First welds from Noob w/ Miller 135

admin

I just picked up my miller 135 this last week and finally got a little time to lay down my first 'real' practice beads. I'm a newbie..this is my first attempt since my highschool welding class  The beads are on 1/8 plate that I was lucky enough to get for free. Set the miller 135 to 55-wirespeed / 6-volts.... I tried playing around with it to see if I could fine tune it, but I had trouble telling the difference. I suppose it will take some more practice to get a feel for it. Heres some pics... tell me what I'm doing wrong/right Started at the top and started to get the hang of it by the bottom:Back side... good penetration? (Left side=bottom)I'm open to any thoughts or suggestions.Thanks,SamLast edited by thehuskybear; 03-03-2010 at 08:27 PM.
Reply:Heres some closeups:You can see in there I made some slacker attempts at tack welds^^^
Reply:Also.. I made a few newbie mistakes and got flashed a couple times... very short flashes and I dont think I was looking right at the spot, but should I expect any eye discomfort?Thanks,Sam
Reply:A good rule of thumb for tack welding is count one one thousand two one thousand. that is what I do but I am a newbie as well. I just picked up a Hobart Handler 185 and I am still getting better with every attempt.
Reply:make the bead straight and keep the ripples close together, do a search and find other people who posted picsw of their mig beads and compare.  it helps a lot to watch the puddle, look at what you're doing, if ya get what i;m saying. when i started i looked at the front of my bead and where i was going instead of where i'd been, don't do that.
Reply:Thanks for the advice guys... keep it coming.
Reply:I'd say you need to slow down. That's a very common new mistake..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:Yeah, I was wondering about that... the bottom welds I tried to go slow and do a tighter zig-zag.. Next time I get a chance, I want to practice some butt and T welds... I'll try going a little slower and see if they improve.
Reply:You shouldn't need to do any sort of weave. Just drag the gun in a straight line as you go. It's a bit tougher to see whats going on with FC as opposed to solid wire and gas, because you need to differentiate between the flux and the weld pool. Keep things simple at the start..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:What can I do to make the bead a little more consistent? I noticed that I was getting some "popping" halfway through some of the welds... several times I noticed that I was holding the tip too far away and this seemed to create some of the popping... what else might cause that?ThanksSam
Reply:Having the wire speed set wrong will cause this. Usually you have it too high for the heat setting you are running. The wire goes thru the puddle and hits the plate underneath before it arcs and melts. If you've got a 2nd person there to help, have them turn the wire feed knob as you weld up and down and see how this changes what you see and hear. The right sound is like bacon frying. a hiss usually means you are too slow and the wire burns back to the tip and gets stuck or the weld metal drops like water. Too fast and you get that popping or the wire tries to push the gun away.Consistency is practice. Do the same exact thing over and over and over... Same distance nozzle to work, same speed movement forward, and so on. You also have to learn to read the puddle so you can tell whats happening as you go..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.. Ill take that into consideration as Im practicing.
Reply:your parameters seem right if you have .030 if you have .035 turn the wire speed down to 45, I sometimes set my settings one size up like 10/60 for 1/8. flux core has a small window of parameters unlike mig and what they give you under the door on the chart is pretty right on, get comfortable so you can maintain a consistent stick out throughout the weld, maintain a steady consistent travel speed, and focus on constant angle. flux core wire does go bad, so that can give you trouble too, after I use my flux core wire I take it out of the welder and put it in a plastic bag and keep it in a dry place. bad wire can give you bad results, this makes it difficult to learn, make sure your welder is plugged directly into the wall, if you have to run a cord make sure it's at least 12 gauge and try to keep it short, I have one made up for my driveway, it's just long enough to reach not any longer, oh yeah clean your metal- rust, paint, and mill scale. remember when learning you want the most ideal conditions, clean metal, comfort, and good wire so you don't have variables throwing you off, after awhile you'll learn what causes a bad weld and you'll be able to distinguish why something did not go right"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal"   -Henry Ford
Reply:When I first got my Lincoln Idealace SP-200, I had only mig welded with a buddy's machine. Inside the spool door there were some general setting for different metal thicknesses. That's a good starting point and you fine tune from there. What I did was get a lot of scrap metal of different thickness and with those setting, I started. I got a book and entered that information. As DSW stated about the sound of bacon frying, start fine tuning your wire speed and fine tune dial on the heat until you get that sound. When your are pretty sure you have your setting right, write them in the book with metal thickness and all your setting. Do this with say, 16 ga., 1/8", 3/16", 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2". This way when you have a welding job of say 3/16" set your machine and now you can concentrate on technique. Some like to push and some like to pull. After some experimenting and some weld time you will be able to see your mistakes and solve most of them yourself. Weld, Weld, Weld. It will come.
Reply:I would slow way down.  It looks like you were going a bit too fast.  If your wire isn't feeding good and you are getting inconsistent wire feed it can cause you to have "gaps" in the arc OR can cause you end up too far from your work piece if it feeds too fast... If it is gapping or sorta spitting and sputtering you may want to check the tension on your wire feeder.  If the tension is set too high or too low it can cause those problems.If you don't use your head you may as well have been born with two backends.That ain't exactly how Papa used to say it.*Linc'n WeldanPower 200 with a Wis. 2 cyl. w/handcrank*Linc'n AC225 *Linc'n ProMig 180*tiny porta torch...
Reply:I dont know if anyone posted this up or not, but there are tons of tutorial vids on youtube for EVERYTHING!! There are definately welding tutorialson there.Nate SandersThe brokest and slowest fabricator in the U.S. of A!