Welding Tips and Tricks

I want my welds to look as nice as many I see on Instagram viewing so-called weld porn. I stick and MIG weld. I feel great about the strength of my welds, but it seems like they are too tall. Many welds I see online look flush with the original steel. Am I moving too slow. I don't want to sacrifice a quality weld for looks, but I sure would like to have a weld that looks as good as it is in strength. THANKS!

Throw up a few pictures of your welds so we can help you

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater
https://scontent.flas1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/ ... e=59EEFE55

These pics are of outside corner joints.

The pics don't come up for me, You'll have to screenshot and or save the image.

The third link is the only one that works for me. I'm guessing that's a MIG weld from its appearance. And yes, it's "too tall". But it's not too tall because of travel speed but due to lack of heat. It's a cold weld.

Look at the edges of the weld carefully. You'll see gaps and voids where the toes didn't fuse to the base metal. And the accumulation of weld wire is because it's not burning in. So crank up your heat is the general recommendation without further information from you on material thickness, voltage used, wire size, and other welding parameters.

As for looking like IG posters, something everyone wants to be capable of but many of these guys have decades of experience and do these jobs for a living. So cut yourself some slack and focus on strength that meets the requirement and just work on continual improvement of your technique. The IG welds will come

I feel your pain, being self taught I have laid very few beads I would share on the internet.

Most have held quite well and I love to make stuff out of steel, but I would not buy anything made by me.

ODIS wrote:I feel your pain, being self taught I have laid very few beads I would share on the internet.

It is when you dare to post you will get the level of help you need to boost the learning progress.

Nothing beats hood time but sometimes one needs a bit of friendly advice to assist move in the right direction.

Of course there are some CIWI's that will rant and flame you (not here) but those are best left totally ignored.

Yep cj's right on. It's easier to practice outside corner mig with 3/16" or 1/4" and to get the nice weldporn outside corners on 3/16" it's just around 18 volts 180 to 190 ipm let it fill in til it breaks both edges then skooch forward smoothly about 3/8" then back 1/8" and carry on. Nice steady slow and smooth is all it takes.

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i wouldnt worry, im that new to hobby welding its going to be a long long time until i produce anything pretty, but i guess like anything, practice is always the way forward!