Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey all, new to the forum! I guess this is kind of an intro too? My name is Brandon, and I'm trying to get better at welding. I collect, ride, and work on vintage mopeds and motorcycles as a hobby, and I've taken it upon myself to really become a respectable welder, maybe even professionally someday. Over the years I have watched tons of This Old Tony, Weld.com, Mike Festiva, and other youtube channels, and I feel I have a solid grasp on the basics. I've been welding occasionally to fix small things, but never really sat down to practice..that will change.

Recently, I ditched my cheapo Forney 125 flux core and got myself an HF Titanium mig 170. The machine doesn't make the welder, but I wanted something that would support solid wire gas mig. In the meantime, I'm still using .30" flux core wire, and can get by. Currently using 120v on a 20A Circuit, but I'll be upgrading to 220v hopefully soon. Anyway, I came out to the garage tonight, and somehow i cant even get a decent bead! I have it set to DCEN, stickout is about 3/8in, and I have the welder at the recommended settings for the material I need to weld, 1.5mm wall thickness mild steel tubing. More specifically, about 90 inches per minute, 14v, and inductance at about 6. The bead profile is very ugly, lumpy, and inconsistent. If I slow down, it starts to burn through. If I speed up, I dont get penetration and the profile thins out. I've tried adjusting the settings, to no avail. I thought maybe the wire could be at fault? It's the included wire, which supposedly is decent enough. I have a roll of lincoln innershield NR-211-MP I was going to try. Or maybe the included settings guide is way off? I dont have the experience or intuition to diagnose any further, I'd really appreciate any guidance you can give me! I attached some photos below. The first 2 are of the problem welds, the last one is a sample of my better welds on thicker material. Thanks in advance!

Try 1/2" to 5/8" CTWD. Also, pics of that machine don't seem to show a way to set polarity. How is yours set-up? You might just have a AC flux core machine as many of them are. My bad I just read that you ditched the Forney. The last pic is not bad at all. You're getting there dial'ing it in. Ditch the cheapo wire and run lincoln or some other kind.

You like the 240 volt it will give a better weld. Most try weld to close to metal using flux core . Try a stick out 3/8’ to 1/2' [8 to 12 mm] . I use E71T-11 0.030 [0.8mm] wire

Dave

B-man wrote:Hey all, new to the forum! I guess this is kind of an intro too? My name is Brandon, and I'm trying to get better at welding. I collect, ride, and work on vintage mopeds and motorcycles as a hobby, and I've taken it upon myself to really become a respectable welder, maybe even professionally someday. Over the years I have watched tons of This Old Tony, Weld.com, Mike Festiva, and other youtube channels, and I feel I have a solid grasp on the basics. I've been welding occasionally to fix small things, but never really sat down to practice..that will change.

Recently, I ditched my cheapo Forney 125 flux core and got myself an HF Titanium mig 170. The machine doesn't make the welder, but I wanted something that would support solid wire gas mig. In the meantime, I'm still using .30" flux core wire, and can get by. Currently using 120v on a 20A Circuit, but I'll be upgrading to 220v hopefully soon. Anyway, I came out to the garage tonight, and somehow i cant even get a decent bead! I have it set to DCEN, stickout is about 3/8in, and I have the welder at the recommended settings for the material I need to weld, 1.5mm wall thickness mild steel tubing. More specifically, about 90 inches per minute, 14v, and inductance at about 6. The bead profile is very ugly, lumpy, and inconsistent. If I slow down, it starts to burn through. If I speed up, I dont get penetration and the profile thins out. I've tried adjusting the settings, to no avail. I thought maybe the wire could be at fault? It's the included wire, which supposedly is decent enough. I have a roll of lincoln innershield NR-211-MP I was going to try. Or maybe the included settings guide is way off? I dont have the experience or intuition to diagnose any further, I'd really appreciate any guidance you can give me! I attached some photos below. The first 2 are of the problem welds, the last one is a sample of my better welds on thicker material. Thanks in advance!

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