That's a mig weld... sometimes there's a bit of "dandruff" on the edge of the steel from the laser cutter. It's a few thou thick, and comes off easily, but sometimes I don't get it all.
I'm no pro myself. Right or left doesn't matter. The term is push or pull. With a MIG, I've always been told to push. It's hard to describe without pictures, but, lets say you are welding a butt joint. YOu would hold the gun at 90deg to the joint, then lean it back. So if you are welding right to left, the tip would be aimed about 15 deg pointing left. If the gun were angled right, you'd be pulling.
walking the cup is the shit! The welders at work use this technique, especially on pipe. Looks beautiful. It's a technique where you rock the torch back and forth between the two pieces being welded. I can't wait to learn it.
Yeah, I use it a lot. It looks wicked on pipe, especially if you can do it all the way out on the cover pass. You set the cup on the work piece, and use the edge of the cup for leverage. On a fillet you want to make sure the cup is big enough to clear the weld as you move over it, and you weave the cup back and as you move foward. On a pipe groove it's similar until you starting getting out towards the last passes. Some guys don't like to walk it all the way out, but that's my preference. At that point I rest the front edge of the cup on the bead itself and rock it back and forth as I move it foward. You can do it a lot of different ways, using different motions, different tungsten stickout, and different cup sizes. -Josh
Ive got a question about my welder. Hopefully it's ok to post it here. I just came it from trying to weld a few peices for my bike. I have a Miller Syncrowave 180SD and I am using a Weldtech torch. The part of the torch that houses the collet body gets really hot. I can only do a short weld before it's too hot to hold. What would cause this?
anyone with enough practice can make pretty welds..... a good welder can fix his mistakes agree???????????
easy way to remember this is the old saying "if it has slag, then you drag"...so a mig weld you would push, meaning if you are right handed you would go from right to left and vice versa
if you're welding steel, or stainless, try a balance of 2..Aluminum is usually around 7. I use a Syncrowave 250 or 350 at work also, The 180 is an air cooled torch correct. I know my brother added the cooler to his. That is also why the torch gets hot so quick
cool. I'll give that a shot and see how it goes. Makes sense, I let someone use my machine recently and they were welding aluminum.
No, that's not correct. You can go either way. Depends on what you want in the way of penetration, bead width/height, etc.
Quote: <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=alt2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset">Originally Posted by cody repp anyone with enough practice can make pretty welds..... a good welder can fix his mistakes agree??????????? </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Am I detecting a bit of a hater?? Then again - I haven't seen your work yet.....maybe your just shinning us on?? Paco
Paco what's up man? Haven't talked to you in a while. Hope things are good. Glad to see you showing your talent. It's well deserved.
"Paco what's up man? Haven't talked to you in a while. Hope things are good. Glad to see you showing your talent. It's well deserved.<!-- / message --><!-- sig --> __________________ -JC" Thanks for the props.......been working on my 46 ford cpe. Last built bike was off to Finland a few months ago. Started another but the car has all my attention. P/U a 96 softy to run around with till car is finished. Then back on the bikes!! Post up some weld pix.......I'm sure you got some!! Paco
Thanks for pointing that out. I only have about 10 hours of TIG under my belt - all being done free-hand (was the way I learned on oxy/acet) - never pondered using the cup itself as a sort of "steady rest". I've heard the term "walking the cup" - and watched a few videos (mostly on pipe), but your witness marks seem to show that you just rested the cup on the material and used a motion similar to what I'd do freehand, but with with better control over distance and consistency by using the cup itself as a resting point. Do I have it right on this "guess" - or are you doing some of the exagerated "walking the cup" type movements that I've seen on pipe welding?
It's pretty similar. I'm assuming you're talking about an open root groove pipe weld, right? For the root pass you'll use a smaller cup and use a very slight movement to walk it up. Every pass out you'll use a slightly wider motion, and you'll move to bigger cups(if possible). By the time you're at or near the cover pass and you don't have the two edges to rest the cup on, your technique will change a bit. You'll either freehand weave, or you'll rest the cup in the middle of the bead and "zig roll zag roll" up the pass. On a curved surface, the trick is to pressure the cup so you can move it with out it slipping ahead. I actually don't do a heck a lot of this as a maintenance welder Our tech center has some amazing instructors and also does certifications, so I've done all the pipe certs, but not much pipe welding other than that. This thread motivated me to practice again
Thanks a bunch! I'm going to be welding quite a bit of stainless exhaust fabrication/welding (lakes style headers) - have practiced a bit with 16 gauge pipe and freehand, am pondering whether or not this technique is applicable on 2 - 2.5" header pipes? What are your thoughts? Any inputs from others?
Thought I would post this shot, it looks nice. Gary builds 32 chasis, he owns Blackboard Hotrods in bakersfield. He use to work on planes before he worked at the Kiwi Konnection.
I can't really take pics of most of the fab and repair stuff I do at my fulltime job, but I've been doing a lot of practice stuff lately. I'm preparing for whatever comes next, I'm not sure Chrysler will be around much longer! Not too much pipe around to mess with, but doing out of position plate is a good way to practice. This is 3/8" plate cut at about a 37* angle, I left a 1/16" gap and about a 1/16" land. I did it vertically up. I can't remember how many passes, maybe 5 or 6? Root was 3/32", then 1/8" out. The cover pass was actually only 1/16" filler, I always misjudge where it'll come out. You want it to come out as flat as possible above the groove's edge. A few more fillets, I was working on getting better penetration into the corner... -Josh
Any more pics?? Here are a couple buckles I did this week. Tig welded 304 stainless, I actually use .030 mig wire for the filler. When there is no groove for the metal to flow in to, stainless is pretty tricky to control! -Josh
The Jalopy Journal
