Extremely new to welding and need advice

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First I will explain my situation, Im very new to welding and have never done a single bit of welding until today. I don't have anyone close to me who I can learn from or ask questions and taking a course isn't in the cards for me as I have a wife and 2 daughters and a full time job. I have a hobby that requires welding and fixing broken parts and up until today I always paid someone to do my welding. Its come to the point where I want to start doing my own welding and fabricating verse paying someone. I can save a lot of downtime, fuel expense and money by doing it myself. Im a very skilled Mechanic, Engine builder and a Locomotive engineer....not a welder or fabricator by any means but Im willing to take the time to learn.So that brings me to today.... I bought a miller 211, tank of 75/25, hood, gloves, wire, cart and some consumables today from my local welding supply. I wired in my 220V and got everything ready to weld. I kind of figure this will be a listen and then execute your suggestions to achieve my goal of making good looking strong welds one day. I know practice makes perfect and I will be practicing every day to learn as quickly as possible. So on to my questions. Please remember I am brand new to welding and I will be self taught so anything I learn will be helpful.1. Is it harmful to breathe the vapor or smoke that comes off the weld, I know it cant be good but I seem to be right on top of my weld trying to watch closely what is happening and what im doing and how me changing settings on the welder changes whats being put down on the steel.2. How close should I keep my mig gun to the steel? Im getting decent looking welds to me using a cursive lower case E technique pulling the weld but I am getting some spatter. It seems the closer I put the nozzle to the steel the less spatter I get but im unsure if im holding it to close to the metal, my nozzle almost drags against the steel being welded, Is that to close?3. How much shielding gas pressure should I get when I pull the trigger, I have it set on 20 right now. (Not sure what that unit of measurement is psi, lpm or what)4. kind of refers back to question 1. If that gas/vapor is harmful is it ok to run a fan to blow it away or will that blow the shielding gas away from the weld or should I just open the garage door, it was really windy today so I closed the garage door as I was welding cause I didn't know if the wind would effect my welds. 5. What things effect spatter. What can I look for, try or change to get rid of spatter.
Reply:To answer your questions:1) No go ahead and inhale as much exhaust as you can, that will make you a better welder. You're becoming one with the elements. (that's sarcasm) try to position your head at a diagonal angle from your work piece as long as you can keep your eyes on the puddle.2) the space between your nozzle is up to you and where you're comfortable at. Too close your travel speed will be interfered with and you will lose the proper angle. Too far and your gas will not cover your welds which means porosity.3) 20-40 you don't want to blow your welds away.4) I've seen numerous guys try to run a exhaust vacuum and bust, all it does is take your shielding gas away. But make sure the place of work is well ventilated (open a garage door or something)5) Long arcing, trash on the metal (not prepping before a weld)
Reply:Thank you, I will change a few things around and give it another go.
Reply:Originally Posted by Bushhog750Thank you, I will change a few things around and give it another go.
Reply:Regarding the Gas FLOW-  Ghost means 20-40 in CFHYou have a Flow Gauge with the MM211: one gauge indicates the Tank pressure and that is in PSI .you don't adjust that side so no worries, it is just giving a reading of tank pressure as it gets lower you'll have less gas available and time to think about getting a refill or swap.The other gauge is where you set the Shielding gas FLOW. It has two markings on it. One for CFH- Cubic Feet per Hour one for L/M- litres per MinuteJust make sure you are looking at the CFH line when you set the Gauge to 20-25 CFH. You can use the L/m line but then it would be at 10Your manual actually covers all of the questions you asked Last edited by Broccoli1; 01-21-2014 at 05:00 PM.Ed Conleyhttp://www.screamingbroccoli.com/MM252MM211 (Sold)Passport Plus & Spool gunLincoln SP135 Plus- (Gone to a good home)Klutch 120v Plasma cutterSO 2020 benderBeer in the fridge
Reply:Post your location, maybe someone here can help."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:You mentioned spatter.  It's very often caused by voltage and wire speed not being in the right relationship to each other - something you'll need to experiment with.  Fumes - do a little reading here using the search function.  Search for "respirators".
Reply:Im in Woodstock, GA, and thank you for the help. I just got some more scrap from work, when I get home from work im going to start at it again and try and make some changes and see how things turn out. Would posting pictures help ease this process any or let you guys point out anything that might need more attention up front to break a bad habit before it starts. I guess at the least you could get a good laugh out of it.
Reply:I have found youtube most helpful. Many good instructional videos for the beginning welder. Lance aka chuckie2009 has a whole series of them. Look around and you will find all the info you need! Good luck!Hobart 125 EZHobart Handler 140Everlast STH 160Generic 210 Amp Welder/GeneratorHobart Air Force 500i plasma cutterChinese 50 amp plasma cutter! Youtube Channel : Henrymac100
Reply:Mig is like walking.. Everybody walks different. How you hold your gun and speed and closeness is all relative. To what? you might ask.. Appearance of the weld.. Pay close attention on how your welds look and what it took to get it that way.. If I want something to lay low and flat I run HILO.. High heat and low wire speed and I push instead of pull.. If I need to fill a gap I might hold my gun straight at it or pull a little and use just enough heat to make the puddle actually melt the metal and high wire speed. Lower case E's work fine but don't get stuck on it.. I use E's, but my favorite is to frogleg.. I push and burn a hole and then whip back and fill it.. kind of like going 2 spaces and whip back one, go 2 more whip back one type of thing.. Or use the wave technique and push the top of the wave into the workpiece and burn at the bottom.. My point is There's lots of ways to accomplish your task.. Pushing throws spatter, pulling not as much. Gas, usually 15-20 with no breeze is fine. Nozzle space depends on the whip and size of the nozzle..I use a Bernard 300 amp gun with the smallest diffuser (DS-1) and Nozzle I can find at work, so I can only get so close.. My personal welder has a much smaller nozzle and I can get closer..If your close to dragging your fine. Get a set of whelps.. Home depot has Lincoln Matadors for 12 bucks and their awesome! 4 tools in one.. nozzle cleaner, tip removal, nippers, nozzle removal, and small hammer.. so 5 tools in one! If I can figure out how to post a picture on here, I'll post a pic of my beads at work welding 11ga Stainless to 3/8" carbon.. This is HILO with a wave technique. 309, .035 wire with tri-mix and a  XMT350 with a Miller Xtreme suitcase 27volts 288 WS.Last edited by toadwrench; 01-21-2014 at 09:58 PM.Reason: forgot to add info
Reply:Well I've been trying some new things. Most of the stuff I'll be welding is DOM tubing so I thought I'd practice on what I was actually going to be working on. And let me say that I can't weld the bottom for anything. I've tried going slow, fast, wire speed, heat everything. But when I get to where the tube rolls under it goes down hill fast. It makes a big puddle and looks like hell. Is doing work like this out of my league right now or what. Is welding the bottoms from underneath things that hard or am I just an idiot. I feel like I have zero control.
Reply:Welding bottoms (mean like upside down?)That takes time and skill!
Reply:Originally Posted by Bushhog7501. Is it harmful to breathe the vapor or smoke that comes off the weld, I know it cant be good but I seem to be right on top of my weld trying to watch closely what is happening and what im doing and how me changing settings on the welder changes whats being put down on the steel.
Reply:Thank you dsw. The changing of the gun angle is something I've tried and not very good at yet. Seems when I want to change I end up doing it to slow and burning a hole or piling up weld. I will go to the shop now and practice, practice, practice some more.
Reply:Welcome to the forum! You will learn a lot here, plenty of really talented people willing to share their knowledge.  Originally Posted by Bushhog750I have a hobby that requires welding and fixing broken parts and up until today I always paid someone to do my welding. Its come to the point where I want to start doing my own welding and fabricating verse paying someone. I can save a lot of downtime, fuel expense and money by doing it myself.
Reply:My hobby is rock buggies. My chassis and roll cage I had professionally built. But im always changing something or wanting to do something different and normal repair and maintenance so I decided it was cheaper to buy my own equipment and fix and repair the things I break verse paying my builder everytime I need something built, fixed or repaired. I know it's going to take lots of practice but until then I'm going to stick with cooler mounts and things that don't involve my life relying on them. Lol
Reply:Originally Posted by Bushhog750First I will explain my situation, Im very new to welding and have never done a single bit of welding until today. I don't have anyone close to me who I can learn from or ask questions and taking a course isn't in the cards for me as I have a wife and 2 daughters and a full time job. I have a hobby that requires welding and fixing broken parts and up until today I always paid someone to do my welding. Its come to the point where I want to start doing my own welding and fabricating verse paying someone. I can save a lot of downtime, fuel expense and money by doing it myself. Im a very skilled Mechanic, Engine builder and a Locomotive engineer....not a welder or fabricator by any means but Im willing to take the time to learn.So that brings me to today.... I bought a miller 211, tank of 75/25, hood, gloves, wire, cart and some consumables today from my local welding supply. I wired in my 220V and got everything ready to weld. I kind of figure this will be a listen and then execute your suggestions to achieve my goal of making good looking strong welds one day. I know practice makes perfect and I will be practicing every day to learn as quickly as possible. So on to my questions. Please remember I am brand new to welding and I will be self taught so anything I learn will be helpful.1. Is it harmful to breathe the vapor or smoke that comes off the weld, I know it cant be good but I seem to be right on top of my weld trying to watch closely what is happening and what im doing and how me changing settings on the welder changes whats being put down on the steel.2. How close should I keep my mig gun to the steel? Im getting decent looking welds to me using a cursive lower case E technique pulling the weld but I am getting some spatter. It seems the closer I put the nozzle to the steel the less spatter I get but im unsure if im holding it to close to the metal, my nozzle almost drags against the steel being welded, Is that to close?3. How much shielding gas pressure should I get when I pull the trigger, I have it set on 20 right now. (Not sure what that unit of measurement is psi, lpm or what)4. kind of refers back to question 1. If that gas/vapor is harmful is it ok to run a fan to blow it away or will that blow the shielding gas away from the weld or should I just open the garage door, it was really windy today so I closed the garage door as I was welding cause I didn't know if the wind would effect my welds. 5. What things effect spatter. What can I look for, try or change to get rid of spatter.
Reply:DOM tubing... lol, I would've just bought a tig..stronger weld, NO splatter..That's ok.. that'll be how you justify your next purchase..lol !! Be like: "Baby.. I need to take some money outta savings.. This mig has to much splatter for me, I need a Tig welder!".. haha