First welding attemt(s)

[larrynjr]

I received my replacement MIG gun from N.T.'s the other day and today I installed it and tried my hand at welding.

The first pieces I tried were these 2 pieces of cut off tongs. My second attempt was a RR spike to one of the bus brake drums, that held on a downward hammering but broke off on a sideways strike. The 3rd and last of the day was 2 pieces of 1" x 1/4". First I welded right down the seam of the join, then I flipped it over and ran a bead back and forth, perpendicular to the seam. I used flux core wire for all the welds.

I can tell this is going to take some practice!

[Jose Gomez]

Not bad for a first effort. The only way to get good at anything is with ample amounts of practice. Here is some light reading about flux cored arc welding for you Flux-cored arc welding - Wikipedia Hope it helps.

[Dr Dean]

Hi Larry, if you don't mind may I critique, if you do please disregard. Looking at the 4th picture, not too bad but yes there is room for improvement. Looks like your heat and wire speed is pretty close. Practice consistant travel speed. That is what gave you the fat then skinny weld bead. A couple of things to watch for on surface appearance is undercutting and poor fusion at the edges of the weld bead. Another thing is evenly spaced ripples in the weld bead that look like this ( not this < the first is proper heat and travel speed. This < is fast travel speed don't do that. Another item that causes heated debate is making your weld bead look like a stack of dimes rather than smooth evenly deposited filler material. I personally prefer not wasting time making the stack of dimes and I think that it makes for a weld bead with less stress points.
I'll try to find some pics from some people I hold in very high regard.

[larrynjr]

Thanks Jose and Dr Dean, I appreciate the critique that's why I posted the pictures to get just that. I know I need lots of practice and getting helpful info from the great people here is,................ well,..................helpful!

[markb]

I see a big improvement in the pics you posted, keep practicing, it's a lot like grinding blades but I like welding more, not that I'm any better at it.

[larrynjr]

One thing I didn't anticipate was how hard it is to see through the glass of the welding helmet. Until the arc starts, it was almost impossible to see where I wanted to start welding. I ended up moving outside for some direct sunlight to help me be able to see.

[Black Ink]

larry fill those plates up!!!!when I was in welding school we started with a 3/8'' plate and our teacher would make us weld on the same plate till it was 1.5''or more.Fluxcore was one of the trickiest welding styles to learn for me cause the molted steel and flux are so close in color.The best advise my teach gave me and I hope it helps you is dont just watch the puddle look 360*,in other words watch where your going and where you been.Hope it helps.

[Jose Gomez]

Moving outside was probably a good idea, especialy with the ton of stinky smoke generated by self-shield wire. If you are going to weld indoors make sure that you have adequate ventilation. Also be aware that self-shield produces tons of sparks that are extremely good at lighting things on fire, and that fire is very dificult to see through a welding hood, which usually gives the fire a pretty good head start.

[Dr Dean]

Larry in all honesty I prefer to teach the way I learned. Start with oxy/acetlene then move to stick. After you are compentent with both then running wire feed is a walk in the park. You'll know you got it figured out when the slag peels off by itself.

[larrynjr]

I'll need to wait a bit before I try it with Oxy/Acet. My cheap regulator(s) that I bought don't work anymore so now I need to buy some good ones. For Oxy/Acet welding do you use the same rods as if I was stick welding?