Hoping to Become a Better Welder (Mig)

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Hey guys,As some of you may know I got a Miller 140 W/AS. I've had the machine for about 3-4 weeks right now but haven't really touched it in almost 2 weeks due to a car project.Well, I got tired of reading about welding and I pulled my Mig out. At the same time, I got jelous of some of the beautiful welds some of you can lay.This is me starting my 3rd lb of wire.The metal is 16 gauge (0.059'' or 1.5mm) mild steel with C25 Shielding gas an 0.030'' wire.Multiple attempts- let me know what I can do better. I was trying to do small circles like ZTFab mentioned in the Mig like Tig thread In Case with Flash is better
Reply:Cant hardly see them, you have to resize your pictures so they fit better, the welds look alright from what i can make out from the pictures.Miller Dynasty 300dxSpeedglas 9002XMiller Spectrum 375 XtremeLincoln PowerMig 255xtLincoln PowerMig 140cMilwuakee Portaband
Reply:I thought that format would workHere's more of a standard size Originally Posted by sidthssCant hardly see them, you have to resize your pictures so they fit better, the welds look alright from what i can make out from the pictures.
Reply:Your a begginer right?  If so..Pretty nice.  I see some spatter.  im more of a stick guy..but if spatter means the same with a mig then shorten up your arc length.   Were you starting and stopping on purpose?
Reply:Originally Posted by 99trxriderYour a begginer right?  If so..Pretty nice.  I see some spatter.  im more of a stick guy..but if spatter means the same with a mig then shorten up your arc length.   Were you starting and stopping on purpose?
Reply:All I would say is dont bother trying to make it look like tig just yet, get some practice running solid, consistent beads first.  You will be able to better see the puddle and get a feel for how it moves and is effected by changes in how fast you move, your gun angle, arc length, ect.  If your trying to make circles as you do it its much harder to pickup on the subtle differences.  By all means, once you start to make consistent beads then try to work on the appearance.Have we all gone mad?
Reply:lookin pretty good for just "playing around" !!!http://kawispeed.com/ -moderator and tech deluxewww.myspace.com/trickortrack -cuz i have no life
Reply:Originally Posted by sn0border88All I would say is dont bother trying to make it look like tig just yet, get some practice running solid, consistent beads first.  You will be able to better see the puddle and get a feel for how it moves and is effected by changes in how fast you move, your gun angle, arc length, ect.  If your trying to make circles as you do it its much harder to pickup on the subtle differences.  By all means, once you start to make consistent beads then try to work on the appearance.
Reply:Originally Posted by whitehendrix!lookin pretty good for just "playing around" !!!
Reply:oh thats going to be hot sex. drift star in the making? i kinda miss my car building days.http://kawispeed.com/ -moderator and tech deluxewww.myspace.com/trickortrack -cuz i have no life
Reply:Originally Posted by whitehendrix!oh thats going to be hot sex. drift star in the making? i kinda miss my car building days.
Reply:If you look at the section in the last pict that I have circled, thats real close to what you want the weld to look like. The toes top and bottom look good. The bottom a bit better than the top, but not by much.For a beginner they look pretty good on average but you could turn up the heat a bit.As said, for now skip the fancy patterns. you need to recognise just what is going on when you make changes on the machine. Experiment by changing one thing at a time right now. Turn up/down the heat and see/ hear what is happening. Then go back to the original setting and play with the wire speed, Play with how fast or slow you move the gun (most new welders move too fast), arc length etc. There are so many ways that you can effect the weld puddle besides motions.One thing that will help is if you note your settings as well as the info on what the steel is. that way we can make a sugestion as to what might help. For example 1/16" steel, .030 wire C25 gas @ 15cfh, heat on 2, wire feed on 25 which would be about what I would try to set my machine at to test. I'd see how it looked and then make adjustments from there. 3 @35 would be my next probable choice. Each machine is a bit different, and how fast/slow you go will effect the weld as well. For the 2/25 I would go slower than I would on the 3/35 most likely.I'll pm you a link that might help with your picts. Attached ImagesLast edited by DSW; 07-21-2009 at 10:57 PM.
Reply:They certainly look better than my first MIG welds
Reply:Originally Posted by DSWIf you look at the section in the last pict that I have circled, thats real close to what you want the weld to look like. The toes top and bottom look good. The bottom a bit better than the top, but not by much.
Reply:Originally Posted by KarateBoyFirst, we want to bring it back to a very oem look with suspension upgrades + 300zx brakes + SS exhaust (maybe I'll make it?).Track days may be saved for another car or another year based on funds and mood. That is, I would be so sad if something happened to such  a super clean rust free shell at the track.
Reply:Originally Posted by whitehendrix!should be a monster. buildt a few nice cars in my day.  3rd and 4th gen supras, a NASTY 3S-GTE MR-2, many many bikes, a few bimmers, a few hondas, one of which was a 'lude with am H22 and T67. estimated it to make about 500+. stage 6 EVERYTHING. lol. was supposed to do a few 240 builds but my one buddys shell got ripped off from his old business partner. thers a few running around with RB swaps tho. gave me a bit of a run on my bike!
Reply:Originally Posted by KarateBoyHow would the bead profile change with more heat?
Reply:Originally Posted by DSWWith more "heat" the toes of the weld (where it meets the plates) will wash in better. Look at the section of the next to last pict that I have marked here. The center is a bit too humped. You want it a bit more than at a 45 deg angle. Too much heat will cause it to be concave instead of slightly humped.Look at that compared to the 1st one I circled.You can see the difference. The top photo is not too bad, I can see what looks like worse areas in the picts, but I can't get good enough samples to give you a good look from your photos. In an extreme case it would look like a pipe laid on the plate and there would be almost an over hang on the welds for lack of a better description. The bottom pict is much better."heat" can be accomplished several ways. Turn up the volts, adjust the wire speed, slow down, or manipulate the puddle slightly differently. My guess is that the good looks are partially from your motion which is keeping the heat in the area longer than if you had just run a straight bead at the speed you moved. I don't know the upper settings on that machine, but I would say you want to be somewhere around the middle of the volts. Again it's hard to do this with out seeing exactly what you are doing.
Reply:That my friend comes from lots and lots of practice. Figure several large spools of wire at least.  You need to correlate what you are doing and seeing in the weld to what you see later. It's easier with Mig, because you don't have the flux hiding the puddle like with stick and FC.It's also important to see well. I never realized how little I could actually see of the puddle in mig until I got a AD with an adjustable shade lens. I tried various fixed shades in the other helmet, but I would weld one day, then change shades and try again later. With the new hood I just pop it off and crank the shade up or down to match conditions.
Reply:This has been discussed a few times on posts,with migs particularly you do not have to put alot of effort into getting a good bead, it is ok if the weld is smooth, and not necessarily look for the tig weld stack of dimes. Get comfortable and a good veiw of the welding area and practice.
Reply:I know that you can lay down a simple stinger bead that get the job done. However, my interest lay in doing some hobby welding in the automotive industry and I know better looking welds are more likely to sell.
Reply:I don't know exatly just what projects you have planned, but that machine is most likely way underpowered for anything auto related thats not sheet metal. My thoughts are anything where bead looks would be noticable or desired is way heavier than that machine can produce under the best conditions.The beads may LOOK nice, but lack any serious penetration into the base metal. That one of the big disadvantages of mig.Last edited by DSW; 07-23-2009 at 11:30 AM.
Reply:Also not a bad idea to cut through a few and see what kinda of penatration you are getting failing that just put your sample in a vice and bend the heck out of it. I just ground down a bunch of welds that a neighbor of mine did with his little Lincoln Home Depot special that looked ok.... well...... ok not that ok that were just sitting on top of the work. They were humped up some and the toes did not lay flat but I was surprised how little penetration there really was..... It was on a trailer hitch, could have been really bad. Wish I had taken pictures. He brought it over case he wanted me to weld on some light brackets......JezzzzzBrandonLincoln Tombstone 225 A/C Steel StickerOld Victor O2/Acetylene setupMiller Syncrowave 250 Tig/PC-300 PulserMiller Millermatic 212 Mig HTP Invertatig 201 Giant Teck D50 Plasma cutterLots of HF grinders
Reply:Originally Posted by brandon113Also not a bad idea to cut through a few and see what kinda of penatration you are getting failing that just put your sample in a vice and bend the heck out of it. I just ground down a bunch of welds that a neighbor of mine did with his little Lincoln Home Depot special that looked ok.... well...... ok not that ok that were just sitting on top of the work. They were humped up some and the toes did not lay flat but I was surprised how little penetration there really was..... It was on a trailer hitch, could have been really bad. Wish I had taken pictures. He brought it over case he wanted me to weld on some light brackets......JezzzzzBrandon