Welding Thread

[snowtigger]

I wish my grandad Jackson was still alive, during ww2 he wasn't allowed to enlist because of his welding skills so had to teach classes of women to weld, he then helped build/weld Bailey bridges and the docking platforms for D-day, later on he was certified for nuclear pressure vessels.

he died of cancer when I was very young, wish he had been able to teach me his knowledge or to pass on the gene of the welding gods.

But practice practice practice, I was also told to buy a flow regulator on my gas bottle and work with the garage door shut to stop the gas getting blown away from the wire, but have a window or some type of ventilation handy as old under body sealant can let of some nasty fumes, also a bucket of sand or water to douse any thing that catches fire, have seen a triumph spitfire carpet catch fire and set the whole car ablaze and scramble to push it out side because of the smoke and not wanting to burn the workshop down

[Grenade]

Yeah, don't take safety for granted that's for sure. If there's anyone that wants to learn to weld and has access to some type of welder, this thread is a fair place to start. Watch the flammable materials as Tiggs says, old undercoating is a pain. It catches fire almost instantly.

And This, Yes very good:

Very true about raising the heat and reducing wire speed

Alot of the time you can hear when the welder is set up correctly that is true, but a tip i was taught when i was an apprentice is to have the welder temp as high as the metal will take but without melting it, the hotter the better, the cleaner the metal the better too
Wire sppeed is as important, too fast and it will just float across the top of the metal without penetrating the metal and spit half inch sections of melted wire at you, too slow and all you will do is keep melting gun tips
The only real way of getting better at it, is by doing it, practice, practice and more practice

I really have only been using my MIG on thick tubing, angle iron and braces, brackets etc. Sort of crude I admit. Our high end bicycle frames are Chromoly TIG and the welds look so good you want to eat them. So for finely crafted things, MIGs are inferior, I agree with Paul W there.

On the first bike engine car that I built, I bought control arms that were TIG crafted. Expensive, but really nice. On the second bike engine car, I made the upper and lower control arms with my MIG. They weren't that great. I didn't make a fixture to hold them perfectly and subsequently they were all a little different. Also, because of welding in the tight angles and getting sloppy on occasion- they were very hard to assemble and then set up the car's tracking. We used an old method called "stringing the car", but that's another story.

But, I learned and on the next build- I bought custom made, designed on CAD TIG chromoly control arms and their mounts. Again, very expensive but if you want high quality, laser cut steel and properly designed and built suspension parts- make room in your budget for that quality.

Let's see some examples of other people's work, we know Paul W has got it down, his stuff looks great.

[Goreden]

I guess that's my point "learning to weld" is ten times easier with a proper gas shielded mig, but if anyone can make a gasless work and they are happy with it then fair play.

I definitely agree Paul, learning to weld with a "gassed" is much easier no doubt about it, i learned with a "gassed" mig and personally wouldn't use anything other even on small stuff, exhuasts etc, but i guess you have to way up the price of the mig etc with the amount it will get used which is where i think the gasless migs come in

Here is something that me and my brother made today to fit my japspeed to my V6

All done with a "gassed mig" although we didn't do the right hand side flange :-)

[cdwood2010]

okay, so here's my welder. I have had some issues with wire feed, now resolved, but in all fairness it is probably due for replacement.

[thomp1983]

That can be converted to use gas mate, usually it's swap the torch and earth polarities and fit gas wire and your good to go. That clear pipe is for use with the small disposable bottles but you can get an adaptor to allow you to use proper sized bottles

[cdwood2010]

Funny you should mention that. The first pic you can see the polarities for gas and no gas, but it looks like they are currently the wrong way round. Which I find a little strange, as its pretty clear. What would that do?

And I'm guessing I need a regulator of some sort?

C.

[headcase]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hobby-MIni...item20f34e84c6

:)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-X-Argon-...item5d30f6e6ad

[headcase]

or one of these
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Single-Sta...53445805&rt=nc

to use with a bigger bottle

[Grenade]

Yep, that takes gas. With no gas, I'd connect the leads as shown. If you do end up using gas to shield, you'll have to obviously get different wire and yep- you'll need a regulator to control pressure and volume. I suggest this on a proper bottle. The bottle is about $80 and the regulator is about $30.


Some things I notice about your welder are: Clarke is a good brand, so that's a plus. The dial for the wire speed, is good- you need that adjustability. They're all different, but if you used it with the wire coming out fast (as I assume it is, because it's set at #6 out of 10) then slow that way down. Another point is that the heat range, is either MIN or MAX. Not sure what the other "1" & "2" toggle switch does, but hopefully it also controls the heat range. I have found that with the one I use, even a subtle movement on the dial effects the amount of heat that comes out of the machine.

The cheap tool places, sell ones that say: Wire speed= High/Low and Arc= High/Low and that's it. My buddy bought a real cheap one and he used once and returned it. The adjustments are pretty important.

It's like Goredon says, you want the heat as high as you can get it, without blowing through or melting the work, and the wire speed slow enough so that it only comes out using the correct amount, for the weld you need and the speed of your hands. It's best to match your slow hand movement with the wire feed speed, provided you have the heat set correctly to actually join the material. That way, it's not pushing your hand to move faster and it's not sitting in one spot long enough to make a giant glob of shit. If you're ready to get a replacement welder, get one that is more adjustable with the voltage, instead of High/Low.

[Grenade]

or one of these
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Single-Sta...53445805&rt=nc

to use with a bigger bottle

Damn, that's a good one at a great price.