still can't weld

You stated your neighbor has a big 220v Machine you borrowed. I'm going to assume he can weld??? If so.... Instead of just borrowing the Machine. Ask him to give you some insight and help! Clean metal, voltage, wire speed, etc, etc. Lots of factors to get a correct weld.
 
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Ken H> said:
The first welding job I had when about 19 or so is the first time I heard that "roll of nickels laid over" to describe a good weld. 19 yrs old? WOW - that was over 50 yrs ago! I guess that makes me an antique! {g}
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Ooops, when I wrote the above I wasn't thinking "MIG" - I've never used a MIG welder in my life. I started with stick welder in my teen years, first welding job was with stick. The "stack of dimes" was especially referenced to a vertical weld. Moving the puddle to hold molten metal in place as the weld is moved upward tends to leave that "stacked dime" look. It's been too many years since I made my living burning welding rods to even think about giving advice on welding when very knowledgeable folks like ya'll are here to help.

Hoss, you sure made a good statement on "ready for FiF" - it's never ceased to amaze me how often a knifemaker makes the statement "never welded before" on the show. How can he advance into forge welding without knowing something about welding?
Ken H>
 
The most common error my students make when learning to MIG weld is keeping the torch too far from the work. Excess wire "stick-out" leads to a lousy porous weld that sits on the surface with little penetration and can break easily. Less common errors involve moving the puddle too fast, adjusting the machine incorrectly for either voltage or wire speed, forgetting to turn on the shielding gas and failing to keep the gas nozzle clean. I would suggest some local coaching, an experienced welder may spot the problem quickly
 
I was at a friend's shop Sunday and he was complaining about bad welds and excess splatter when welding up his billets and on making dies for his press. I asked what size rod he is using ( stick welder) and the welder setting. I suggested a bigger rod and a higher setting. Then I asked him about pre-heating the billet. He said he had never heard of that. I explained that especially when welding up 1" thick pieces of metal, the cold block will cool the puddle and the incoming molten metal will splash the puddle out. This is where all the splatter comes from. He called the next day and said he had warmed up two pieces in the forge a bit, turned his welder to max, and stuck in a 3/16 rod. The weld was a major improvement. I told him the same rules apply to welding handles on his billets.
 
I was grining off some of the blobs from end of the billet and noticed that some of them were actually hollow. What happened there?
 
Rebar sucks for a forge welding handle. Get ya some 1/2" x 1" bar stock and use that.
Then learn how to weld. :D No need to preheat a Damascus stack, its basically a junk weld.
 
jdm61 said:
I was grining off some of the blobs from end of the billet and noticed that some of them were actually hollow. What happened there?
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Err do you have the shielding gas turned on? How far away is the nozzle of the gun from where you are working?
 
jdm61 said:
I was grining off some of the blobs from end of the billet and noticed that some of them were actually hollow. What happened there?
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Hollow sounds like a shielding gas problem. Just double check that first you have solid wire. If you look at the spool it should be ER-70S6. Next check the gas pressure. It should be set from 25-35 lbs pressure. Also sometimes the last 500 lbs in the bottle doesn't run well. Next check the Nozzle it should be clean and free if spatter buildup. You can pull off the cup and check that all the hole that the gas comes out of are clean. Put the nozzle back on and it should sit so the tip is centered and just slightly below the edge. When you weld.you want the air around you to be as still as possible. Some codes the cutoff is a 3 mph breeeze. When you weld you want to keep about 1/2 " of space between the contact TIP (not nozzle edge) from your work. When using mig the further your tip is from the work the colder the weld. Don't just keep turning up your gas to solve coverage problems. Gas to high is the most common cause of poris welds. The higher velocity can suck air into the stream. The second cause of problems is gas to low and that could be caused be a lot of things.
 
"This is some welding I did yesterday at work."

JT... is/was that mig? or tig? I'm wanting a new machine, a small one I would love to be able to weld like that.
 
anvilring said:
"This is some welding I did yesterday at work."

JT... is/was that mig? or tig? I'm wanting a new machine, a small one I would love to be able to weld like that.
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That's MIG. He did a nice job with no crater at the end.
When it comes to choosing a welder if you thing you can learn to Tig weld there are some good lower priced inverters that can do stick and tig both on steel only. When it come to wire feed you get what you pay for. Some of the Lincolns and Fronius will do some amazing things but can cost as much as a car. The company I was with last year had some Lincolns that were 17k a piece. When looking at a lower priced unit just be aware of its limitations. I learned on a little Lincoln 110v in my dad's garage in the 90s. I would recommend buying one that has fully adjustable wire speed and voltage. The units that just have power ranges should be avoided unless all you are try to do is limited sheet stock.
 
anvilring said:
"This is some welding I did yesterday at work."

JT... is/was that mig? or tig? I'm wanting a new machine, a small one I would love to be able to weld like that.
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Well I can weld like that with any kind of welder... I don t want to disappoint you , but it s YOU who weld no 100000 dollars welder ...and you need to learn a few tricks :thumbsup:
 
When I was at Claude Bouchonville's shop in Belgium a few years back, he was using a very nice TIG welder to tack up his billets and handles and doing it without any filler metal. That worked quite well. Can that be done with a reasonably priced inverter rig?
 
jdm61 said:
When I was at Claude Bouchonville's shop in Belgium a few years back, he was using a very nice TIG welder to tack up his billets and handles and doing it without any filler metal. That worked quite well. Can that be done with a reasonably priced inverter rig?
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Yes. It would be perfect for it. Fusion welding is a great place to start. You only have one thing to hold and you are just controlling the spark gap . Options like lift arc or high frequency start are nice. With tig the heat is so focused that you don't need a large unit. Dont be afraid of machines that are the size of a loaf of bread.
 
jdm61 said:
When I was at Claude Bouchonville's shop in Belgium a few years back, he was using a very nice TIG welder to tack up his billets and handles and doing it without any filler metal. That worked quite well. Can that be done with a reasonably priced inverter rig?
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I would use filler for the handles, definitely, but yeah, and make sure you do your research on the unit you buy. There's worlds of differences between the good ones, and the shit ones, but a good inverter tig can do almost anything a large transformer machine can, within it's amperage range, and is better for small work. I've been wanting one for a while.

TIG is never going to be as fast or convenient as MIG, but as long as you get an AC capable unit, there's not much they can't do, exceedingly well. Although, if you're just wanting to learn to "stick billets together and put on handles", you're barking up the wrong tree, in terms of minimum skill required. However, if you want to learn to weld properly, starting with TIG will force you to learn just that.
 
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