Okay - I'm probably getting ahead of myself - but as an experiment, and knowing I still need to practice - I welded some square tubing stock together in several different configurations shown below. The strength of the welds seems decent - as I could not break them apart with hammer and vise, anyway...

Okay - I'm going to boost my gas back up slightly to 20ish to hopefully combat the porosity. In terms of increasing penetration - I believe I was on setting 4, which is the highest. Maybe I can reduce the wire speed a bit - I think I may have increased it to just above 30. I feel 1000 times better t...

Thanks - I think I'm getting close. Any idea what causes that porosity? I'd assume that would equal weak points in my welds.

Hey guys - wow - seems it really helps if you can actually see what you are welding!! :D I ditched the auto-dark mask and got a #9 and #10 lens (together less than $5), and put them in my cheapie mask. Works great. I mean what a frickin' difference! The #9 allowed me to see better, but I bumped up t...

Okay - day 2 welds are somewhat better. The hand position suggestion helped. Less popping - but my beads zig-zag, instead of being one solid line. Also - my auto darkening mask still gets so dark it's hard to see much at all. The adjustments are for sensitivity and delay only - no shade adjustment. ...

Jhic91 - thanks. Appreciate the detailed guidance and videos very much. I will practice welding straight beads on a single piece of metal in the way you've mentioned. I wonder if my 20 psi gas flow may not have been enough too? Anyway - back to practicing - and will post some photos of progress. Tha...

Okay - I know these first welds are super ugly.. :oops: ..but besides that what guidance would you give in terms of making adjustments? Starting from the left - these are my 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th welds. Although none are close to "good" - they actually got a lot stronger as I went along. T...

Okay - so now I'm convinced that I should invest in the gas bottle after everyone's comments. Thanks to all. Here's a really good video demo of the Hobart 140 MIG Welder in 2 parts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb-MO1dEesE and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy75q-QSIjI It's interesting that they s...

Great - thanks much. Looks like you're just ahead of me in terms of getting started. Thanks for providing the photo examples. I'm thinking the Hobart 140 is for me - and I may spring for the gas bottle as well, based on what these other guys are saying about how clean the weld will be when using gas...

Guys - thanks for the speedy responses. My shop is being set up in the garage - I was planning on taking the welding out into the driveway, simply because I figured the fumes with our without gas may be too toxic, even with the garage door open. (My family has a bunny hutch also in the garage too - ...

Hi - I'm just getting started in welding. Specifically I want to build a go kart as a starter project - and once I've developed some skill, I may move on to building a hot rod eventually. I've been advised to start with a Hobart 140 MIG welder - which I believe can weld with our without gas. I've he...