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Ok, I purchased a Craftsman wire feed welder maybe 10 years ago and used it for a very small repair, (that quite frankly probably could have been fixed with duct tape just fine), but I figured cool! new toy! Anyway, I used it for that small job and then let my brother keep it out at his place since he lives on 10 acres and has a few cows and chickens, etc. and all the various pens and gates that go with them and would actually have a use for it occasionally.Back to present day: I recently decided to build a couple of items and picked it up. I built a bow rail for my aluminum boat, (out of steel and then bolted it to the boat). I also wanted to build a few rod holders for the front of my jeep bumper. My plan was to weld 3/16" flatbar brackets onto 1-1/2" pipe, then weld the brackets to the bumper. I tried most of the day yesterday to weld the brackets to one rod holder and everytime the bead would simply lay on top of the workpeice. I had no penetration at all. I would run a bead on each side of the bracket and then put it in the vise and could pop it off with a hammer with minimal force. This particular welder is a Craftsman wire feed welder, that runs off 110 and is 80 amp. I'm using 0.30 flux core wire. This welder also only has a couple of settings. A power setting of 1 or 2 and a "range" setting of 1 or 2. I've tried all four settings possiblities and get bad results each time. None of the settings penetrate either work piece. One thing I'm not sure about is the flatbar is just plain steel while the 1-1/2' pipe is galvanized pipe. I'm grinding all the galvanizing off the pipe in the area I'm working but does galvanized pipe have galvanizing throughout the material or is it just a coating? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long post, I'm just at a loss of what to try. Even thinking I just need a more powerful welder.I actually did one welded that I believe would not break but it's one ugly weld with three passes on each side. I don't particularly want nasty looking welds like that on the front of my Jeep.Thanks in advance for any input,ChrisEdit here's a pic of the piece that I did get welded. You can really tell much about the welds, due to me grinding the crap out of them. But you can see how much material I did end up using. Each weld simply sits on top of the base. Attached ImagesLast edited by Hendu3270; 04-07-2008 at 12:03 PM.
Reply:it sounds to me like you just don;t have enough "oomph" in your welder. try cranking the heat all the way up, then preheat the parts with a torch. after they are a couple hundred degrees, lay the weld bead on them and see how it turns out. you may have to get them fairly hot to get the penetration you are looking for. if you don't want to torch them, try grinding a bevel on the bracket tabs, and a flat spot on the pipe. that would thin the metal and let you get some deeper penetration and spread the heat further into the part.Later,Andy
Reply:Originally Posted by aczellerit sounds to me like you just don;t have enough "oomph" in your welder. try cranking the heat all the way up, then preheat the parts with a torch. after they are a couple hundred degrees, lay the weld bead on them and see how it turns out. you may have to get them fairly hot to get the penetration you are looking for. if you don't want to torch them, try grinding a bevel on the bracket tabs, and a flat spot on the pipe. that would thin the metal and let you get some deeper penetration and spread the heat further into the part.Later,Andy
Reply:Not enough 'oomph' from the machine for the thickness of steel you are working with.As Andy said, one 'trick' to try is to preheat the workpiece(s). That sometimes lets you work on metal that is a little bit thicker than the machine is really capable of welding.The torch is just one way to preheat things. For small(er) pieces, a regular oven works just fine. Or if you have a really-really-really big industrial oven, then you can heat even bigger pieces! No oven or can't get spousal approval to heat a chunk of steel in the oven? Got a BBQ or other outdoor grill? Use that. Don't just stick the chunk of steel or pipe into a bed of hot coals though, that's WAY more heat than you need for this job. You usually only need about 200-400F in preheat most of the time.Note though, that the preheat lets you go a -little- thicker than the machine is really capable of. The general rule of thumb for welding is 1 amp per thousandth of an inch a metal thickness. So 1/8 inch steel would call for about 125 amps, give or take. Your 3/16 inch strap would call for about 180 amps, give or take. That's for single pass full penetration welding.As an example, the Miller on-line weld parameter calculator at http://millerwelds.com/education/cal...calculator.php recommends 0.035 FCAW wire at 190-220 amps and 15-16 volts to weld 3/16 inch steel.If you preheat the pipe and the flatbar pieces, and have a bevel ground on the end of the flatbar on both 'faces', you may be able to just about weld your project with your 80 amp machine. Maybe.Galvanizing is a zinc coating on top of the steel.
Reply:Originally Posted by MoonRiseGalvanizing is a zinc coating on top of the steel.
Reply:I have been grinding the galvanizing off first. I've heard the horror stories of guys that got sick because they were in a hurry and didn't want to mess with removing galvanizing.Well, I did a little more prep work on the holder and the bracket and it was definitely an improvement. Still not what I'd hoped it would be, but better. I thinned the wall of the pipe and created a pretty long taper on the portion of the flat bar that would be resting against the holder. Originally I started out simply beveling the corners, but this worked much better. One thing I did just find out from my brother, who like I said, has had the welder at his place for the past several years, is the spool has a spring and wing-nut that is meant to tighten down on the spool and further decrease the wire speed. I was under the impression that this was simply meant to hold the spool in place. I think tightening the spool is gonna make a world of difference. I'm hoping anyway.Thanks for the help guys. I may end up using a torch to heat the portion of the bumper though, when I get to that.
Reply:i think tightening the spool is gonna burn out the drive mechanism...
Reply:Make sure you have a good power supply to the unit. 50' of small extension cord will kill that small welder. Go direct into the wall if you can, or use a short, heavy gauge cord.
Reply:The spring and wing nut is designed to put just enough tension on the wire spool to stop it when the wire drive stops, not to decrease the wire feed speed.There is a control to set wire speed on the unit.
Reply:Originally Posted by OldtimerThe spring and wing nut is designed to put just enough tension on the wire spool to stop it when the wire drive stops, not to decrease the wire feed speed.There is a control to set wire speed on the unit.
Reply:Originally Posted by Hendu3270Another thing that did happen is if I weld for more than about 20 seconds it flips the breaker for the house. Hasn't been a huge issue because these welds only take about 7 or 8 seconds to make. This system is tied into the garage and kitchen. Could I simply replace the breaker with a bigger one? or could that cause issues with existing wiring in the house getting too hot?
Reply:Galvanizing does penetrate the metal a little bit.Make sure you are getting deep enough to get it all.
Reply:If that's all I was doing I wouldn't even worry about grinding the galvy. Sure, welding galv will make you sick if you weld enough of it (been there, done that) but that's not enough to hurt ya unless you just try to inhale all you can of it while welding it. It'll make more splatter with the galv on but so what. On my sp-100 I run fluxcore and my heat is 100% and wire speed is set to 1/3 of it's max.DewayneDixieland WeldingMM350PLincoln 100Some torchesOther misc. tools
Reply:hendu your point about 12 years of satisfactory operation with tightening down the wing nut has much merit. my lincoln has a 0-10 range for speed- i think the higher speeds are intended for aluminum, because all my small mild steel i weld fluxcore on the hottest tap and speed down around 2-3.
Reply:Originally Posted by aczelleri didn;t think of this before, but what wire are you using? i run NR-211MP in my welder and it seems to work fine (very smooth)... maybe there is a problem with your wire? NR-211MP (Lincoln InnerShield) is available in .035 diameter at home depot for about $10 for a 1-lb spool and ~$40-$50 for a 10lb. spool.they are looking better tho.Later,Andy |
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发表于 2021-8-31 23:59:26