Technical welding, whats needed, and how is it done best with a budget?

In your vid that metal is still too rusty and you need tight gaps. You should also have the tip farther away with a touch more wire sticking out to start. Also, cut off your dingleberries each time before you try and start a weld. Side cutters work well.

Your metal should look like this.

 

Try just getting it to lay a bead on a single sheet of metal first. Play around with your voltage and wire speed settings until you can get it to do that. Make sure it is feeding wire constantly as well. Just hold the gun in the air and pull the trigger and make sure the wire is coming out at a consistent rate.

 

i have a pair of those, didnt think i should do that. thank you.

 

Tman's advice above is good. Steel needs to be bright silver before you start welding it. Wire brush is never enough, you need a grinder on there. If the sheetmetal falls apart with the grinder, you haven't cut enough away. And try to weld with both pieces touching each other, or with as minimal gap as possible.

 

I edited my post, go look at the pic I uploaded. That is they type of fit and prep you should strive for. Notice how clean the metal is?

CLEAN metal. I know you see folks on here tacking rusty metal together or especially on youtube. THIS IS WRONG! They are hacks in reality. Professional fabricators spend more time cleaning, prepping and getting the fit right before they ever touch the welder.

 

what should i use then, im using a wire wheel on an angle grinder, im assuming that isnt enough

 

Slow down. You are not drawing with a pencil. Hold it in one place an get the puddle started and then slowly move it. The way you are waving the torch around you will never get it to weld.

 

You’re moving way too fast, let the metal and wire melt together! Also , while learning work on a bench seated! It will take a while, but everyone I ever taught to weld, moves way to fast at first. It takes practice to be able to hold the gun at a steady pace and distance from the metal! But you are on your way! Also grind the metal to shiny clean….this will help you to learn….because it is easier to weld bright metal!



Bones

 

We used a variety of 3m and Roloc abrasive stripping wheels.

 

Practice, and when you are done, practice some more. When I went for my New York City certification, we did nothing in the shop for a month, but practice. Granted the NY license is with stick and 1" steel both overhead and vertical, but it's basically the same. If you can pass that test, you can weld anything.

 

Take your piece of metal and grind it shiny. Then bend your piece of metal 90 degrees, in your vise.Secure you piece of metal and Weld in the bend , using the up right to steady your gun.




Bones

 

I would also bump you voltage up to low 2 rather than low 1. My little Millar MIG's settings chart has the voltage at 2 which would be low 2 for you and wire speed at 30 which would be 3 for you.

 

itll have to continue tomorrow, i need to clean up for tonight and resume in the morning. i have some chores to do. and i'll clean off my workbench from wiring harnesses (not related to any projects here) for a more proper work area.

 

You are going to love that welder .... I just self taught myself to weld. I bought my welder 5 years ago and it took time to learn how to use it. ..... I can say I'm ok now .... not great.
I kept looking for projects that I really did not care about .... was not worth doing .... other then just the experience I gained from completing the project. Like building a tilt front end for my $35 riding lawnmower.

Welding is only 1 part of doing what you want to do. Fabricating the parts is a bigger more important part of making things work. In your photo in your first post you show a rusted out area that will take at least 5 separate pieces of 18 gauge metal to patch back together ..... Learning to read the damage, make a game plan, then create the repair panels .... then you weld them, then you grind them .... welding is just a part of the whole process.

What I'm trying to say, you do not become a electrician in a weekend. There is a lot to learn and technically you never stop learning.

I'm a medically retired carpenter .... Same thing it take years to develop real skills.
It is not just swinging a hammer.

I'm suggesting you take learning to weld the same as any new career, even if it is just a hobby.
As a hobby it is fun & challenging .... well worth learning ..... possible to make some good $$ on the weekends helping friends ..... I hear electricians had extra money allays though so just not needed

 

Naw, that inner fender patch is an easy 1 piece patch AFTER you know what you are doing. None of the bends are even that crisp. Most of the shaping could be done with basic tools like a small fence post or piece of pipe, a couple 2x4s and a vice.

 

I had a friend tell me that 100 different fellas will set up the same MIG 99 different ways (wire speed, voltage, tension on the wire, gas pressure, wire thickness, etc). In the end all that matters is the penetration and strength of your weld.
Take your time, get those practice panels off the floor and over to your vice or bench (weld in position), welding on the floor is for advanced students.

Stick your face down next to the weld so you can see the puddle that forms, turn up the heat. If you burn through either speed up or turn it down a notch. Some drag the puddle, some push it, batter choice. If you feel the torch being shoved away from the panel, the speed is too high.

Practice makes perfect...as long as it is perfect practice.

 

put some gloves on! welding gloves, made of leather. My hands hurt just looking at the picture of the video

 

Grounding area needs to be as clean as your weld joint

 

IDK if you found a manual or not, but the Lincoln website does have manuals for old machines.

Here's the one for your 10919 unit. http://www.lincolnelectric.com/assets/servicenavigator-public/lincoln3/im756.pdf

In general:
1) Clean the metal until it's shiny
2) Use gloves.
3) Brace your hand against the workpiece so that your movement can be steady.
4) Position the torch more closely to the workpiece.
5) Move more slowly.

It looks like you might also need to increase the wire speed (controlled by the dial) and increase the voltage. The manual has a chart with recommended settings for various material thicknesses.

 

Every ag shop welding student in the country including those who my daughter in law taught started out welding two pieces of scrap metal together and when they got decent on scrap pieces they progressed to simple and then more complex welding projects.

My former coworker and friend John Babich taught AG at Toppenish High School from the early 60's until the mid/late 80's and just about every one of his students made one of these plant stands as their first real welding project after getting past the scrap metal phase. One of my best friends sons made this one in the late 70's when I was teaching Auto Mechanics Next door to John and I ended up with it because his mother already had a couple that his brothers had made in earlier years. There were several skills involved outside of just welding.

Bag working on the car for a few days, Dig out some pieces of similar scrap steel and weld them together and then see how they hold together. When the welds start looking like what you want them to do a few small welding projects, Make a plant stand or decorative garden or wallhanger item. Do some weld junk parts together art. Anything to work on your skills a bit before actually welding on the car it's self. I weld up hangers for hanging baskets for some side money and sell them. I've made a bunch for my wife and have them on most of the posts for our fence that I deliberately left tall for that purpose. Simple and useful and appreciated by whoever you give it to. The main thing is get used to the machine and practice before you weld on the car.

One thing that might be an issue is what wire the welder is set up for, you have to switch a few things around depending if you are running mig wire using gas or flux core.

 

HOLY CRAP ... the kid is young, he might want kids of his own at some point in the future. Do NOT cut off your dingleberries.
Gewed Lowered the internet is full of nonsense and bad advice

 

Says the wise man to the blind man.

As a noob with no major tools, first I would create a patch for in the red ..... it is rusted out there & nothing to weld to.

Then I would tackle the section in blue, I would bend the flange & make the side maybe 2"?
We cant see what is on that side below ... getting that piece welded into the top will give something below to weld to ..... because it has a sharp angle going down in the front, I would probably make that in two pieces possibly 3 & weld them together. Just easier to do with no special tools.
Does some weird stuff as it gets closer to the front.

Then would make the shelf in yellow, should be easy enough to bend to shape .... again could do it in 2 pieces if needed.

I just suspect there is a lot more work there then meets the eye ... we cant see from the photo.
What I mean when I say you need to look at the job then create a game plan on how to complete.
The more experience you have the better your game plan.

The better your tools the better the plan ..... In my example above even a noob can do a solid repair.

 

In addition to the advice already given I'd suggest that if you can't get someone to show you, and even if you can, you should invest a few hours on YouTube. There's a ton of great stuff, albeit buried in tons of shit stuff, which will help you understand the speed of movement, creating a puddle and what it looks like etc. Gotta crawl before walking and your trying to run!

Edit: search mig welding for beginners on youtube. Seek out channels Make it Kustom and Weldingtipsandtricks. Soak it all up.

Chris

 

i feel like im learning how to write, but this time you need to wear a blinding mask and your pen has a lot of fancy settings that will ruin the paper if you dont set them properly

 

Clean metal. Turn the speed up one notch. Move the welder slower to make the bead. WATCH the bead being made. Do you even have a helmet on?

 

i do, im borrowing this one from my dad

 

Another thing that might help when starting is it can be difficult to see when you have lights on above your head as they can cause a reflection on the inside of the helmet so try and make sure you don't have lights directly above/behind your head and if that's not possible taping a piece of heavy cloth across the back of your helmet really helps block out the light.

 

I like to use a flap disk on my grinder to clean the steel off, or if it's really rusty, a grinding stone or cut off wheel.

Watching some Youtube videos of other people welding is also good advice, pay attention to how fast or slow they move, and the distance and angle they use from the tip to the piece. Those are key.

Is that a tip-down helmet? An auto darkening helmet will make you a better welder in one easy step, and I've even heard the cheap HF ones are pretty decent, especially for starting out with MIG.

You've got a decent machine and you're asking the right questions, I have no doubt that after some practice, you're going to be good at this. Some people never learn properly and never get past the birdshit stage.

 

I hope this is not a bad question, but if you are using your dad's welder and borrowing his helmet, can you get him to teach you the basics to get you started? 10 minutes with someone who can weld will make all the difference for you.