New to welding, need some advice! (super ugly weld!)

[killerbanjo]

Hi guys, just bought a very cheap flux core welder just for doing some odd jobs. I will be hardly using it and don't want to have gas bottles at home so opted for flux core over stick.

I did my first weld and it is so ugly, I did watch lots of videos but they did not seem to help! haha
I had a broken exhaust from an old motorcycle and though I would give it a go. I tacked it then did two passes and although it feels strong (put some pipe in it and tried to break it) it is just the worlds most ugly thing. I took a grinder to it to try and neat it up a little...

Anyway hopefully someone could advise me. I can only set my welder up to 25, 50, 100 and 120 amps and 1-10 wire feed speed, it is not very precise! In this weld I used a speed of 7 and 50 amps.

Thanks in advance! Ed

 

[cumbriasteve]

You don't appear to be doing runs of weld, they look more like lumpy tacks, gasless is not as easy as gas but that's beside the point now because you have what you have.

Get some scrap steel about 3mm, clean it up and practice doing continuous runs on it before tackling something like an exhaust.

You also need to know gasless wire can vary an awful amount in quality and some can be a nightmare to use even for an experienced welder, the trouble is the same brand can even differ.

What was the reason for not wanting gas in the house? it's not dangerous like propane etc.

 

[Kent]

Now I have tried to weld with a very cheap flux core only mig once. No way could anyone weld decent with it

 

[the snooper]

Now I have tried to weld with a very cheap flux core only mig once. No way could anyone weld decent with it

ive not had good results with it either, gas all the way

 

[PTvor]

Hi guys, just bought a very cheap flux core welder just for doing some odd jobs. I will be hardly using it and don't want to have gas bottles at home so opted for flux core over stick.

I did my first weld and it is so ugly, I did watch lots of videos but they did not seem to help! haha
I had a broken exhaust from an old motorcycle and though I would give it a go. I tacked it then did two passes and although it feels strong (put some pipe in it and tried to break it) it is just the worlds most ugly thing. I took a grinder to it to try and neat it up a little...

Anyway hopefully someone could advise me. I can only set my welder up to 25, 50, 100 and 120 amps and 1-10 wire feed speed, it is not very precise! In this weld I used a speed of 7 and 50 amps.

Thanks in advance! Ed

You might find this thread worth reading through

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/newbie-mightymig-100a-no-gas-mig-welder.61859/

It seems from your post that you've just pitched into this starting with a proper job which isn't a great idea, you need to practice on scrap first.

 

[cumbriasteve]

If it's the Wolf 130 you have bought you may have a problem with it's minimum 50amps setting on any thin work you plan.

They are not rated as an easy machine to use, gasless is difficult to use and 50amps bottom setting is not great, no good sugar coating it, to achieve decent welds is going to take a hell of a lot of practice and a fair bit of luck I am afraid.

 

[killerbanjo]

Hi guys thanks for replying. The welder is a wolf mig 130. I dont want gas as I live in a very small house with no space and will be welding so little that I can't warrant gas. The wire I am using is just cheap generic .8mm wire from ebay. I should have got some better stuff. Ill try and get some scrap to practice! I tried a continuous bead but it kinda felt like it was skipping if that makes sense... on the exhaust the tube part had completely broken off, it wasn't just a hole or leak

Thanks

 

[killerbanjo]

It's ebay part 381331442950

 

[PTvor]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-x-Gasle...hash=item58c9200d06:m:m4KQuBb5AkojnDWQwDmVVjw

2 x Gasless Mig Welding Wire 0.8mm 0.45 kg Shrouds and Tips Flux Core Wire Cored
introductory offer-knock down price for first few sales

£2.85 inc p&p


Seriously cheap, but you won't have put at risk more than the price of a pint.

Gasless MIG wire is decidedly variable at best.


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wolf-MIG-...571613?hash=item41a4baacdd:g:wZEAAOSwPc9WwdlT

It looks as if it does 50A to 120A in 4 settings.

You snotted this thing together and it isn't ideal but you haven't pulled it apart. Does it blow? If not it's a result, maybe not a distinction, but a pass.

As for having the space to have a bottle of gas around, we are fixed the way we are and there are other things going on in our lives and as for welding, we have to make the best of it.

 

[dazza]

I purchased 4 brands of gasless wire some cheap and some not so cheap the best results were with Lincoln Electric Innershield NR-211-MP

Hopefully its not the wire, like others have said run some beads and practice. I went through 2 spools of wire just practicing.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Is that a chrome finish on the exhaust?

 

[killerbanjo]

Thanks for posting the link. It would not let me paste it on my phone. It is 50A to 120A I made a mistake on my original post. I have not tried it on a motorcycle but if I block one end and blow down it there is no leaks. Ill stick with what wire I got and if I can't progress ill invest in some better wire so I can be sure it me and not the wire that sucks! The exhaust is stainless not chrome slim. So what settings would you guys be using if you were to weld it? Thanks!

 

[Rob85]

Flux core isn't going to give a good looking weld on stainless in my opinion, not with cheap wire anyway. We're you doing continuous runs or stacking tacks like a thin metal technique? Remember with flux core wire you need to chips slag just like with stick welding so you may have ended up with slag inclusions hence the ugly looking weld

 

[killerbanjo]

I did 4 tacks and chipped and cleaned the slag off then did a continuous run in between each tack, cleaning the previous run before starting the next. It just didn't seem happy, but then again I have no idea what my settings should have been... I really need to find a source of scrap so I can really practice!

 

[PTvor]

Thanks for posting the link. It would not let me paste it on my phone. It is 50A to 120A I made a mistake on my original post. I have not tried it on a motorcycle but if I block one end and blow down it there is no leaks. Ill stick with what wire I got and if I can't progress ill invest in some better wire so I can be sure it me and not the wire that sucks! The exhaust is stainless not chrome slim. So what settings would you guys be using if you were to weld it? Thanks!

Very often there's a table on the inside of the hinged door you open to get at the wire feed and that gives you the setting you need roughly. The manual might also have the table.

Supposing there's no table, at a rough guess it's 40A per mm, so measure the exhaust and set it on that basis, (obviously you very often are dealing with a thickness such that you can't get it exactly right) then find some scrap the same thickness and try it on that first, adjusting the wire speed till it seems right. It's a bit easier if you can get someone else to adjust the wire speed slowly while you weld.

Even if you have the table, it just gives a starting point from which you tune things but it cuts down the amount of experimenting and fiddling.

Well, that's the way I'd go about it.

Obviously there's no point anyone saying specifically what settings they'd use on another model of MIG welder because they wouldn't translate to anything useful on yours.

If you keep your eyes open you sometimes see scrap of the sort of thickness you're interested in (a couple of mm thick or so) chucked in skips as shop display stands and part of furniture etc.

 

[T0rnado69]

i dont like gas less, its like pigeon ****.
i was helping a friend who was doing a container conversion to a static burger bar.
i took my welder and bottle, coz i thought i aint using the guys gasless mig.
it was a new 135te and proberly would weld lovely using normal wire and gas.
but gasless, ha...

it would weld fine one min, then keep jamming the next.
and it looks ugly....
well one day i had to go up on top of the container to weld the big vent in above the grill area.
he couldn't get up there due to his hip.
being left handed i tacked the left side and front while standing on the ladder.
then got up on the roof under a large tarp.
and tacked the other end then the backside.
welded up the back, then i had to get down for the loo.
laying on a cold metal sheet roof, soon goes through you.
so stood on ladder and welded up the left side.
and the front. got back up on roof and it was a nightmare trying to weld the last side.
keep sticking and jamming, couldn't see if you got it all as its flux core wire.
ild had enough and told him to do the last side standing on the ladder
as he was right handed.

it keep sticking. like feeding issues, proberly due to the inconsistent of the wire.
i hate gas less.........

gas all the way for me

 

[Rob85]

Is the mig gasless only? If it has options for gas mig then make sure your polarities are correct. I wouldn't want to run your welder down because for small jobs it should be perfectly adequate so jut plug away with it. If you want some quick scrap for practice you could try a car breakers yard, they usually have some old crap lying around you could nab, or or try a steel stockists, they usually have a drops bin where you can buy bits at scrap price.

 

[killerbanjo]

Sadly there is no table, I have been looking for a table online from a similar welder but no luck so far... 40A per mm sounds like a good rule that I can start with, is there a similar one for wire speed or is it just down to best judgment and the speed you weld? Tornado, I hope I don't have any issues like that. I have not had any feeding issues so far and it feeds nicely! If I had a garage or a larger house I think I would get a bottle and a DC mma/scatch start tig rig as I would really really love to learn tig. But I think this is not a bad place to start. Rob the welder is gasless only, although I have seen some people drill a hole in the side of the a shroud and have a constant source of gas going through it, just have to remember to switch the gas on and off. http://hackaday.com/2010/04/23/flux-cored-to-mig-welder-conversion/

Thanks all for the replies, seems like a good forum!

 

[PTvor]

There are few Youtube videos on setting up MIG sets and getting the wire feed right. I had quick look but I couldn't see much specifically for fluxcore (gasless wire). I found this

which may be some help.

I'm pretty sure there is a rule for wirefeed in inches per second and amps but to use it involves measuring the speed of the wire for various settings - most mig wire speed controls have arbitrary graduations and are not calibrated, but you'll always want to fine tune the wire speed.

Incidentally, everyone talks about amps with MIG sets but they are constant voltage and the power setting alters the voltage. The current changes with the wire speed.

As has been said, gasless MIG is a bit ropey and machines like that aren't particularly easy to use, but you should be able to do some useful things with it.

Drilling a hole in the shroud to have a gas shielded MIG. What a bodge.

 

[Rob85]

If you wanted you could probably take the shroud off and bin it. There's no real need for it if you're welding with flux core in my opinion