Critique my welding if you please........

Tell me what is wrong wtih my welding. OR tell me I don't suck as bad as it seems. I've been practicing and this is the first time I welded on the Jeep. I welded a bead no more than about 2 inches. Then moved up about 6 inches. THen I came back and filled in between the welds. I watned to keep the heat down. Don't know if it made any difference but that's waht I did.

It's a Lincoln 140 with flux core. I have the heat cranked up and the wire feed down almost as low as it can go. One of my problems is most of the time the wire seems to feed way to fast. I start with a 3/8 stickout and after a couple inches or so I've got an inch or so of stickout. What am I doing wrong here?


Picts didnt turn out real well so I had to play with the photo editer.

About a medium looking weld for what I welded today. Not pretty but I think I got penetration. I went back later and filled in between the two welds. I hit it with a grinder to smooth it back down.


I was two passing the weld, building up on one side, then cleaning the dirt dobber welds up and second pass, more on the other side. I really had about a 1/16 to 3/32 gap to fill where the two halves of the frame had split on the weld.


The vertical weld line is one of my better looking. I saw heat discoloration on the metal approx 1/4 from the weld.


My best weld's did not come out on the pict. They were fuzzy. I guess out of around 20 to 30 different beads I laid down, two or three looked good. Just enough to make me think I might get the hang of this.

And I didn't set myself on fire this time!! Goodie for me!

So let me know what you guys thing about my welding......

 

By splatter I would check polarity on machine, may be set for MiG
also you can change stick out by letting your hand back away from weld
try to hold your tight stick out
I run about 1/2"
the longer the stick out the colder the weld heat
tight is hot
long is cold
with wire
on stick welding it is reversed
tight cold long arc hot
give it a try and keep it tight
Also with wire ground is very important as with cleanliness

 

Jrp, thanks for the feedback. Didn't know the length of the stickout changed the temp of the weld. Usually I "pull" the weld, holding the tip around a 30* angle from vertical. I usually tilt the gun slightly to the right so I can see the puddle bettter. Ground is always on a freshly wire wheeled, shiney spot.

I'll verify the polarity. ONce I finish this spool of flux core I will be switching over to shielding gas. I hear that greatly reduces splatter.

And I still think I move the tip too fast. Maybe that is why the wire always seems to come out too fast, I don't get a good puddle to melt in the wire into..........

 

Slow down on your weld pass. It looks like you are moving a little fast. And move the torch in a wave or figure 8 to fill the area completely not just a straight line.

 

I know you don't have a miller but the link points to Miller's site and they have a lot of usefull information and video.

http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/improving-your-skills/mig/

 

or he could increase the wire speed.

you want ether a "C" shape when welding, or a circle. never heard of figure 8s, but perhaps it may help for plug welding.

You could move forward about 1/2-3/4 inch then back up about 1/4 then move forward again 1/2-3/4 inch. This is called stitch welding. works well for welding overlap joints.

 

point gun into puddle when welding except going uphill, wire at leading edge
hold about 1/2" stick out
Set amps to what you want
set wire speed so that when welding you get hot sizzle sound while holding stick out
should not feel wire hitting base metal while welding
puddle should be 1/4" + or - a tad in size, this will give you the travel speed
for a nice fillet on overlap joint, or tee joint, start your bead then point wire into top of where you want metal placed, then move down to lower edge then back up, this is hard to explain with out drawing, but you move foward and down, pause develope round puddle the size you want, then back up 1/2 the puddle size to top edge of puddle, stop pause to develope puddle , and fill, then move foward and down to leading edge of lower foward edge and repeat, this if drawn on lined paper would have dots for pauses left to right
dot on lower line, space 2 dot diameters, dot on lower line, space one diameter place dot on upper line, repeat series acouple times, now connect dots, left to right, lower upper then lower , repeat for rest this is for travel right to left welding reverse for left to right
hope I did not confuse you to much
give it try and let me know
JRP

 

It looks like you are moving too fast. Keep a fluid puddle and weave it slowly. If you weave to fast you will get undercut. You are mixing 3 metals (both pieces and the filler wire) so you need to keep a puddle and you need to weave it slowly back and forth a little bit. You don't need to skip weld the frame. Heat won't bother the frame. Sheet metal it will, frame it will not. As stated above, when wire speed & power are in sinc you will have a nice crisp sizzling sound. You need to have a balance between power & wire speed, making sure you are not too "cold" or not too hot. I like to run it as hot as I can so I can keep a fluid puddle that will allow the impurities to "boil" out of the puddle, and of course get good penetration.

 

here are some pics of how welds should look>>>