I guess it's all about laziness, but......

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I'm just a backyard under the carport weekend warrior welder, just tinker with building things for myself. I've built a new welding cart, a 3 barrel trash-can hauler cart to haul cans to the street on trash day, backyard gates and such. Square tubing, 1/2 inch 14ga or 1 inch 1/8" are my sticks of choice to work with. I've got a Millermatic 130xp that I use .030 flux core wire with. A couple of little projects I've built, I've done it the right way and ground off any rust/oil/debris from the weld sites which added a lot more work time to my piddling. With my last few projects, I've ignored doing the metal prep and just welded the sticks together as I found them. I know that if I had a bigger welder and was doing trailer work, deer stands or something like that, you'd want to do it 100% correct, but for these goofy little projects, what's the big deal about skipping the prep process ? I've never had a weld break yet, in fact I've tried to break some intentionally and haven't been successful at that yet.
Reply:I would say shortcuts and bad habits are easy to get into and hard to break. I usually make something because I need it, and usually that means now. I know where you are coming from and I am trying to get into better habits myself. I also think that it separates the professionals from everyone else. I am now trying to learn to become a professional. I've been welding for fifteen years or so and just started basic welding classes in Jan. I REALLY related to your last sentance. I never had anything break that I definately didn't want to. But now I want to learn the correct way and try to be the best I can."Where's Stick man????????" - 7A749"SHHHHHH!! I sent him over to snag that MIC-4 while tbone wasn't looking!" - duaneb55"I have bought a few of Tbone's things unlike Stick-Man who helps himself" - TozziWelding"Stick-man"
Reply:Another opinion.....YES, one should do "anything" in this world the "right way."  (Whatever that means....)  However, with what you described, if you're NOT looking for X-Ray quality welds; welds where human life depends on;  and you're NOT making a Boeing 777, roller coaster, wheel chair ramp, Navy Destroyer, nuclear power plant, trailer hitch, car chassis, go-kart, gantry crane, or kid's bicycle, etc...  I'd say you're okay to "cut corners" in the interest of time.  I hate to say it, but for certain things around the house, (gate repair, lawn art, umbrella stand, patio furniture etc... I haven't "prepped" the metal all that much either!   When my welding rod gets to the "nub" size, have i just taken a new rod and continued welding where I left off without chipping the slag first?  Heck yeah I have!  I've done it on patio furniture, rifle targets, a gate etc....  Can I see the slag inclusions?  No.  Do I care that I have some slag inclusions in those NON-CRITICAL welds???  Hell no I don't care.  I put so much weld on the patio furniture that the slag or rust I welded over is NOT going to affect the integrity of those welds.  The few trailer tongues and hitches I've done, now that's another story.  I absolutely do the "right thing" and prep the metal like I'm suppossed to.  Yes, if I lay down a crappy weld bead that I'm not happy with, I'll bust out the grinder and fix the weld.  Again, for the quick fix on NON CRITICAL stuff (gates, lawn art, lawn mowers, patio furniture, dumpster etc...) I do cut SOME  corners.  I look at some of the welds out there in this world from guys that lay camel-snot welds down on car frames and such and those welds seem to hold forever!   With my luck for a critical weld however, I won't take a chance on cutting corners.  I think you're alright with what you're doing based on what you described originally.Lincoln Power Mig 216Lincoln AC/DC-225/125Miller  625 X-Treme PlasmaMiller 211 Forney 95FI-A 301HF 91110Victor Journeyman O/PMilwaukee DaytonMakita  Baileigh NRA Life Member
Reply:FC is a fairly forgiving process when dealing with rust and paint. That said, chances will always be better that you will get a better weld if you take the time to prep things right. Like Stickman says, bad habits are easy to start and hard to break.One thing many guys don't understand is how much rust/paint etc effects how easy it is to weld. I ran into a great example yesterday helping a friend build up a small "coat rack" for his daughters school play. I didn't have any real tools with me to prep the piece of moderately rusty angle iron or the pipe for one side. Best I could really do was drag a file over the surface a bit and hit it with a wire brush. I had a terrible time getting the arc started with his little 110v mig on that side. Poor ground due to the rust, and poor contact with the wire mean it popped and the wire burned back almost every time. It wasn't until I was able to burn off some of the rust that I was able to get an arc started on the bead and make any progress, but it was still very slow. Contrast that with the other side where I had brought over a semi clean piece of angle and used new pipe. There I was able to get a bead going almost immediately and run a very nice bead. Same machine, same settings, same person doing the weld, but the differences in clean material was very evident. Just a few minutes with a grinder and a grinding wheel would have saved a lot of time and frustration. I think he understands better now why good prep is so important to making decent welds..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:Nice thing about grungy metal is that your tacks just pop loose nice and easy if you decide to move things. "The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living and the get rich quick theory of life." -Theodore Roosevelt
Reply:Nobody ever failed a welding test by keeping their weld too clean. A old welder told me that one time when I was having trouble passing a test to get a job. You may not be going for a job but.......... nobody ever made a bad weld by keeping it too clean.Shake and Bake