Need a MIG welder

[jtap]

sheet metal use the .023-.025 wires. 1/8” to 1/4” use .030 and 3/16 up to 3/8” I use .035

Match the size wire to the material thickness. .030 will prove to be difficult to weld body panels with out warping or burning through especially at a novice level.

The wire I got is .023 and I am planning to start as low as possible and try to get it to work.

Well let's keep it real here. OP is likely not using a machine capable of obtaining beads like that. Not with spray transfer anyway but good to see those results none the less. Good looking burn in and pennetration.

I will likely not be running any beads but just spot welding. I had to drill out ~60 spot welds from one piece I need to weld back in.

[jtap]

sheet metal use the .023-.025 wires. 1/8” to 1/4” use .030 and 3/16 up to 3/8” I use .035

Match the size wire to the material thickness. .030 will prove to be difficult to weld body panels with out warping or burning through especially at a novice level.

I'm going to need a bit of an extension cord for this thing. What size wire does it need for 20 or 25 feet? I think the ones I have are too small. The wire for the 20amp outlet is 12 gauge...so I would assume that should be adequate in an extension cord, right?

[N2 Welding]

I'm going to need a bit of an extension cord for this thing. What size wire does it need for 20 or 25 feet? I think the ones I have are too small. The wire for the 20amp outlet is 12 gauge...so I would assume that should be adequate in an extension cord, right?

I’d have to suggest you read the owners manual. Extension cord gauges are usually suggested by length of cord in the user manual.

[Dan]

Definitely go with a 12 ga extension cord.

On the wire if you run several brands back to back you'll see a difference in arc quality and puddle wet out.

[jtap]

I’d have to suggest you read the owners manual. Extension cord gauges are usually suggested by length of cord in the user manual.

Yep. It was in there. 14 up to 25 ft and 12 up to 50 ft.

I'll do the 12. I don't want to step down from the solid wire gauge.

[jtap]

Should I make a new thread for pics?

[Dan]

Should I make a new thread for pics?

If the subject matter is still oriented towards the welder this thread was started for post pics in this thread.

[jtap]

If the subject matter is still oriented towards the welder this thread was started for post pics in this thread.

Yeah. I hooked it up today and got some practice material. I had watched this video to familiarize myself with how the wrong way to do things looks and sounds and how to correct it to hopefully help me dial it in better.


After a bit of practicing I welded the 3 sides of this little tab. I don't think I'm going to bother to cut out the sheet metal in the car and try to match up my pieces I want to weld in for butt welding. I was thinking lap welding would give me a bit more room for error.



I had tried the A voltage (lowest) setting and messed with the speed and couldn't really get it working well so I went up to B. I ended up with a wire speed of 3. It was tougher to get it started than to run a bead, at first, but once it was started I could keep it going decently, I thought. I ended up making sure I started it on the stacked piece then tried to just dip down into the thinner piece as I went along.

I need to practice spot welding, or at least filling spot weld holes, but I figure it should be like lap welding I was doing where I just do a spin around the inside of the holes. I am fairly confident I can get it done with this setup. It's so much easier than trying to stick weld this thin stuff. I had no confidence I could do the job like that and be satisfied.

I set my gas so the ball floated in between the 15-20 marks on my flow meter.

Here's some of me trying up and down beads on a flat surface. I think they were mostly up but then I tried down on the 2 rightmost B beads, iirc. And I dropped the wire speed down for that, I think. I know I adjusted the speed. I think it was down 1 to go down and up 1 to go up (from the 3 I was using for horizontal lap welds I was practicing).

[jtap]

By flat I meant flat but vertical for those up and down beads. I suppose you guys should be able to tell that i'm dealing with gravity there. Re-reading it though it sounds more confusing than I wanted it to be.

[jtap]

jtap. Post up pics of your weld beads. Let the pros here judge your weld beads for constructive guidance on what if anything you can try to improve.

Apparently my welds are so bad they have scared everyone away

[G-ManBart]

15-20 is a bit low on the gas flow....I'd set it at 25CFH and leave it there for now.

I may be missing something, but it sounds like you're new to MIG and trying vertical beads before you have the parameters figured out for beads on a flat surface?

If so, you probably want to take a step back. Get some scrap that isn't really thick or thin...something like 1/4", use the settings on the machine and see what happens. Consistent travel speed, torch angle and distance are what you need for nice beads. Draw a line on the scrap (which should be pretty clean) which you can use to follow and then push (pulling can be used, and is required for flux core, but save that for later) to develop a baseline. Do that a few times and play around with wire speed and voltage to see what happens to the bead.

Once you can lay down a pretty straight, even bead that looks reasonable you can move on to joints and up/down orientation.

[jtap]

15-20 is a bit low on the gas flow....I'd set it at 25CFH and leave it there for now.

I may be missing something, but it sounds like you're new to MIG and trying vertical beads before you have the parameters figured out for beads on a flat surface?

If so, you probably want to take a step back. Get some scrap that isn't really thick or thin...something like 1/4", use the settings on the machine and see what happens. Consistent travel speed, torch angle and distance are what you need for nice beads. Draw a line on the scrap (which should be pretty clean) which you can use to follow and then push (pulling can be used, and is required for flux core, but save that for later) to develop a baseline. Do that a few times and play around with wire speed and voltage to see what happens to the bead.

Once you can lay down a pretty straight, even bead that looks reasonable you can move on to joints and up/down orientation.

I only tried vertical after a bunch of horizontal stuff.

I was just practicing the lap welds because that's what I bought this welder to do in this car.

I'll do some more practicing on thicker stuff and up the gas as you suggested. Thanks.

[jtap]

Also, I was only doing the vertical stuff because I had a lot of flat space on the piece of metal I had torn out of the car and it was easy to grind down there. I probably should have unclamped it from my bench and rotated it 90 degrees to keep working on my flat welding. I should only have about 20 spot welds to do that are vertical on the side of the trans tunnel. The ones along the floor boards will be more important though along with the hole patches I am wanting to weld in.