Any welders in here?

A little late to the party here but wanted to share some things. Last year I purchased a Hobart 140 wire welder and couldn't be happier for what I do with it. It's a bit on the small side for 1/4" and larger but by using multiple passes with quality beads it's quite sufficient. Just don't expect to make one large bead at that thickness.

The Hobart has a drive wheel with multiple grooves for different wire diameters and whether the wire is solid or flux cored. Very simple to push/rotate to the proper groove.

Shielding gas is a must in my book. I ended up leasing a cylinder from the welding supply place. This kept my initial investment to something reasonable. The payback occurs after 4 years of leasing. At that point you would save money by owning your own cylinder vs. leasing.

I found a great deal on a Harbor Freight welding cart... it has several drawers including one to store your helmet. I highly recommend a cart of some sort for easy of mobility - especially with a cylinder set-up.

Finally, if you're working with thicker material (1/4" or so) it really helps to pre-heat the weld area with a torch. It doesn't have to be red hot but your initial passes will be better. This is evidenced by how much better the bead gets once you've made a couple of passes.

As others have mentioned, a class (community college?) will do wonders if you have the time and money. Welding and cutting operations can be hazardous to you and those around you so pay attention to proper procedures and safety equipment - including eye protection.
 
Czarbecue said:
... I see a lot of grinding in my future.
Click to expand...
Yes, but be careful. Grinding can make ugly welds less ugly, but if there is poor penetration the weld metal is just sticking on top of the base metal and will easily separate. Penetration is really the big deal, not ugliness. Maybe some of the MIG-heads here can tell you what to watch for to make sure you have good penetration. With TIG and gas you can actually see the base metal melt and flow into/with the puddle.
 
airedale said:
Yes, but be careful. Grinding can make ugly welds less ugly, but if there is poor penetration the weld metal is just sticking on top of the base metal and will easily separate. Penetration is really the big deal, not ugliness. Maybe some of the MIG-heads here can tell you what to watch for to make sure you have good penetration. With TIG and gas you can actually see the base metal melt and flow into/with the puddle.
Click to expand...

One of the things you can do is cut the weld & material at 90*, grind & sand & then look at it. You should be able to see what has "fused". Another test is put part of your material in a vise & give the other part some mighty whacks with a sledge hammer - that will tell you a lot. If the weld breaks... not good.
 
1. Clean the rust and mill scale off of the metal before welding. You need clean metal on both surfaces that you're going to weld.

2. Clean an area on the metal for the ground clamp.

3. The welds you're showing are cold and the wire feed speed was not fast enough. Turn up the voltage / amperage, more wire feed speed, and slow down the travel speed across the weld joint. The wire stick out length from the guide tip should be about 3/8 - 1/2 inch while you're welding. Concentrate on keeping the correct tip to metal distance and then create a puddle of metal under the tip. Let a puddle of metal develop and use either a "Z" pattern or small loops like you're making a cursive lower case "e" across the width of the joint. Push the puddle of metal using the "Z" or "e" pattern the length of the joint and across the joint width as the wire is feeding out of the MIG gun.

An audible cue for the correct amperage and wire feed speed is that when the arc is struck and you're welding it will sound like sizzling bacon.

For wire feed speed you can figure:

.030 wire: 2 inches feed speed per amp
.035 wire: 1.6 inches feed speed per amp

Using .035 wire and 75% argon / 25% CO2 shielding gas, I'm showing 290 inches per minute wire feed speed and 19 volts (180 amps) on my machine for 3/16-inch thick steel.
 
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buckhorn_cortez said:
You're a piece of equipment? A "welder" is a piece of welding equipment. A "weldor" is a person who welds.
Click to expand...

How bout instead of criticizing someone you offer something that is beneficial to help the OP out?

Or is that not what your here for?
 
That’s the thing when starting out... everything seemed too fast but in reality I should be cranking up the speed. The picture above was at a 3. These cheap welders have a 1 or 2 volt option. This is on option 2 and I’m maxed out. Thanks for tips though!

buckhorn_cortez said:
1. Clean the rust and mill scale off of the metal before welding. You need clean metal on both surfaces that you're going to weld.

2. Clean an area on the metal for the ground clamp.

3. The welds you're showing are cold and the wire feed speed was not fast enough. Turn up the voltage / amperage, more wire feed speed, and slow down the travel speed across the weld joint. The wire stick out length from the guide tip should be about 3/8 - 1/2 inch while you're welding. Concentrate on keeping the correct tip to metal distance and then create a puddle of metal under the tip. Let a puddle of metal develop and use either a "Z" pattern or small loops like you're making a cursive lower case "e" across the width of the joint. Push the puddle of metal using the "Z" or "e" pattern the length of the joint and across the joint width as the wire is feeding out of the MIG gun.

An audible cue for the correct amperage and wire feed speed is that when the arc is struck and you're welding it will sound like sizzling bacon.

For wire feed speed you can figure:

.030 wire: 2 inches feed speed per amp
.035 wire: 1.6 inches feed speed per amp

Using .035 wire and 75% argon / 25% CO2 shielding gas, I'm showing 290 inches per minute wire feed speed and 19 volts (180 amps) on my machine for 3/16-inch thick steel.
Click to expand...
 
There are lots of mods for the Harbor Freight 90 - I found this short video series on the subject a while ago, but have not upgraded mine yet. It may be lipstick on a pig compared to the Hobart 140, but it might be exactly what occasional small job guy needs to upgrade his ~ $100 rig.
 
Czarbecue said:
That’s the thing when starting out... everything seemed too fast but in reality I should be cranking up the speed. The picture above was at a 3. These cheap welders have a 1 or 2 volt option. This is on option 2 and I’m maxed out. Thanks for tips though!
Click to expand...

What welder did you end up with?
 
one thing I love about welders. if you buy a good one right, you can use it for your projects and eventually sell it without taking a loss.

the last welder I sold was a miller syncrowave 200. I paid $1500 for it, put 40 hours of hobby welding on it over 4 years, and sold it for $1600.

the tig I have now , a precision tig 225, I will make about $200-300 when I sell it. because they are good pieces of equipment and hold their value.
 
So I fubar’d the dimension of my Bandera’s legs and have been doing practice welds with the extra steel. My first real project may be to tack weld a new exhaust for my WSM.

0ad94e165a8de5b584e8653b25e5446e.jpg


Currently my exhaust is a 4” dryer vent held together by RTV silicone. Should I even weld on the lid of the Weber?
 
I wouldnt weld on that WSM due to the coating. Not sure how that ceramic coating would react and recoating with high temp paint wouldnt look good nor be as durable.
 
No, the dryer vent is thinner than the lid and it’s galvanized, the lid is porcelain.

You ever welded galvanized? The gas makes some folks puke so fast they puke in their hood, some folks it doesn’t bother but either way it ain’t good, see what I’m sayin?

I’d keep lookin for a first project, but that’s me...
 
I agree with 4ever3.

first project should be thicker metal that wont burn through as easily, and also mild steel with no coating.
 
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