I purchased a welder last week (arc welder)

i have never welded anything before in my life and asked for a few tips last week , which was very useful

last week i needed to know why my rods just kept on sticking to the parts i was trying to weld .

after the tips i have now managed to get the rods to not stick , but even worse now all the weld is doing is just coming out in blobs ...see pics

i now need to know how you get the welds to look nice and even

do i need to let loads of weld drip off the rods into one place with the tip of the rod touching the metals i am welding .
or should i be keeping the rods slightly away from the metals??

this is how my welding is




and this is how i want it to look

 

the bottom one is not bad, the rod needs to be about 5mm away...

 

bottom pic is noting ive welded ...just a pic ive found on the net...thats how i want my welding to look

 

you best get practicing then!
good luck mate.. its not as easy as it looks ..

 

it isnt easy to start off, IMO harder than MIG.


keep practicing, youll get the hang of it soon

 

You could sell that as Modern Art for ŁŁŁŁ's.

What happened to:

"just run a weld onto a flat piece first, dont try and join two pieces." (quote me last week)

You are trying to weld on top of 'slag', it will never run smoothly.

Once you stop the weld, clean the slag off before you start again.

Guessing that you are pulling the rod away from the metal as the arc strikes.

Feed the rod into the weld, but not so much that the arc goes out.

Where in Derbys R U ?

 

my welding was probably worse than that first time i picked up a welder and hadnt been taught anything at all
then got 5 mins tuition of someone who new what they were doing and learnt soo much more.think its something thats really hard to explain but if you were to see a demo or some one to show you in person youd learn ALOT quicker hopefully theres someone nearbye who might be able to help you

 

Where in Derby are you bud?

 

get someone to show you how to do it, i.e watch the process happening through youre own shield,youll see exactly what the rod is doing,makes it a lot easier

 

best start weldin just a flat piece of steel, and clean it off 1st with a grinder.


like i sed last week wot size rods are you usin?

wot ampage?

and have you got the leads the right way round?


+ to the rod holder (touch)

- to the earth clamp.


also wot rod's are you usin? have they ever got damp?



The bottom pic is of stainless steel stick weldin, and isn't that good, movin to fast.

 

you have to hold the rod at an angle to plus bout 5mm away from wotever you are welding and make sure its the rite rod ur using?

 

check that the rod has E6013 its a general purpose welding electord, buy good rods ie murex.

doesnt matter if they get damp just bung them in the oven for a couple of hours it will tell u on the packet the exact time etc temp etc.

stick welding is easyer then mig welding imo and has the added benifit of being good to use outdoors, ive been welding all day today in the rain using 4mm vodex, i expect your using 2.5mm or 3.2mm rods on a machine that could just about burn a 1.2mm.... you will be surprised just how good your welding will be when using a good machine.

any BOC places near you? go there are pretend you want to buy a set they will let u demo them round the back and set it up for you,

whats the make/model of the set u have bought?

 

Gaz give me a shout ill come and give u a bit of advice and ill sort you some proper good rods out from work

 

Dan, i need you to teach me I just bought a clark 150 mig

 

cheers again for the useful tips

the pics are only a test weld , not the finished product

this was my first attempt ...well ok 2nd

 

it is a clarke 115 arc welder , only about Ł60 (weve all got to start somewhere...lol)

and im using clarke 1.6 rods

chris

will ring you about some tuition soon mate

 

thats the main problem,


get your self some 2.5 or 3.2mm weldin rods, and that will make it alot easier.


I've used clark rods at my old job, and they weld fine. and 115amps is fine for even 4mm rods in some weldin positions.

 

Gaz W

Are you thinking of welding the new bits to your MKII with an arc welder ?

Much better to use a mig welder IMHO

 

Think you should get Rentakil in and get rid of those rats that are shitting on your work

 

 

 

dave

i wouldnt dare go anywhere near my mk2 with a welder , was just something i want to try

spadge , tim etc

god didnt gift all of with talents that make us perfect at everything first time , hence why i am asking for tips to make me a beter welder

 

I would def switch to MIG, its sooooo much easier....after a few hours you will be fine......

Im fine with a mig after about 2 weeks of learning but still blow massive holes with arc.......

Cheers

Neal

 

whats the diference between mig and arc and why is mig easier? are they both as strong?

 

dont do it dude
get a mig
its takes yrs n yrs to master welding no matter what you do
ask wayne prp alloy or any other welder
takes yrs of practise

 

Stick weldin aka Arc weldin is stronger than mig.


Mig, uses mig wire and shieldin gas.

Stick weldin uses arc rods (stick) which has shieldin flux built on it.


Arc weldin is wot i mainly use wen on sit, as wind doesn't effect it as much, where unless you stop the wind gettin to it, mig cant be done out side unless you use shielded mig wire.

 

GAZ W
i say stick with it mate, if we all knew how to weld this forum would be a very boring place!

some good tips by the way!

 

Brom
cheers for the advice , i dont want to become a pro welder , just welding is something i wanted to give a go

 

am just saying dont fuk ya car up trying to stick weld it togther look a right mess
you get whats known as in the trade as slag trap( where the flux of rod sits under or bewteen the weld)


i got a little mig you can brrow if you want

 

GAZ W
.............Keep posting the pics to show the disbelievers that is is possible to learn how to stick weld with a little help from your Friends.

Dont give up.

Some people seem to have missed the fact that in your First post you said you were NOT attempting to weld on a car.

I was taught the basics of stick, then self learnt, Gas, Mig, Tig (dc) and I am just about to start self learning on Gas welding Aluminium.

It can be done.

 

go to oxy acetylene mate its a pissing ball

 

Brom , as said i wouldnt dare go anywhere near my mk2 with a welder

focusv8
i am going to stick with it and will post some more pics as i progress .

 

IMO that’s very good advice; practice is the only way to get good at welding; it's something that can't just be read about and then go and do it perfectly straight off. Just keep practicing at it and you’ll be alright in the end

What sort of things are you actually aiming to be welding in the long run? If you going to be going for mainly thinner material your better of learning GMAW (Mig) welding, if your aiming to be welding thicker metal then go for SMAW (Arc). As you've got relatively low amperage I’m guessing it's going to be thinner metal?

Definitely start by welding thicker flat metal, don't actually try joining anything, just lay down a bead of weld on a piece of solid metal.

The basic differences are: Arc welding is done by holding an electrode (rod) in a torch and will slowly get shorter as more of the rod is fused to the base material to create the weld pool. Arc welding requires no gas supply as MIG welding does (excluding flux cored MIG welding wire). Arc welds will require clean up after to remove the slag, normally done with a chipping hammer and a wire brush.
MIG welding (normally) requires an external gas supply - in a lot of cases MIG welding is actually MAG welding as cheaper gasses such as C02 are used either as a 100% or to dilute Argon. C02 is not totally inert. MIG welding works by feeding the "electrode" of a spool in the form of wire. Gas MIG welds should be clean and require no cleanup. Flux cored welds will need some wire brushing.

The question of strength is pretty much irrelevant as either way that the weld done; MIG or Arc it should be stronger than the base metal however there are some simple formulas for calculating the minimum yield strength if you really need to?

Me, personally I much prefer TIG welding over any other type of welding process available, it more or less exclusively what I do when it comes to welding. Mig and Arc are both extremely crude in comparison with no where near as much control as TIG. IMO TIG is unbeatable for versatility, precision and control, the only places is falls short is speed - it's comparatively a very slow process and also far more operator skill is required to work a TIG correctly.

 

tig welding is fine for bench jobs, and as said is slower in comparison to mig. tig equipment is genrally more expensive too again the cheap equipment is shat compaired to middle of the the range stuff.

115 amps burning a 4mm rod you need 150 amps these no way on this planet that set will weld using 4mm rods in any position.

you need 2.5mm vodex E6013 all positional.

1.2 or 1.6 are usless rods as theres more flux/slag going into the weld then actaul metal. at least with a 2.5 u have a chance of putting down a decent weld. thats 90% of your problem mate

 

I can verticaly up weld on 115amps with 4mm rods, but that is normally on a genny welder, which is alot more powerfull than a mains set unless its 3 phase.

 

TIG is the daddy stick and mig are rough as arseholes
You should be able to rest the rod on the job and drag it round mate and it wont stick if you have enough amps on
As said 1.6mm is a sparkler not a welding rod
I even find 2.5mm rods to be bollocks as well to be honest 3.2mm i would personally say is the easiest rod to use and 115 amps should be enough to melt these easily although i do find amperages do vary on plant to plant for actuall true output heat

 

agree with you.

 

If you go mig.
DO NOT USE A CLARKE SHITE WELDER
90% of your problem could be your setup, clarke welders suck donkey I know because I made the mistake of buying one of their mig welders, total and utter dog shit
Changed to a Sealey Mig and have no problems in 15 years
One other thing to watch out for is extension leads, if you really HAVE to use one make sure it is a proper heavy duty job or you will end up with bird shit welding

Mark

 

keep the tips coming guys

i have been practicing a bit today on a flat piece of metal(no joins) and got to say it does looked to have improved a tiny bit

also purchased some 2.5 rods so will give then a try soon

 

are you playin with ampage? to see wot it does?


Clark welders are wot you pay, i have a little 150 amp mig welder to do cars, and does the job well.

but wouldn't rate it to a proper 3 phase mig welder. single phase will never be as good as 3 phase, due to the arc stableness.


but on stick welders i've used cheapo ones, and they do the job, but again there's nothin better than a 3 phase plant or a good genny welder.