Photos of first crack with portamig

[too old for this]

Still not got any fresh scrap,so here is a couple of photos,first attempt(with a mate setting up the machine)comments please

Welds look a little tall?third one down-think maybe a bit too close with the shroud(little shroud shaped marks)penetration looks ok?
Never welded before,cant wait to get some thinner stuff,really glad I went with the portamig reccomendations,think I'm going to like this welding malarkey

 

[shenion]

Needs a bit more power for the welds to lay flatter.

Looks real good. that fillet weld is real close, maybe just a bit more power. Hard to see but may have a bit low torch angle.

More spatter than there should be, maybe wire speed a bit high.

Overall looks real good.

 

[knoba]

1st time..?

Cracking welds, well done, really nice!

When I first saw the pictures & the marks in the weld beads, I thought "why has he been using a chipping hammer on MIG welds?"

 

[TechnicAl]

Hint : never use the words crack or cracking when referring to welds
Puts the fear of God in me

 

[too old for this]

Thanks....I will take the power up a bit and slow the wire feed(just the fine power?leave the coarse alone?)It is first go,but with the advantage of a very quick set up from a mate,I couldn't take it all in,he only had 1/2 hour to spare,so not too clear on gas shielding flow,gauges dont work like my dive bottles ,everything seems a bit back to front,but have the flow at about 10 and it seems ok.I have budgeted on wasting a bottle of gas a rake of wire and a shroud or two screwing things up.


Oh and first comedy cock up......wrapped plastic around the wire,to prevent it rusting(paranoid moi?)No prizes for guessing who cranked it up without taking the bag off.............muppet,still,at least I now know how to load the wire on and get it through the liner.Stay tuned for the next buffoon moment.

Knoba.........
I recognise that quote

 

[gavuk]

Save your little silica gel bags that come in everything and place them under the wire cover out of the way ........not used this solution as i've never had a problem with rust myself

 

[R Kraft]

The welds look good.
I would say that the power is set a little low for that thickness of metal.
You might try brushing or grinding any impurities off of the metal surface.
Rust and mill scale will cause welds to be less perfect.
Robert

 

[malcolm]

The calculator ought to give some guidance to starter settings for the switches: http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/calculator.htm The settings go course 1, fine 1 -> 2 -> 3, course 2 fine 1 -> 2 -> 3 etc.

The beads look good - consistent speed and a weld pool going on. You'll not learn a lot more doing them on different voltage settings. Try some edge to edge butt welds and judge the voltage setting and wire speed by the penetration.

 

[too old for this]

Thanks chaps,all comments appreciated,will stick the 215 into the calculator and try some of the recommended and some butt welds and post up for critique......what a great site..

 

[knoba]

too old for this
Knoba.........
I recognise that quote

Yeah... ok! You got me there.

It was too good a quote to miss... Allow me to return it to it's rightful home...

"buy the best and hopefully one day you'll be as good as the tool"

 

[Faaluke]

Something else to try is to adjust settings with each run you do. So slightly raise the power with each new bead you run and label the welds accordingly. That way you can fine tune things and have a record of what settings help improve the weld, and which make it worse. Then perhaps stick with a certain power level and fiddle with the wire speed. I found it to be a good method to use to get a feel for how the welder operates, and how wire speed / power affects the weld.

Looking good though!