what am i doing wrong?

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im learning how to weld with this welder that i basicly got for free, its a century 90 amp MIG welder. and im wondering why my beads are not flat like they are suppossed to be. can anyone tell me what im doing wrong besides that fact that my welder isnt really that good. thanks
Reply:TurboXT,  i learned to weld with the same machine running on pipe just like that, Let's go over some things that could be the problem. Amperage, set it to the high side, Wire feed Speed, About half or a little under on the dial, Direction, Pull the gun back at about a 30 degree angle using a ((((((((((((((((((( Motion with the wire. Try that out and see what happens.StangnetShop Full Of Stuff. Joey
Reply:dont think it has a high or low setting. heres what it looks like and what setting it was on.
Reply:looks like a couple years difference, try heat no.4 amf wire speed 4, thats not a big change, but it mught help you some. i'm trying to convert the settings from my hobart to equal what you have and that's the figure i came up wth, Also are you using .35 or.30 wire?StangnetShop Full Of Stuff. Joey
Reply:.30 BTW i dont really know what people mean by push/pull, can someone tell me. when i weld i just hold the wire straight, is that wrong?
Reply:Howdy!  I am curious what gas your using?  It appears to me, that in a few places, the cup has drug across the cooling, semi-liquid weld puddle.  But I'm no expert.  I have a Century 130 welder, with a 90 amp and 105 amp setting, dials similar to yours as well.  Your welds don't look terribly too different from mine, except I notice no spatter at all with mine and C-25 gas.  That, and the welds from mine are smoother.  I practiced with a fat carpenters pencil first.  Hold the pencil with your hand about as far away from the metal "paper" as you normally do, and practice brisk side to side motions, with slow over all forward motion.  after a few minutes, you should get the motion down for your C-shaped patterns, or your preferance.  Also, Try thinner material.  It appears to me, that the parent metal may be sucking away too much heat from your localized weld area.   Rebar is fun to play with, and cheep too.  If you get the 1/2" rounds, it makes good practice pieces.  Not too thick, but not too thin either.  1/8" angle stock makes alot of fun cheep shapes to practice with.  Your doing fine, just take a bit more practice   Cut it in half, and look at your penetration.  See if you have inclusions, or tears, or porosity.  Thats kinda cool too.  Happy welding!  Good luck, Brian Lee  Sparkeee24
Reply:push/ pull   Think of this,  your either pushing the nozzle or your pulling the nozzle.  Another way of looking at it is, push is where you point the gun in the direction your going.  Pull is when you point the gun the opposite direction your going, or you could say the direction your coming from.  Otherwise, Id say youve got a lot of heat in that weld.  The excess spatter is what is telling me that.  Turn your heat down a little.  See how that works.  The way your doing these two pipes is gonna be kinda tough to make your weld look the conventional way...it will look a little funny due to the shape of the rolling pipe.  Anyway, hope that helpsCHRIS
Reply:im not using gas. flux core
Reply:you understand the push/pull better now, if you don't i can make and upload a small vid for youStangnetShop Full Of Stuff. Joey
Reply:do it please
Reply:I'll get you one tommorrow, neighbors would think i was weirder weldin @ 4am!!StangnetShop Full Of Stuff. Joey
Reply:Allright, made a vid under 1 mb. First i am pulling the gun towards myself, the the second arc is me pushing the gun away from myself. i didn't do much on the push weld because i am using solid wire and it's pull type.http://rapidshare.de/files/3118021/weld.zip.htmlFinished WeldGun AngleStangnetShop Full Of Stuff. Joey
Reply:cool thanks