Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello. I'm a newbie. I have a 120V MIG welder. I'm getting better at running a bead but I can't see where I'm going, and so I don't go straight. What am I doing wrong? Thanks!

Hey mate, your not doing anything wrong. Try writing on paper without lines? How does it work? Or drawing a straight line without a ruler? Don't worry, it's a learning process. Get a scriber and scratch some lines on your test piece, or a cutting wheel on the grinder and do a light cut along the path you want to follow. Then put the wire on this line. You can buy pencils that glow under the arc, but I think they need a special lens. I don't think they work with AutoDarkening lenses

To add to Mike's advice: It can also be where you have your eyes relative to the cup/your hands.

You need to position your eyes ahead of where you're welding so you can look back towards the puddle, use your peripheral vision to look ahead, and haver your hands "below" and behind the cup to help steady/steer things. As you get more experience, you will find it easier to place your eyes in different locations as conditions require.

If you're welding flat for practice, you can also clamp a piece of flat stock along your intended line to run your knuckles abasing, keeping the piece far enough away so as not to effect your weld.

You can add a task light to the weld area to add illumination too. But mostly you're probably looking "down" into the puddle instead "back" or from "below" keeping your face out of the smoke.

Also, do you wear glasses to read? I do and can’t weld without them. You may have the shade level to high also, if you have an adjustable darkness lid, play with the settings and see how you go mate.

Great! Thanks so much for the advice! I'll give these a go.

WINDEX-
You might be shocked at the amount of crap that builds up on your protector lense and the others as well.

If you wear reading glasses, have someone measure the distance from the end of the MIG gun to your eyes. Then go to Dollar General and pick up a pair of glasses that work at that distance. There are major differences in what you see at 20 and 30 inches from the lense.

We recently wrote this article on better vision when welding >> A few ideas for you https://www.awsi.com.au/blog/tips-for-b ... ing-vision

cj737 wrote:To add to Mike's advice: It can also be where you have your eyes relative to the cup/your hands.

You need to position your eyes ahead of where you're welding so you can look back towards the puddle, use your peripheral vision to look ahead, and haver your hands "below" and behind the cup to help steady/steer things. As you get more experience, you will find it easier to place your eyes in different locations as conditions require.

If you're welding flat for practice, you can also clamp a piece of flat stock along your intended line to run your knuckles abasing, keeping the piece far enough away so as not to effect your weld.

You can add a task light to the weld area to add illumination too. But mostly you're probably looking "down" into the puddle instead "back" or from "below" keeping your face out of the smoke.

Now that is what I call fantastic advice! Solved my wobbly welds in seconds!

Thanks muchly!

From personal experience, my welding got a lot better and more fun when I switched from a $30 auto helmet to a $200 one!
Aaron

What helped me the most was learning how to run beads left and right handed. back and forth both ways. Depending on whether or not you are left handed or right handed, you'll have to cross over and favor one side over the other.

At age 62, I have really been fighting the battle of vision. This became especially true with MIG welding. I could not see the crack I was trying to weld. and would consequently completely miss the area I was trying to weld. I have tried several things.

1) More ambient light.
2) Task lighting. Including 100W LED Green task light
3) Cheeter lenses
4) New Lincoln Viking 4c 3350 helmet
5) Tried a friends Optrel helmet.

Nothing seemed to work until today when I ventured off the scale on the shade and tried a shade 9 for welding 1/8" thick steel. I even tried shade 8 using the grinding mode of my Lincoln Viking but that was obviously too low. All of the charts I have seen for MIG welding call for shade 10 as a minimum down to 80 amps.

So I am wondering if I am comfortable welding at shade 9 am I doing any eye damage. I spoke to an eye doctor about this but he said my eyes are fine for my age and theirs nothing I can do. So what has the welding community found.

I did find one very positive thing about the Lincoln Viking. Its long lens allows me to use my progressive lenses inside the helmet, eliminating the need for cheaters.

Depends on your eyes. You can turn down the shade as you need to just be mindful of seeing spots or getting headaches after welding. Sometimes if I’m welding low amps on SS or steel I need to turn down my shade. I’ve been down around an 8 a few times especially if my cover lense is starting to get dirty. But I usually run 10 -11.

people eyes are a bit different.
i use all the range depending on what i'm welding. however i found i was getting headaches and that stopped when i went up a shade. do not be afraid the try different shades.

doing damage, no. the uv etc protection works even when its off.
simply to bright will stress your eyes and causes headaches.

the other thing is helmet fit. you can get reflection off your shirt etc. can be really bad if you have something shiny behind you and you get a reflection off that.

@600 - one thing to understand about eyes and age is that as we age, our eyes receive less light than younger folks. So a #10 shade for a 30 year old may be just enough light but a +50 yo might need #8 or #9 to see as well. Vision in low light (at night, dusk while driving, reading menus in a restaurant) are all perfect examples of this condition.

So I'd follow Tweake and Poland's advice and tune your helmet to your vision, and lower the shade cautiously until you can see well, but don't see spots or flashing after welding and removing your helmet. It sucks getting old and finally having the time to weld and fabricate all the things we put off as youngsters as we now have the time, but not the eyes and endurance to do the thing we love.

I always thought getting old would take longer....

@600 - one thing to understand about eyes and age is that as we age, our eyes receive less light than younger folks. So a #10 shade for a 30 year old may be just enough light but a +50 yo might need #8 or #9 to see as well. Vision in low light (at night, dusk while driving, reading menus in a restaurant) are all perfect examples of this condition.

So I'd follow Tweake and Poland's advice and tune your helmet to your vision, and lower the shade cautiously until you can see well, but don't see spots or flashing after welding and removing your helmet. It sucks getting old and finally having the time to weld and fabricate all the things we put off as youngsters as we now have the time, but not the eyes and endurance to do the thing we love.

I always thought getting old would take longer....

As you get older you also tend to post twice!

As you get older you also tend to post twice!

tungstendipper wrote:As you get older you also tend to post twice!

Hahahaha Good One! I hear ya on light sensitivity changing as you get older, I made a home made LED light "4-CXB3590 Cree" and mounted it over my welding table, I had to install a dimmer switch on it as I miscalculated the output, on high it puts out just over 70,000 lumens! LOL I had to readjust my welding helmet it was so bright.. And if I don't have my glasses when we go out to eat I can't see nuttin, I think the restaurants are using smaller fonts in their menus these days.

tungstendipper wrote:As you get older you also tend to post twice!

Only when it’s worth repeating

pgk wrote:

tungstendipper wrote:As you get older you also tend to post twice!

Hahahaha Good One! I hear ya on light sensitivity changing as you get older, I made a home made LED light "4-CXB3590 Cree" and mounted it over my welding table, I had to install a dimmer switch on it as I miscalculated the output, on high it puts out just over 70,000 lumens! LOL I had to readjust my welding helmet it was so bright.. And if I don't have my glasses when we go out to eat I can't see nuttin, I think the restaurants are using smaller fonts in their menus these days.

70000 lm Wow. I use a 9000lm green LED. The green penetrated the welding mask with a lot less energy. You can start the weld without an auto darkening helmet. But so far it doesn't seem to help once the arc is started. But I just ordered a #9 shade gold filter to really try that theory out.