freewheelin
Well-known member
found this on the MILLER news, may be of help to a couple people.....
20 Steps to Welding Bliss
By Andy Weyenberg
1.As always, safety first. Welding sleeves and gloves keep you from burning your skin. The rays from a welding arc will burn you faster than sitting on the beach in Panama City. Welding helmets are a must. At least protect your eyes. Anyone with a good case of welder flash can tell you they would rather take a mixture of salt and acid in the eyes. A welder cap or beanie is nice too. Some of the nice ones cover your ears. Keep flammable material away from weld sparks. This is another common sense thing that gets over looked. Rags laying around the work area are the most common fire hazard.
2.Size or pick the machine for the work you do most. Machines have an amperage rating which determines the material thickness you can weld. If you need to weld aluminum twice a year, you may want to job that out and just purchase a machine that does steel.
3.Consumable matching. If you are running .030 wire in your MIG welder, make sure the liner, drive rolls and contact tips match. Any mismatch will cause feeding and weld consistency problems.
4.Pick the right wire size for the job. Don't use .035 wire to weld 22ga steel. As a rule of thumb, the wire shouldn't be bigger than the material thickness. If it is, you'll spend most of your time blowing holes in the base metal instead of melting the weld wire.
5.Good ground connection cable condition. Loose, bad connections or poor cables will cause heat. That heat is a loss of welding current you should be using at the arc. You can't jump start a car with a lamp cord so don't weld with one either. A welder needs heavy cables in good condition to weld effectively.
6.Don't be afraid to change contact tips. They are NOT made of gold and they DO wear out.
7.Get a good helmet with a nice view area and keep the lens clean. You can't weld what you can't see. The electronic helmets are nice. You can adjust shading to your preference and they allow you to see where you are starting to weld before it turns dark.
8.Material prep. Paint and rust are your enemy. Clean the joint area before welding with a grinder/sander or other metal cleaner.
9.Joint fit up is critical. Keep joint tight. Weld joints are usually seams not holes and gaps.
10.Tack joints on alternate sides to reduce pulling. Tack tubes the same way and weld in sections keeping the gun angles the same if possible. Very few people can weld nonstop around a tube and keep gun angles proper. Changing from a push to a pull or pull to push will change penetration of the weld and joint appearance.
11.When welding thin material, you may want to place a thicker piece of copper or aluminum behind the weld area to help "sink" the heat away to prevent warping. This also will help with burn through.
12.Gas selection. For MIG steel, a 75/25 Argon/Co2 mix will give great results. Straight CO2 can also be used to get more penetration but this gas will also produce more spatter. Typical flow rates are 25-30 CFH. Too high of flow will cause turbulence and contamination. Too low flow will not give enough shielding of the weld area and also produce porosity of the weld bead. For MIG or TIG aluminum, 100% Argon gas is used. Flow rate will depend on cup size with most flow rates being near 12-20.
13.Clamps, vise grips and magnetic squares are your friend.
14.If you are welding on a table, get one with a thick metal top. A top with a 1/4" steel plate or thicker will not warp while you are welding on it. Do not place a metal plate on top of a wooden table. It will still burn the wood. I know it sounds stupid but people still
do it.
15.When TIG welding steel, grind your tungsten to a point using a fine grit grinding wheel dedicated only to tungsten. Grinding anything else on that wheel can cause the tungsten to become contaminated.
16.TIG tungstens are as follows: 2% Thoriated (red band) for steels and Pure (green band) for Aluminum. This is true unless you have an Inverter type TIG machine. Most Inverter type TIG units can run on 2% Thoriated or Ceriated for everything.
17.When to push or pull. MIG steel- push or pull, just stay consistent while welding. Changing from a push to a pull during a weld will affect weld penetration and appearance. This is because it normally takes a slight change in wire speed when changing from pushing the gun to pulling it. In TIG there is no exception. Always push the torch at a 10 to 15 degree angle. This ensures you have proper gas coverage and cleaning of the weld zone. If you pull the torch, it will cause the weld bead to appear black and contaminated.
18.When welding thick to thin or thinner material, concentrate or point the gun more at the thicker material and roll the bead to the thinner material. This will help with adequate penetration on both the thick and thin piece.
19.When preparing to weld, especially in TIG, get comfortable. Prop your self up so you are not suspending the gun or torch in mid air. Get something to put under your hand to get situated for proper weld angles. In MIG, use both hands to grasp the gun. This helps stabilize the gun and reduces the chance of jerky movements. Do a dry run with the gun or torch to get positioned properly for the joint you are attempting to weld.
20.Don't be afraid to take a night course at the local tech school. They are good resources for the particular weld process you are trying to learn. They also cover some basic metallurgy for matching filler metal and base metals. You local welding distributor can also help you with filler metal selections
20 Steps to Welding Bliss
By Andy Weyenberg
1.As always, safety first. Welding sleeves and gloves keep you from burning your skin. The rays from a welding arc will burn you faster than sitting on the beach in Panama City. Welding helmets are a must. At least protect your eyes. Anyone with a good case of welder flash can tell you they would rather take a mixture of salt and acid in the eyes. A welder cap or beanie is nice too. Some of the nice ones cover your ears. Keep flammable material away from weld sparks. This is another common sense thing that gets over looked. Rags laying around the work area are the most common fire hazard.
2.Size or pick the machine for the work you do most. Machines have an amperage rating which determines the material thickness you can weld. If you need to weld aluminum twice a year, you may want to job that out and just purchase a machine that does steel.
3.Consumable matching. If you are running .030 wire in your MIG welder, make sure the liner, drive rolls and contact tips match. Any mismatch will cause feeding and weld consistency problems.
4.Pick the right wire size for the job. Don't use .035 wire to weld 22ga steel. As a rule of thumb, the wire shouldn't be bigger than the material thickness. If it is, you'll spend most of your time blowing holes in the base metal instead of melting the weld wire.
5.Good ground connection cable condition. Loose, bad connections or poor cables will cause heat. That heat is a loss of welding current you should be using at the arc. You can't jump start a car with a lamp cord so don't weld with one either. A welder needs heavy cables in good condition to weld effectively.
6.Don't be afraid to change contact tips. They are NOT made of gold and they DO wear out.
7.Get a good helmet with a nice view area and keep the lens clean. You can't weld what you can't see. The electronic helmets are nice. You can adjust shading to your preference and they allow you to see where you are starting to weld before it turns dark.
8.Material prep. Paint and rust are your enemy. Clean the joint area before welding with a grinder/sander or other metal cleaner.
9.Joint fit up is critical. Keep joint tight. Weld joints are usually seams not holes and gaps.
10.Tack joints on alternate sides to reduce pulling. Tack tubes the same way and weld in sections keeping the gun angles the same if possible. Very few people can weld nonstop around a tube and keep gun angles proper. Changing from a push to a pull or pull to push will change penetration of the weld and joint appearance.
11.When welding thin material, you may want to place a thicker piece of copper or aluminum behind the weld area to help "sink" the heat away to prevent warping. This also will help with burn through.
12.Gas selection. For MIG steel, a 75/25 Argon/Co2 mix will give great results. Straight CO2 can also be used to get more penetration but this gas will also produce more spatter. Typical flow rates are 25-30 CFH. Too high of flow will cause turbulence and contamination. Too low flow will not give enough shielding of the weld area and also produce porosity of the weld bead. For MIG or TIG aluminum, 100% Argon gas is used. Flow rate will depend on cup size with most flow rates being near 12-20.
13.Clamps, vise grips and magnetic squares are your friend.
14.If you are welding on a table, get one with a thick metal top. A top with a 1/4" steel plate or thicker will not warp while you are welding on it. Do not place a metal plate on top of a wooden table. It will still burn the wood. I know it sounds stupid but people still
do it.
15.When TIG welding steel, grind your tungsten to a point using a fine grit grinding wheel dedicated only to tungsten. Grinding anything else on that wheel can cause the tungsten to become contaminated.
16.TIG tungstens are as follows: 2% Thoriated (red band) for steels and Pure (green band) for Aluminum. This is true unless you have an Inverter type TIG machine. Most Inverter type TIG units can run on 2% Thoriated or Ceriated for everything.
17.When to push or pull. MIG steel- push or pull, just stay consistent while welding. Changing from a push to a pull during a weld will affect weld penetration and appearance. This is because it normally takes a slight change in wire speed when changing from pushing the gun to pulling it. In TIG there is no exception. Always push the torch at a 10 to 15 degree angle. This ensures you have proper gas coverage and cleaning of the weld zone. If you pull the torch, it will cause the weld bead to appear black and contaminated.
18.When welding thick to thin or thinner material, concentrate or point the gun more at the thicker material and roll the bead to the thinner material. This will help with adequate penetration on both the thick and thin piece.
19.When preparing to weld, especially in TIG, get comfortable. Prop your self up so you are not suspending the gun or torch in mid air. Get something to put under your hand to get situated for proper weld angles. In MIG, use both hands to grasp the gun. This helps stabilize the gun and reduces the chance of jerky movements. Do a dry run with the gun or torch to get positioned properly for the joint you are attempting to weld.
20.Don't be afraid to take a night course at the local tech school. They are good resources for the particular weld process you are trying to learn. They also cover some basic metallurgy for matching filler metal and base metals. You local welding distributor can also help you with filler metal selections
I will be doing alot here real soon
