Welding Tips and Tricks

Now, I finished my apprenticeship back in the mid 90's and was out of the trade for quite a period, with the result that I am struggling to get my vertical MIG skills back up to scratch. The boss has been using a kind of spot welding with the MIG gun, basically laying each 'spot' on top of the one below, with a brief pause between each one to let the weld pool solidify slightly, and is adamant that it does the job. Is this a legit technique? It just looks weak to me, although I'll be happy to be corrected.

I doubt it. But there’s insufficient info to know for certain.

sounds like a version of "mig like tig".
so many people doing welds just to look nice.

i would stick to more normal methods.

Thanks. Pretty much what I thought, then. I'll go do an I Told You so.

MattNSW wrote:Thanks. Pretty much what I thought, then. I'll go do an I Told You so.

Well you’d best know for sure before you rebutt your boss.

You don’t list material, thickness, application, or his settings. All of these matter. It can be done properly in his fashion, but that all depends. As a general reaction, most would not choose that method unless it were required. If you’re dealing with very thin sheet metal, it’s perfectly appropriate. For structural, not likely at all.

Hey mate,

Fellow Australian here,

The technique you are talking about is referred to as stop start. Its a legitimate technique as long as you do it properly. Main benefit is that you don't have to turn the welder down to vertical up. As in if you only have a few small welds to do and the rest is flat, stop start them and keep cruising. Its also a lot easier for people who are rusty at vert techniques. We do it at work and our welding inspection and NDT passes. That said, you should practice very up because one day, you'll need to do it properly with no other option.

All the best, Mick

cj737 wrote:

MattNSW wrote:Thanks. Pretty much what I thought, then. I'll go do an I Told You so.

Well you’d best know for sure before you rebutt your boss.

You don’t list material, thickness, application, or his settings. All of these matter. It can be done properly in his fashion, but that all depends. As a general reaction, most would not choose that method unless it were required. If you’re dealing with very thin sheet metal, it’s perfectly appropriate. For structural, not likely at all.

The boss is my father in law, if he gets cranky I'll set my wife on him.

It's all mild steel, standard mig, generally thicknesses up to 10mm as if it's any heavier than that then we'll rotate the job to get a better angle. It's just a standard practise as neither of us is any good at vertical welding. I've been avoiding doing it as I haven't had any trust in it but from what Welding Mike (Mick?) says it's a legitimate method. I do think in this case the definition of "applied properly" may be being stretched a bit, however.

I quite agree that I should learn vertical welding, I might go out and pay for instruction on that one. There's only so far that Youtube and having a go will get you and it doesn't seem to be getting me where I want to be.

Thanks for the replies. Every day's a schoolday.

Cool thing mate. Applied properly means that you have the welder hot, as for flat, make sure every time you do a spot, you have the wire up on the fresh metal. Also doing a little upwards swirl in each spot aids penentration as it chews into the metal.