First time beads.

[OuBallie]

Thoughts on my first attempt please.
Welding aimed at renovating my 1935 Austin Seven Ruby ARQ.
I'm an O/A guy, but the usery prices mean it is a non-starter, otherwise I'd have finished the welding by now.
Did these beads yesterday after setting everything up, and now see why MIG is so popular.
My other machine is a ubiquitous CT-312, with my gas welding experience helping me with the TIG BUT I haven't yet mastered the 'Do not dip'. O/A is a doddle in comparison.
This machine has transformed my stick welding out of all proportions compared to the old xformer ones.

I'm pretty pleased for a first try, but would appreciate any comments/suggestions/brickbats et al.
Wire is 0.6mm (22g) as supplied with the machine.
The machine was purchased years ago, but fate/nature stepped in in the form of Big C, so that threw a spanner into the works, meaning that I have only now got round to using it.
Had to remove the cover to re-seat all the spade connectors as the feed motor was dead.
My profession was in the electrical industry - 500v to 11Kv, now retired.




The butt weld was a series of spot welds, just to try.
Will try welding splits in body parts tomorrow.

Geoff - Austin body parts that is not mine

 

[redwine300]

Not too bad for a first attempt mate,

 

[cumbriasteve]

Your runs on the 2mm are too high and probably have little penetration, try a higher setting on the power until they are similar to the TIG runs.

The butt welds appear to have been done over a fairly big gap which makes burning the edges away very easy when you try to bridge it, each tack/weld should start on the end of the previous one to provide what resembles a more continuous weld rather than a line of slightly separated tacks.

I hope you do a running project thread on the car restoration, it would be very appreciated by the members.

 

[trewjohn2001]

The Mig butt weld looks very close to how I do it - I leave more or less the same gap you have. You can see yourself where you have missed a couple of places. I find it much easier to get a flat weld with a gap. If I´ve missed in a few places I linish the top of the weld off not all the way but just so you arent trying to weld over thick tacks, fill in the gaps and then linish off again. Wire brush and then shine a torch from the backside in and see if there are any pin holes.

I´d really like to try TIG on some body panels the MIG way is very time consuming and i´m never 100% happy with the overall result. I think with Tig it should be possible to make joins you cant see.

 

[OuBallie]

Redwine300,
Thanks for the compliment.

Cumbriasteve,
Have done as you suggested and what a difference.
No gap butt weld was a pleasure, and varying the speed I moved the torch, angle and wire length all had a noticeable effect, leaving the settings as previous except for the last lot when I tried all settings just to see what happened.
Will be posting more photos.

Austin Seven:
The following sites show my progress, but will gladly duplicate here if wished:
Austin Seven Friends
http://pub25.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=2099944454&frmid=5&msgid=993979&cmd=show
Old Classic Cars
http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/foru....php?t=17425&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Trewjohn2001,
Having done a butt weld with no gap now, that will be my preference in future as it was so much easier, quicker and neater, for me at least.
TIG is much much slower, but as you have no doubt seen in the photo, much flatter, and best of all as close to gas welding as makes no odds, so hammer & dolly work the same as following gas welding - easier.

Geoff - 30° in Carport NOT conducive to welding.

 

[Miggy89]

some interesting looking bodges on the austin site geoff

 

[OuBallie]

Photos as promised.



Hope the annotations give enough info.
Not having access to better helmets, I cannot compare with the one I have, but no doubt there are better ones.

Geoff - Next will be the modified Machine Mart welding trolley

 

[cumbriasteve]

You are certainly getting some better welds.

The helmet should be ok, have you tried backlighting?

Many people struggle to see the pool and once they illuminate the area with a brighter light find it much easier, I have one of the ebay cheapie 20 watt led spot lights over my weld bench.

I also have one on a stand for when working around the workshops darker areas, or I did until my mate saw how handy it was.

Plenty of working light and cheap as chips to run.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2X20W-War...119065?hash=item2ef2ed1419:g:GCQAAOSwy5ZXC2K7

 

[OuBallie]

Cumbriasteve,
Found out that I have had the the wire sticking out too far.
Glad to hear the helmet is adequate.
The Carport, where I do all my welding has clear plastic roof, so plenty light enough except in winter or late afternoon, when I use twin led lamps.
I may not be getting close enough to see see the puddle properly.

Have a problem with the peashooter flow meter though as described in the photo.

Trolley wise, I had to cut some of the top of the bottom shelf's front lip away so that the CT-312 handle would clear the middle shelf when pushed in. It was about 15mm too tall.
Then added a new base to take both bottles with the securing chain attached to bolts by means of wing nuts.
The two cable hooks as supplied where bolted onto one side, due to where I store the unit.
The larger softer casters have made it so much easier to roll over the driveway concrete that the Carport was constructed over.
If there is any hint of the unit tipping, then those casters will be positioned outboard as are the large fixed rear wheels.



Geoff - More photos/info as and when.

 

[OuBallie]

Just done a test on the two sets of gauges, swopping them and peashooters around between bottles and gauges, and they both work perfectly on the Argon bottle but only 5lt/min on the CO2.
When I disconnect the pipe from the bottom of the peashooter, on the CO2 bottle, I get full flow, but when it's back on only 5lt/min so either that small tube from the MIG is restricting flow, or something in the machine itself.
Any thoughts anyone please.
I'm getting passable welds so should I be concerned?

Geoff - Progress is snail paced right now for some reason.