16 Hours of GMAW Training/Instruction?

[Broccoli1]

welding cap

https://store.cyberweld.com/miwebe.h...gaAtunEALw_wcB

or any other brand.

[Willie B]

Hell yes. I see this initial purchase as an investment of sorts though since the welder should last a long time and the class will, hopefully, give me a good understanding on how to GMA weld. Now I just have to stop myself from coveting Miller welders.



Ah okay. Yeah I looked up sabre saw and jigsaws popped up, wasn't sure if they were the same thing. Just ordered a ball peen hammer, may have to look around for an anvil now. I'm hoping after this sheet metal project on the truck is complete I'll never work with auto sheet metal again.

Yep just read about cutting disks breaking/shattering. I was just using my safety glasses but I'll probably just use the welding helmet on the grinding mode from now on.

What's the hair dryer for? You just reminded me about some kind of welding hat. I'm follicly challenged so I usually just shave my head. No hair to protect my scalp from flying hot things. All the welding gloves I've seen are HUGE. Not sure if it's that way for a reason or it's just a one size fits all type of deal. Tight fitting gloves for a grinder makes sense though, less material for it to grab hold of. I should have tried to make my own welding cart but for $120 I don't think I could make one for much less.

P.S. good thing welding isn't a fashion show, I have gear/items from several different brands. Hobart welder, Lincoln Electric gloves, HF Vulcan welding helmet, etc. I have absolutely zero brand loyalty lol.

Hair dryer addresses a fogged helmet.

I also have 5 pound ham hands, can't buy gloves shaped like my hands. I love Ove Glove, Zap suggested them. Made of Nomex & Kevlar, they stretch to fit & protect from a great deal of heat. Kevlar offers a lot of cut resistance.

If you get into TIG, you will want a few TIG Fingers from Jody Collier.

[Ambull01]

Hair dryer addresses a fogged helmet.

I also have 5 pound ham hands, can't buy gloves shaped like my hands. I love Ove Glove, Zap suggested them. Made of Nomex & Kevlar, they stretch to fit & protect from a great deal of heat. Kevlar offers a lot of cut resistance.

If you get into TIG, you will want a few TIG Fingers from Jody Collier.

Oh I see. Thought the hair dryer was to cool off the welding surface (the no heat setting) or to dry off paint faster for auto body work lol. Don't know why but I have a thing for gloves. I have about 10 different pairs of gloves so far.

TIG looks awesome but it also seems a bit complicated. I love how pretty the welds look though.

I have one last stupid question. I placed the order for the welder and welding wire through Tractor Supply's online site. The store where I'm going to pick it up from just called me and said the Hobart 210MVP they have is missing the gun. I tried to get them to order a new 210 model but they said I would have to pay shipping, seems pretty BS to me. Anyway, they are going to discount the welder by $300 and I found the gun online for $107 so seems like I'm getting a great deal.

The gun is the Hobart HR100 284546. The description says it's for .030 - .035 wire. I bought .024, .030, and .035 wire with .023, .030 and .035 tips. Do I need to buy another gun for the .024 wire!? Jeez I hope not. Don't really want to buy a gun just to do one auto sheet metal project.

[M J D]

Oh I see. Thought the hair dryer was to cool off the welding surface (the no heat setting) or to dry off paint faster for auto body work lol. Don't know why but I have a thing for gloves. I have about 10 different pairs of gloves so far.

TIG looks awesome but it also seems a bit complicated. I love how pretty the welds look though.

I have one last stupid question. I placed the order for the welder and welding wire through Tractor Supply's online site. The store where I'm going to pick it up from just called me and said the Hobart 210MVP they have is missing the gun. I tried to get them to order a new 210 model but they said I would have to pay shipping, seems pretty BS to me. Anyway, they are going to discount the welder by $300 and I found the gun online for $107 so seems like I'm getting a great deal.

The gun is the Hobart HR100 284546. The description says it's for .030 - .035 wire. I bought .024, .030, and .035 wire with .023, .030 and .035 tips. Do I need to buy another gun for the .024 wire!? Jeez I hope not. Don't really want to buy a gun just to do one auto sheet metal project.

You may or may not need to change the liner for .025. Try it and see what happens. I use .045 liners and they work fine with .030,.035 and .045 wire and that's a 15' gun. For .025 I wouldn't want anything longer than a 10 or 12' gun.

[Ambull01]

You may or may not need to change the liner for .025. Try it and see what happens. I use .045 liners and they work fine with .030,.035 and .045 wire and that's a 15' gun. For .025 I wouldn't want anything longer than a 10 or 12' gun.

Okay, thanks for the reply. I wasn't sure if I would mess something up trying to run the .024 wire. Just read there's an acceptable tolerance that makes the .023 - .025 basically the same. These .02 wires and tips kind of confused me for a bit although, from searching online, it seems like it's a pretty common thing lol. The gun is 10' so hopefully there's no issue. I went a little crazy and also but flux core wire, now just need to accumulate some cheap/free scrap metal to practice. Hopefully the welding helmet arrives soon.

From watching YouTube welding videos, I think keeping the tip at the same distance from the metal/pool will be the hardest part for me. Sliding my hand and keeping the distance the same sounds hard as hell or maybe I'm just overthinking it as I do with a lot of things.

[M J D]

Okay, thanks for the reply. I wasn't sure if I would mess something up trying to run the .024 wire. Just read there's an acceptable tolerance that makes the .023 - .025 basically the same. These .02 wires and tips kind of confused me for a bit although, from searching online, it seems like it's a pretty common thing lol. The gun is 10' so hopefully there's no issue. I went a little crazy and also but flux core wire, now just need to accumulate some cheap/free scrap metal to practice. Hopefully the welding helmet arrives soon.

From watching YouTube welding videos, I think keeping the tip at the same distance from the metal/pool will be the hardest part for me. Sliding my hand and keeping the distance the same sounds hard as hell or maybe I'm just overthinking it as I do with a lot of things.

Just do a short weld and let off the trigger without giving it any thought. That will give your stickout length. Learning how to prop and brace your gun hand will make it easier to control stickout. I generally run as tight of an arc as I can as I find it greatly reduces spatter and makes a much smoother arc. I know you mentioned thin material, but save the frustration and use some .030 wire on at least 14 gauge , preferably 1/8" to get a feel for what your doing. After you master that, gradually work on thinner material until you have that down before you get to the real thin stuff.

[albrightree]

Start with .030" solid wire and 75/25 gas for while. On your machine you can run from 20ga. to 1/4" steel easily with that setup. Like MJD posted start off with at least 1/8" steel to get a feel for padding some beads. Then work up to fillet, lap, and butt welds.

Changing to different wire sizes may create more problems, and frustration than it will solve . If you forget to do something when changing over, unless you have some experience with it , you might think something is wrong with the welder. Most of the 200 amp mig machines seem to run the best with .030" solid wire anyway. Just my opinion from having watched a lot of people struggle learning to mig weld, don't get caught up in all the accessories at first. Concentrate on how the puddle looks , and then make good beads with the 0.030" set up first.

The cheapest stuff to practice with would probably be 1/8"x2" flat bar stock in a 10 ft length if you can find a supplier, or even a local welding shop. Easy to cut into 4 or 6 inch lengths to practice with.

Best of luck

[Willie B]

Oh I see. Thought the hair dryer was to cool off the welding surface (the no heat setting) or to dry off paint faster for auto body work lol. Don't know why but I have a thing for gloves. I have about 10 different pairs of gloves so far.

TIG looks awesome but it also seems a bit complicated. I love how pretty the welds look though.

I have one last stupid question. I placed the order for the welder and welding wire through Tractor Supply's online site. The store where I'm going to pick it up from just called me and said the Hobart 210MVP they have is missing the gun. I tried to get them to order a new 210 model but they said I would have to pay shipping, seems pretty BS to me. Anyway, they are going to discount the welder by $300 and I found the gun online for $107 so seems like I'm getting a great deal.

The gun is the Hobart HR100 284546. The description says it's for .030 - .035 wire. I bought .024, .030, and .035 wire with .023, .030 and .035 tips. Do I need to buy another gun for the .024 wire!? Jeez I hope not. Don't really want to buy a gun just to do one auto sheet metal project.

In my case I bought a special gun for .023" wire. It didn't work either. I've concluded I just can't run .023 at all. It isn't such a hardship, I prefer TIG for thin sheet work anyway.

[123weld]

u mighta screwed u over here. in disbelief of the $3000.00+ , i took my but less than 10 min to use what i think is the correct info u wrote. if so, I figured the class woulda cost u $371.00, for 15 weeks, and it covers like i described #6 (right way to learn) https://www.nvcc.edu/academic/course...ies/WEL120.pdf

[Ambull01]

First day of the two day course is over. Had a lot of fun although didn't do much besides try to run straight beads and a fillet. My first bead:



My crappy fillet weld/joint or whatever you call it:



I screwed up on the top weld, should have went higher up. Instead I think I went right over my root pass/weld. Oh well, just need lots of practice.

The shop owner and his helper kind of got a kick out of all the crap I brought. I brought my own helmet, welding jacket, gloves, safety glasses, hearing protection, welder, and welding cart lol. I used the shop's welder for a few hours (it was a Miller 211) then I hooked up the Hobart 210MVP and used it. The owner seemed to like my Hobart, especially when I told him I bought it for $300.

Tomorrow I'm going to do some vertical up welds I believe and not sure what else. I have to practice/be more cognizant of where I place my bracing hand. I kind of burnt the back of my gloves a bit. While I was running a bead I saw my glove smoking a bit but decided to keep going lol. Then I felt the heat so I finally stopped and looked at my glove. There's a spot that's harder than the rest of the glove now lol. I also caught myself leaning on my bracing arm so I couldn't move well while doing beads, need to stop that. Had some beads with pretty bad porosity, not sure if I was holding the gun/tip too far away or if I was tilting it too much. Caught myself tilting the gun too far as I went along the bead, maybe because I was trying to get a better view.

I'm going to ask the instructor if I can have/buy some scrap pieces of metal tomorrow so I can practice more at home. Last but not least, I need to remember to switch the helmet back to welding mode after grinding. Trying to weld on grind mode isn't fun at all.

[psacustomcreations]

Looking good.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

[psacustomcreations]

A lot of times they have you "pad beads". That is completely filling up the plate with slightly overlapping welds. It is boring, but necessary.
It teaches movement, angle, etc.
Keeping the hands or arms loose on the table takes some practice.
Sometimes you fill up the entire piece or joint for the fillet weld.
Then start adding different angles, thickness material, etc. Left versus right hand, overhead, vertical, etc
It is like any other skill, it takes many hours to develop real skill.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

[old miner called Pop]

First day of the two day course is over. Had a lot of fun although didn't do much besides try to run straight beads and a fillet. My first bead:



My crappy fillet weld/joint or whatever you call it:



I screwed up on the top weld, should have went higher up. Instead I think I went right over my root pass/weld. Oh well, just need lots of practice.

The shop owner and his helper kind of got a kick out of all the crap I brought. I brought my own helmet, welding jacket, gloves, safety glasses, hearing protection, welder, and welding cart lol. I used the shop's welder for a few hours (it was a Miller 211) then I hooked up the Hobart 210MVP and used it. The owner seemed to like my Hobart, especially when I told him I bought it for $300.

Tomorrow I'm going to do some vertical up welds I believe and not sure what else. I have to practice/be more cognizant of where I place my bracing hand. I kind of burnt the back of my gloves a bit. While I was running a bead I saw my glove smoking a bit but decided to keep going lol. Then I felt the heat so I finally stopped and looked at my glove. There's a spot that's harder than the rest of the glove now lol. I also caught myself leaning on my bracing arm so I couldn't move well while doing beads, need to stop that. Had some beads with pretty bad porosity, not sure if I was holding the gun/tip too far away or if I was tilting it too much. Caught myself tilting the gun too far as I went along the bead, maybe because I was trying to get a better view.

I'm going to ask the instructor if I can have/buy some scrap pieces of metal tomorrow so I can practice more at home. Last but not least, I need to remember to switch the helmet back to welding mode after grinding. Trying to weld on grind mode isn't fun at all.

I dont do much Mig welding at all, but from what iI see you are off to a good start, you still need to practice though and get flat welding down first. Understand that and perfect that before you jump into vertical work in my opinion.

You will find over time one glove will get tore up and burnt faster than the other one. In my case I weld mostly left handed...I hold my stinger or my flux core gun in my left hand and lead with my right...so the right glove will get destroyed in a few days and the left will look almost new...I bet i have 50 or 60 left handed gloves lookin good and the right hand glove is a mess. My knuckles on my right hand have burns deep into the hide sometimes down to bone and what isnt burnt has callouses and scar tissue thats thick and nasty. Sometimes my left gets burnt too but not as bad...after 45 plus years of it I am pretty much numb to pain...keep in mind I weld at about 350 amps all day long 6 or 7 days a week and go through a pair of gloves a week sometimes more.

Have fun and keep practicing

[M J D]

Might want to pick up one of those reflective heat pads for you non trigger hand. They have an elastic band that simply goes over the underside of your palm. They are insulated and have a silver reflective high heat fabric to insulate your hand.

[Willie B]

Might want to pick up one of those reflective heat pads for you non trigger hand. They have an elastic band that simply goes over the underside of your palm. They are insulated and have a silver reflective high heat fabric to insulate your hand.

Never needed one until Dual shield. The back at me heat with Dual Shield I can't explain. I had a few of the reflective pads, I can't remember where they came from. I need more! I find myself suffering until I can move my left hand, then I change position to focus heat elsewhere on left hand. I think I have some asbestos gloves somewhere.

[Ambull01]

A lot of times they have you "pad beads". That is completely filling up the plate with slightly overlapping welds. It is boring, but necessary.
It teaches movement, angle, etc.
Keeping the hands or arms loose on the table takes some practice.
Sometimes you fill up the entire piece or joint for the fillet weld.
Then start adding different angles, thickness material, etc. Left versus right hand, overhead, vertical, etc
It is like any other skill, it takes many hours to develop real skill.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

Yep I did that padding bead thing and it was SUPER boring lol. I do need to keep doing that though because it's kind of hard to make straight beads. It usually starts off pretty good then I start to wander later on. I don't think I can do left hand, that seems a bit complicated. I was experimenting doing tack welds and tried doing circles and Cs with the gun. I think I like doing Cs, it's easier for me vs making Os. The Cs also helps me get into a rhythm which helps me timing. I was trying to do just a straight line weld but I wasn't sure how fast to go lol.

I dont do much Mig welding at all, but from what iI see you are off to a good start, you still need to practice though and get flat welding down first. Understand that and perfect that before you jump into vertical work in my opinion.

You will find over time one glove will get tore up and burnt faster than the other one. In my case I weld mostly left handed...I hold my stinger or my flux core gun in my left hand and lead with my right...so the right glove will get destroyed in a few days and the left will look almost new...I bet i have 50 or 60 left handed gloves lookin good and the right hand glove is a mess. My knuckles on my right hand have burns deep into the hide sometimes down to bone and what isnt burnt has callouses and scar tissue thats thick and nasty. Sometimes my left gets burnt too but not as bad...after 45 plus years of it I am pretty much numb to pain...keep in mind I weld at about 350 amps all day long 6 or 7 days a week and go through a pair of gloves a week sometimes more.

Have fun and keep practicing

Yeah I'll probably, if ever, rarely need to vertical weld I think. So you work mainly with stick welding? I thought stick welding would be the easiest thing to learn but both of the instructors said it's the hardest. I would love to learn stick and tig eventually but I'm not sure I would have a need to tig weld, much less stick.

My left glove is already looking pretty rough and it was only from a few hours of "welding", if you can call it welding lol. Jesus, that sounds painful. 350 amps! What kind of welder are you using? Maybe you should cut out pieces of leather from your left hand gloves and sew it on to the right for additional layers lol.

I ordered some pieces of metal to practice on but left the welder at the school. I really wanted to hook up my bottle to my welder and practice more!

Might want to pick up one of those reflective heat pads for you non trigger hand. They have an elastic band that simply goes over the underside of your palm. They are insulated and have a silver reflective high heat fabric to insulate your hand.

Do they really work? I don't know how you guys can weld without burning your glove. Maybe I need to rest the gun on my fingers and angle the rest of my bracing hand away from the work piece.

Never needed one until Dual shield. The back at me heat with Dual Shield I can't explain. I had a few of the reflective pads, I can't remember where they came from. I need more! I find myself suffering until I can move my left hand, then I change position to focus heat elsewhere on left hand. I think I have some asbestos gloves somewhere.

Asbestos gloves? That **** isn't bad for your health? I guess as long as it's not dust or something. Didn't think they still used asbestos to make stuff anymore. I may need to order some of the pads, the back of my hand feels a little raw already.

I wish I could quit my job and work as a welder or something similar. So much more enjoyable working with my hands and seeing sparks flying everywhere. It's pretty bad ***.

[G-ManBart]

You're off to a great start!

[123weld]

Might want to pick up one of those reflective heat pads for you non trigger hand. They have an elastic band that simply goes over the underside of your palm. They are insulated and have a silver reflective high heat fabric to insulate your hand.

yep, thats a good idea. i worked on some busses used for transporting retards to a special school, at a garage. when i asked a garage mechanic for something i can use to shield some wires from weld, he gave me what they used to stick to underbody over the catalyst converters on highway patrol cars. it was a metalic like , less flexible , w/ a really good adhesive on the back. i took it home and formed a couple heat shields for my glove, and it was best/great stuff, as i like to ditch the heat guard on k-126/squirt guns

[old miner called Pop]

I used to run stick when I had my old pipeliners (Lincoln SA200) years ago I built the both of them out of 3 of em that I bought. I ran mostly 3/16 and 1/4 inch 7018s on the buckets doin vertical and overhead welds, very rarely did i weld flat, I didnt like settin my bony butt down on the floor of the bucket and gettin my butt full of blisters, this way I could stand up and work like a man, or I could set on a chair and weld vertical and overhead. It wasnt easy learning how run a 1/4 inch rod overhead but I figured it out and got after it. Most fellas couldnt keep up with me.

After the last pipeliner I had burned up I bought an old Miller Big 40 and ran the livin crap out of it for years, I bought my wire feeder about 3 months after I got the BIG 40 and went to town with it and ran Innershield wire on Constant Current this was 1998 or so. I still have that wire feeder and use it hard just about evry day. I used that Big 40 for jet arcing and evrything else for about 5 years then ran out of work when the coal busness got slow, so it sat for awhile while I was workin elsewhere, the mice got in it and chewed up the varnish on the armature and when I came home and went to use it for a little thing I had to weld it shorted evrything out. There wasnt enough work in the coal region at the time to justify buying another welder so I took the weld body off the truck and made a hi-lift coal delivery truck out of it and sold it to a friend of mine.

These days I have a Miller 502D its a 500 amp machine with a little 3 cylinder diesel motor that aint much bigger than my coffee pot. (I say little diesel motor because Im used to seeing Big diesels in haultrucks shovels dozers and so on). I run mostly Innershield wire with it and sometimes do stick welding with it. That machine has Constant Voltage capability which makes it a little easier to run the wire feeder but sometimes I will run the wire feeder on Constant Current just for poops and giggles to keep my hand in it in case that CV switch burns out which Ive seen happen a time or 2.

Ive tried those knuckle pads youse guys are talkin about...I found out the heat gets under them after awhile and then has nowhere to escape to so you get burned up across the knuckles anyway and sometimes much worse. But most of the time I dont know it anyway until Im on my home or wrapping up for the day and the hide or the scabs from the last times start peeling off, it dont hurt anymore like i said I am pretty much numb to the pain by now

[Ambull01]

I used to run stick when I had my old pipeliners (Lincoln SA200) years ago I built the both of them out of 3 of em that I bought. I ran mostly 3/16 and 1/4 inch 7018s on the buckets doin vertical and overhead welds, very rarely did i weld flat, I didnt like settin my bony butt down on the floor of the bucket and gettin my butt full of blisters, this way I could stand up and work like a man, or I could set on a chair and weld vertical and overhead. It wasnt easy learning how run a 1/4 inch rod overhead but I figured it out and got after it. Most fellas couldnt keep up with me.

After the last pipeliner I had burned up I bought an old Miller Big 40 and ran the livin crap out of it for years, I bought my wire feeder about 3 months after I got the BIG 40 and went to town with it and ran Innershield wire on Constant Current this was 1998 or so. I still have that wire feeder and use it hard just about evry day. I used that Big 40 for jet arcing and evrything else for about 5 years then ran out of work when the coal busness got slow, so it sat for awhile while I was workin elsewhere, the mice got in it and chewed up the varnish on the armature and when I came home and went to use it for a little thing I had to weld it shorted evrything out. There wasnt enough work in the coal region at the time to justify buying another welder so I took the weld body off the truck and made a hi-lift coal delivery truck out of it and sold it to a friend of mine.

These days I have a Miller 502D its a 500 amp machine with a little 3 cylinder diesel motor that aint much bigger than my coffee pot. (I say little diesel motor because Im used to seeing Big diesels in haultrucks shovels dozers and so on). I run mostly Innershield wire with it and sometimes do stick welding with it. That machine has Constant Voltage capability which makes it a little easier to run the wire feeder but sometimes I will run the wire feeder on Constant Current just for poops and giggles to keep my hand in it in case that CV switch burns out which Ive seen happen a time or 2.

Ive tried those knuckle pads youse guys are talkin about...I found out the heat gets under them after awhile and then has nowhere to escape to so you get burned up across the knuckles anyway and sometimes much worse. But most of the time I dont know it anyway until Im on my home or wrapping up for the day and the hide or the scabs from the last times start peeling off, it dont hurt anymore like i said I am pretty much numb to the pain by now

Just looked up the Lincoln SA200, that thing is a ****ing beast! Looks about as big as my wife's Honda CRV. Can't lie, I always sit down and work if possible lol. I like to work in comfort.

When you weld load bearing ****, how do you know if you have enough penetration? I was wondering about that today while welding tiny 1/4" pieces lol. I kind of want to build a trailer or something eventually, don't really need one but I think it would be fun to make. I don't want it to fall apart on the highway though if my welds break.

I read about the Constant Voltage, Constant Current and another one in that textbook. I need to look into that a bit more, still don't really get it.

[Ambull01]

Made my very first welding project.



Looks like a 3 year old made it lmao. The instructor asked if I had a project in mind or what I wanted to work on today. I had no idea, thought he would give us a project or something. The only project I could think of was a MIG gun holder. I had no idea how I wanted it to look either so I just walked around the shop and looked at all the scrap metal pieces he had. The holder works but it's definitely not pretty.

My first few welds really looked like crap. I thought I forgot everything I learned/tried yesterday. The other instructor came over and noticed the gas was still off. Whoops, didn't realize they turned it off yesterday lol. The cut off pipe pieces isn't totally straight on the vertical bar, I kind of eye balled it and made a curve in the vertical bar with a grinding disc. Should have use the pipe piece and traced the curvature onto the vertical bar. Oh well, lesson learned.

I remembered to keep my bracing hand back from the work piece today, well for the most part. My glove only smoked a few times lol. The instructor let me have a bunch of scrap metal pieces so I can practice at home, I can't wait. Spent all day welding and grinding then drove an hour and a
half home and immediately got my angle grinder out and kept on going lol. Had to finally stop when my wife came out to complain about the noise.

I think my next project will be a welding table. I want to put some of those locking casters on it so I can move it around. Wife wants me to make wine/liquor carrier thing but there's no point. I drink the wine too fast to accumulate bottles.

[psacustomcreations]

Make sure you are careful with the grinder sparks.
They can travel 20 feet. That can lead to specks in windows and rust stains everywhere.
The dust is nasty to breathe so wear a mask plus good wrap-around style eye protection.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

[Willie B]

Just looked up the Lincoln SA200, that thing is a ****ing beast! Looks about as big as my wife's Honda CRV. Can't lie, I always sit down and work if possible lol. I like to work in comfort.

When you weld load bearing ****, how do you know if you have enough penetration? I was wondering about that today while welding tiny 1/4" pieces lol. I kind of want to build a trailer or something eventually, don't really need one but I think it would be fun to make. I don't want it to fall apart on the highway though if my welds break.

I read about the Constant Voltage, Constant Current and another one in that textbook. I need to look into that a bit more, still don't really get it.

Constant current is usually for stick welding. Old Lincoln engine welders could be set for ranges in voltage. Most stick welders you control voltage with arc length. Long arc is high voltage, extremely short arc is low voltage. It takes a given value of watts to provide a given amount of heat. The ratio of volts to amps gives different properties. A flat joint can be high volts, lower amps. It'll wet out nicely. A vertical weld wants lower volts, higher amps, it gives more penetration, faster freeze, better to avoid sags. I've never used an early Lincoln DC engine welder, those who have swear by them.

Constant voltage is more about MIG. Heat is controlled by setting voltage & wire speed.

[Ambull01]

Make sure you are careful with the grinder sparks.
They can travel 20 feet. That can lead to specks in windows and rust stains everywhere.
The dust is nasty to breathe so wear a mask plus good wrap-around style eye protection.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

Yeah I need to clean up this garage and throw more crap away. Don't want to start a fire and burn everything down. I'll have to look into screwing in pieces of sheet metal to the walls or something to create a fireproof barrier near the welding table.

Constant current is usually for stick welding. Old Lincoln engine welders could be set for ranges in voltage. Most stick welders you control voltage with arc length. Long arc is high voltage, extremely short arc is low voltage. It takes a given value of watts to provide a given amount of heat. The ratio of volts to amps gives different properties. A flat joint can be high volts, lower amps. It'll wet out nicely. A vertical weld wants lower volts, higher amps, it gives more penetration, faster freeze, better to avoid sags. I've never used an early Lincoln DC engine welder, those who have swear by them.

Constant voltage is more about MIG. Heat is controlled by setting voltage & wire speed.

Ah I see, thanks for that explanation. Guess that's why the instructor said stick welding was the hardest to learn, you control everything vs the machine doing it for you. I would like to try stick and TIG welding one day but don't want to buy more welding machines. I may have to sign up for the stick and TIG classes at the school I just attended.

Do you know of joints/weld types that go from easiest to hardest? I'll focus most of my practice time on just flat welds to get the hang of it then maybe do some fillet welds and really practice stacking beads and blending. After that maybe some vertical up and vertical down. Not sure what else to do after that though.

The welding table I have is only 1/8" steel and has surface rust just about everywhere. I'm taking a cup style wire brush to it and a grinding wheel to take off all the rust. It's a huge pain, should have passed on this table. I want to put a 1/4" steel plate on the table top but not sure if this table will be able to hold it lol. I may have to experiment with reinforcing the legs and table frame to support 1/4" plates.

[Willie B]

Yeah I need to clean up this garage and throw more crap away. Don't want to start a fire and burn everything down. I'll have to look into screwing in pieces of sheet metal to the walls or something to create a fireproof barrier near the welding table.



Ah I see, thanks for that explanation. Guess that's why the instructor said stick welding was the hardest to learn, you control everything vs the machine doing it for you. I would like to try stick and TIG welding one day but don't want to buy more welding machines. I may have to sign up for the stick and TIG classes at the school I just attended.

Do you know of joints/weld types that go from easiest to hardest? I'll focus most of my practice time on just flat welds to get the hang of it then maybe do some fillet welds and really practice stacking beads and blending. After that maybe some vertical up and vertical down. Not sure what else to do after that though.

The welding table I have is only 1/8" steel and has surface rust just about everywhere. I'm taking a cup style wire brush to it and a grinding wheel to take off all the rust. It's a huge pain, should have passed on this table. I want to put a 1/4" steel plate on the table top but not sure if this table will be able to hold it lol. I may have to experiment with reinforcing the legs and table frame to support 1/4" plates.

A table makes a good early project Thicker the better, but damned heavy.

Walter makes a disc built for mill scale & rust.