My welds look like crap.

kilby

kilby

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Joined
Mar 17, 2005
Location
Charlotte, NC
BIRD crap. :lol:

Trying out gas on the Hobart 135 for the first time on my gas tank skid plate. I'm welding a piece of 3/16 to the bottom to beef it up. The skid is just a little thinner than 3/16. Can any welding experts look at this pic & give me an idea of what I'm doing wrong? I get, like ONE pass in FIVE that looks good.

Power settings on the welder was set between 2 and 3, wire speed was around 40.
 

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I'm not the expert, but I am gonna check my trouble shooting skills. Are you having the problem of the wire punching the steel....as in the arch is not steady and the wire may be pushing too fast? If I saw those welds on mine, I would turn the wire speed down and make sure my metal is very clean and ground is good enough. Mine usually look like that when I have rust or paint in the area or my wire speed is too higher, OR the heat is not up enough, but it looks like you have the heat high enough based on the heat marks on the steel. Unless you made so many passes that it got that hot. Ok, now ignore me, but I am gonna pay attention to how far off I was when the pros set in:D
 
My expertise says : YOU SUCK.....

that is all :)
















I say Clean steel good as possible.. slow you movement down and slow wire speen down.. and turn heat up..

also when welding from thick to thin.. always leave heat on thicker steel a little longer then thinner metal.. will help even out the weld..
 
Where are you welding? make sure your not getting any wind or air blowing your sheilding gas away...

my advice: drink a beer, smoke a cigarette, what ever you need to do to relaxe some..

you will get it...
 
BRUISER said:
My expertise says : YOU SUCK.....
that is all :)
I say Clean steel good as possible.. slow you movement down and slow wire speen down.. and turn heat up..
also when welding from thick to thin.. always leave heat on thicker steel a little longer then thinner metal.. will help even out the weld..
Click to expand...


I was trying to stay on the thick side longer, and that's definitely right. But when I slowed my movement, it seemed to get too hot and the bead would pile up.
 
Looks to me like your moving too fast, and your wire speed is too fast. Your have to find your happy place with wire speed and your speed. Everyone's different.
 
you also need to pick one setting unless its supposed to be infinitely variable. you need to pick 2 or 3, not leave the switch between them
 
Metto said:
you also need to pick one setting unless its supposed to be infinitely variable. you need to pick 2 or 3, not leave the switch between them
Click to expand...


Oh... sorry...

Between some passes I would change between 2 and 3 to try to figure out how hot i needed to be. That setting isn't variable like wire speed.
 
You're definitely moving too fast. You want the weld to puddle so go very slow. depending on the thicknesses you're welding, you can also try pusing the weld or pulling it. From what I hear, it makes a difference. One is for thicker steels and the other is for thinner. dont really remember, anybody else know? I always push because it's easier to see what my weld is doing and how much penetration i'm getting.
 
I have the same welder, for 3/16" you should use setting 4 to get good penetration. What gas mix are you running? I use 75/25 and that seems to work well. I just set the welder to the recommended settings on the side cover, then fine toon.
 
I've got a 75/25 mix in mine. I'm going to turn it up a bit, slow the feed down and go slower and see what happens... sure felt like it was too hot, but I could have been staying on the thin side too long or something. I've just gotta get the rhythm right for the thick-to-thin transition I guess.

Thanks for all the help so far.
 
The one thing that everyone has not addressed is that you are welding upside down. This makes it much more difficult. If you are right handed drag left to right. Slow down just a bit and as everyone has said, slower on the thicker metal. I agree for the 135 I would be on setting 4 . play with the wire feed till you feel comfortable with it. BAck to the upside down part. My best welds appear when I am comfortable, and have good control of the welder. If I am reaching, in a bind, my welds suck too. Hope this helps.
 
Hey Joel, you were using Flux core previously, correct ? did you reverse polarity of the leads when you went to gas ?

Should be able to do it quick in easy right inside thecover near the feed rollers.

Makes a huge differance

Maybe I missed where you said this, i dunno.

Kevin
 
had the same issue
 
Are you using an extenson cord to power the welder ?

Possibly the wiring on the circut you are using isn't quite up to par for the power demand ?

just tossing out some ideas

Kevin
 
Make sure the area you are attaching the ground to is real clean. Make sure the metal is really clean so that there are no impurities. If you have any kind of gap or you are welding out of position then you need to try to oscilate the puddle a bit. Pause slightly on either side to build the puddle and penetration. Try to figure out a good match between your rate of travel and your wire speed.
Gotta allow time for a fluid puddle to be produced.

This is all just what "they" tell me.
 
Too fast, too cold, too dirty.

Clean it better,slow that wire down some and slow your loop down some. Welding upside down blows. It looks like your trying to weave instead of circle. Try this, small circles, 3/4 of which is on the thicker material, 1/4 is looped onto the thinner material. For practice, grad a piece of 1/4 and 18 guage scrap, work on getting the loop right. Weaving is fine when your on 2 pieces of heavy guage and have a groove or gap, otherwise loop the wire. If you get it right the blue line should be about 1/4 to 3/8 into the thinner material and roughly the same on the thicker. From the back the same if not wider on a loop weld, weaves are pretty close from to rear. You can actually see the thinner material roll into the weld while laying the bead.


Oh, and guit twitching. :flipoff2: Seriously, try either dragging a thumb or supporting your wand hand with your other hand. :beer:
 
I'm not welding upside down... the skid is off the heep and on the floor of the garage. But I do have a hard time keep steady, like Ratman said.

Wire size is .030, and the circuit I'm working on is a dedicated 20a w/ a 10' 10 guage extension cord that I made.

We got some good info in here. Thanks!
 
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