you....keep up the good work..
Reply:Tried some beads today for the first time in 3 weeks. Not good. My body for some reason wanted to do A LOT of circles. You can see in the first pic that my travel speed is Really slow. Id estimate that per inch I had at least 30 circles of oscillation. My forward travel speed and up and down travel speed consistancy are pretty much gone with all the time off since my last weld. I also played around on my second weld and did <, and o, and ( weaves. Just wanting to get an opinion of how they look. I like how close together my oscillations are on the first one, but the up and down, and forward travel I dont. All done on T joint, 1/4" steel with .030 wire, 25/75 mix.  For size reference each welds measured out at about 3-1/2"s long. Is this how close Im supposed to be shooting for as far as my "stacks" go? Attached ImagesLast edited by Ezalycasaid; 08-24-2012 at 07:52 PM.
Reply:Actually #1 looks about the best you have done yet. There are a few small inconsistencies, but if you showed 3 like this to the instructor at the tech school, he'd pass you on to the next joint and have you work on outside corners. I'm a bit pickier, but this one is still very good. Looks like you aren't very smooth in your travel. Looks a bit jerky to me with the low spots then the hump and so on. Get comfortable and relax. Loosen up on the gun and don't hold it in a death grip. Slide your hand along the table/work to help with a nice even progression, and if you have little snags, grind them off so they won't hook your gloves.2nd one isn't quite as nice, but still better than those before. I'd like to see the ripples as tight as the 1st one. Tells me you are a bit fast in your speed, and your motions look a bit inconsistent. It would still probably get you a "pass" on the average day.1/4" material is a tad on the heavy side for .030 wire. You'd be better off working on say 1/8". You didn't post your settings, so I can't do more than guess. My guess is you are probably a just a bit cold. The slower travel speed helps offset this..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 DSWActually #1 looks about the best you have done yet. There are a few small inconsistencies, but if you showed 3 like this to the instructor at the tech school, he'd pass you on to the next joint and have you work on outside corners. I'm a bit pickier, but this one is still very good. Looks like you aren't very smooth in your travel. Looks a bit jerky to me with the low spots then the hump and so on. Get comfortable and relax. Loosen up on the gun and don't hold it in a death grip. Slide your hand along the table/work to help with a nice even progression, and if you have little snags, grind them off so they won't hook your gloves.2nd one isn't quite as nice, but still better than those before. I'd like to see the ripples as tight as the 1st one. Tells me you are a bit fast in your speed, and your motions look a bit inconsistent. It would still probably get you a "pass" on the average day.1/4" material is a tad on the heavy side for .030 wire. You'd be better off working on say 1/8". You didn't post your settings, so I can't do more than guess. My guess is you are probably a just a bit cold. The slower travel speed helps offset this.
Reply:Here's an example of an excellent mig weld by Dan here IIRC, that you can use as an example.No or little motion, just a nice straight stringer. Note the edges and how consistent they are. It looks "simple", but there's a lot of skill and practice behind making welds look this nice. Getting the top and bottom wetted in this nice with no motion is not easy. Most guys need some sort of up and down motion to wash in one side at a time. Nothing wrong with that, but this shows what a text book mig weld can look like if you have the skill to do it. If you can do this, all the other stuff is cake.Last edited by DSW; 08-24-2012 at 09:48 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:Originally Posted by DSWHere's an example of an excellent mig weld by Dan here IIRC, that you can use as an example.No or little motion, just a nice straight stringer. Note the edges and how consistent they are. It looks "simple", but there's a lot of skill and practice behind making welds look this nice. Getting the top and bottom wetted in this nice with no motion is not easy. Most guys need some sort of up and down motion to wash in one side at a time. Nothing wrong with that, but this shows what a text book mig weld can look like if you have the skill to do it. If you can do this, all the other stuff is cake.
Reply:Kinda want your info on another weld. Not mine but just wondering if I should shoot for this look as well.
Reply:Originally Posted by EzalycasaidOk thanks for the example. Quick question, it says tap #5 with .030 wire. I tried 1/8th with tap #5 and kept blasting through. I couldn't find a proper travel speed for that tap and 1/8th. I calculate the #5 tap to be about 105-126 amps.  250amp/12taps=20.83amps per tap. So what amount of amps would you recommend for 1/8th.
Reply:K thanks alot for the info. Ill have to start messing around with the amp settings and wire speeds. Ill grab some 1/8th tomorow and start messing around with everything. Once Im done with the .030 roll, Ill swap to my .035 roll and start messing with 1/4".
Reply:Ok I got about 5mins of welding done today. All done with on a Tjoint 1/8" Hot rolled mild steel plate. .030 wire, co2/25mix. Tap #5. Wire speed from 36-50. (kept moving it around) Cant tell you were each speed was done though. A couple of times some wind came into the shed and pushed the gas away. Gas was at 14scfph. All done with a pull. I wire wheeled all the welds. Some are weaves some are stringers,cant remember wich ones though.  Pics1-5 of 14. Attached ImagesLast edited by Ezalycasaid; 08-27-2012 at 04:19 PM.
Reply:6-10 of 14 Attached Images
Reply:11-14 of 14 Attached Images
Reply:Went back and did two more. Both are .030 wire, with co2/25 mix, 1/8" mild steel.First one is tap #5 with wire speed at 42, second is tap #4 with wire speed at 34. Both pulling. Wire wheeled the first one. Im not sure why I wire wheeled it. Attached Images
Reply:Your beads will be smaller if you push rather than drag ( or pull) the gun. Unless you are running FC wire, you are best off pushing the gun most times with mig. I see a lot of newer students who want to drag solid wire mig simply because they can't see well. They want to sit behind the gun and weld. That doesn't work well. The solution is simple, adjust your position so you are looking down the barrel of the gun, and weld towards you.Bead #12 is probably the nicest looking of the bunch, other than it's way too tall because you were dragging. It's probably the most uniform one I'd seen that you did to date with the exception of the last one ( other issues with that one).#16 is also nice, but it's WAY too big. My guess is you were going much slower than  you did with the one above it. Again your drag technique is working against you. The one above looks colder, even though the settings are higher, simply because you were moving faster. My guess is you opted to turn down the heat and wire because the bead was piling up, and to compensate you went slower and used a larger series of motions. Cut that bead size at least in 1/2, use a push technique and see if you can duplicate the look of this bead. Your consistency here was very nice. Now just do the same thing with a much smaller bead pushing. Keep in mind that with a fillet, you only need a bead as large as the thickness of the base material on each leg. If you have a lot more, then it's both wasteful and can damage the base material because of the excess heat. More is not "better".One last thing I think I'm seeing in these picts. It looks like you are prepping the material with a wire wheel. A wire wheel will not remove rust and scale, only polish it. If you are going to the trouble to wire wheel these, just toss on a sanding disk or grinding wheel and do it right. Other wise you are just wasting your time and aren't really removing anything any ways. Learn to prep material correctly. most of the "super" welds you see from people like ZT are meticulously prepped. If you look at his stuff, he's either using cold rolled or pickeled steel, where prep isn't needed as much, or he's sanding to bright shiny metal. Mig can tolerate a certain amount of scale and light rust, but if you are going to prep, at least do some thing useful when you do..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 DSW<<snipOne last thing I think I'm seeing in these picts. It looks like you are prepping the material with a wire wheel. A wire wheel will not remove rust and scale, only polish it. If you are going to the trouble to wire wheel these, just toss on a sanding disk or grinding wheel and do it right. Other wise you are just wasting your time and aren't really removing anything any ways. Learn to prep material correctly. most of the "super" welds you see from people like ZT are meticulously prepped. If you look at his stuff, he's either using cold rolled or pickeled steel, where prep isn't needed as much, or he's sanding to bright shiny metal. Mig can tolerate a certain amount of scale and light rust, but if you are going to prep, at least do some thing useful when you do.
Reply:Tried some pushing, first pic is Tap#5 speed 40. Same wire and material as earlier. Not my best looking welds, also I couldnt get the bead any smaller then this but it was smaller by about 1/16 then my pulling beads. So I swapped over to tap#3 and speed 30. Got the size I was looking for but Itll take a while for me to get a good consistent weld. 3 pic is size comparison of the tap #3 speed 30 weld next to my pull from earlier.  I removed the mill scale from the area I welded but I couldn't get into the crack where the joint met. Attached ImagesLast edited by Ezalycasaid; 08-27-2012 at 11:09 PM.
Reply:" but how long does it normally take for someone to get professionally proficient with a mig? "Pro proficient in my mind means all position 3g and 4g. Once you get 2f down, set up using a 1x 1/4 backing strip and two 1 (2) inch x 1/4 plates tack them up at about 45 degrees with a 1/4 root opening. Then lay your root then fill it up, last get a good cap on it. I don't think there is a set timeline, but 7-8 hours a day for about 10 weeks. No set timeline though. Some struggle with vertical, some with overhead ( my personal nemisis ), a V groove overhead on 1" plate is just a sucky position, fortunately its not used much out in the real world, oh they exist just good engineers don't use the a lot as they know they are tough welds. ( although my work just did 2 and both need to be UT tested )Just keep at it and try to make every weld better than your last. Listening to DSW's advice is a plus he always gives excellent info. DSW were you or are you a weld instructor?And impatience doesn't help, slow and steady hold the course
Reply:I stopped welding for a while but I started up again except now Im learning in an actual welding shop by a guy that's 6G tig certified. The place I work has a welding  shop that I work at when were not out on a job doing oilfield flow back.(has nothing to do with welding) Worked out great for me because otherwise I would have never been able to get hired as a welder.  Heres some from the other day on a rack system Im making for one of our box trucks. Do these look better? Both are done using 75/25 mix with .045 wire and a Lincoln 255C mig welder. First one was 23Volts and 350 wire speed, on 1/4" mild steel base to 3/16"  mild steel tubing. Second is 3/16 base to 1/16 mild steel tubing, using 18.4Volts and wire speed of 214. For size reference first one is 6"s long and second is 2"s long. Im at about 3 hrs of arc time. Attached ImagesLast edited by Ezalycasaid; 08-23-2013 at 10:41 PM.