Welding Tips and Tricks

what should I do to make these better?

Millermatic 215, 030 wire set at 1/8, one vertical one horizontal.

You left out a lot of info

Top pic is horizontal and bottom pic is vertical? (both "look" vertical based on the picture orientation)
What thickness is the metal?
What stickout are you using? (no guess, actual number from contact tip to the work)
Picture of your nozzle and contact tip on the gun? (Wondering if it is recessed)

Thanks, I'll get those answers tomorrow.

edit: the top pic is flat, the 2nd pic is vertical.. welding from top to bottom. metal thickness is 1/8
nozzle pics will be tomorrow.

my $0.02 worth tho i do very very little mig.

top pic, settings look ok but i think your manipulation is a bit off. what style do you do?

bottom pic, that has a lot gone wrong in it.
its better to run uphill rather than downhill. use uphill to your advantage.
for a downhill weld it looks way to cold and slow. manipulation looks way off.

tweake wrote:my $0.02 worth tho i do very very little mig.

top pic, settings look ok but i think your manipulation is a bit off. what style do you do?

bottom pic, that has a lot gone wrong in it.
its better to run uphill rather than downhill. use uphill to your advantage.
for a downhill weld it looks way to cold and slow. manipulation looks way off.

I'll buy your $0.02 for a dollar I agree with your assessment completely.

Personally, I think stickout distance gets a bit too much play. I think heat at the machine provides a great deal of results. Too low on Volts, cold welds. Too fast on Wire Feed, welds get bulged up. Manipulation of the gun, your physical movement along the weld can conquer these variables slightly. Get all 3 wrong and you get poor welds.

Your downhill welds appear as though you had a very acute "push" angle. Try maintaining a more "square" angle to the work whenever possible, in all positions. You will invariably add some push, or pull due to eyeline and movement. That's OK and perfectly acceptable.

I'd encourage you to practice flat, then horizontal. Get the puddle manipulation down and learn to see the correct puddle. This will help train your manipulation for other positions. You will be able to self-correct as you weld more easily.

In the end, they're not bad for early practice. A few "tweakes" and you'll be rosy

Thanks for the tips

here is a short videos and some pics from this morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz5HbKH3c6c

Yes they are very cold, and I'm willing to bet you are welding on either 3/16" or 1/4" steel, not 1/8" as you had stated, just going by my perception of the material thickness in your video relative to the other items I see there. Can you/have you actually measured it's thickness and provide confirmation? It's definitely thicker than your welding table-top which looks to be 1/8" to 5/32" in thickness.

On another note, replace your contact tip if a spatter BB has welded itself onto the bore since it might cause feeding issues. Your stickout looks good, maybe just a 16th too long but still somewhat acceptable, so I'm willing to bet the crowned-up beads are mostly related to my point in the previous paragraph. You also appear to be backing up into the weld bead with each forward progression, which would make the filler metal pile up higher even more.

These are some tack welds I just did right now to some 3/16" angle that I am splicing together (because I ran out of complete 10ft pieces ). Standard short-circuit, 030 ER70S6, 629 IPM, 25V, 3/16" actual stickout from the tip to the work (my nozzle recesses the tip about 1/32", so the edge of the nozzle is roughly 1/8" to 5/32" away from the base material). Notice how nice and flat they are. That's how your tack's should be. If you can't get your tacks like that, then you're not running hot enough for the thickness of steel that you're trying to weld, IMO, and the rest of the weld will show it.

Thanks, Good eye, you're right. had it set for the wrong thickness. I'll post more later today.

Olecoot wrote:Thanks, Good eye, you're right. had it set for the wrong thickness. I'll post more later today.

Sounds good. BTW, this is the kind of stick out that I was referring to. That is a 1/8" TIG filler rod to give perspective. In this pic I'm sitting the nozzle on the rod, only because it's difficult to hold the MIG gun in one hand, and the phone in the other, while kneeling on the floor. Add about 0.050" to that distance and that is the general nozzle-to-work distance I like to use for short-circuit transfer, which ends up being around 3/16" to 7/32" (just shy of 1/4") to the contact tip, not the nozzle. Try it, along with the proper settings on your machine, which if it's anything like my old inverter 211, should be pretty accurate on the Auto-Set, and you will most definitely notice the difference.

Two videos, 1/4" plate. The loud noise in The background is much needed rain..

https://youtu.be/T49NszTl2Nw

https://youtu.be/PQMghuozalA

This is moving away from me, pushing the gun.
https://youtu.be/EWKbUi7trR4

I changed how I move the gun to a "c" motion, Ive been using a back and forward motion previously. Gonna burn more wire now.

Thanks for all the feedback, very much appreaciated.

Olecoot wrote:Two videos, 1/4" plate. The loud noise in The background is much needed rain..

https://youtu.be/T49NszTl2Nw

https://youtu.be/PQMghuozalA

This is moving away from me, pushing the gun.
https://youtu.be/EWKbUi7trR4

I changed how I move the gun to a "c" motion, Ive been using a back and forward motion previously. Gonna burn more wire now.

Thanks for all the feedback, very much appreaciated.

It's interesting to see the difference in machine "suggestions" for 1/4" steel on 030 wire. Mine gives 629 IPM with about 27-28V for the same thickness, but I dial back the voltage to 25V! Where as Miller has much lower starting points. Your beads are starting to get "flatter" which is good, IMO. So it turns out that you actually had 1/4" steel after all?

Olecoot wrote: I changed how I move the gun to a "c" motion, Ive been using a back and forward motion previously. Gonna burn more wire now.

Thanks for all the feedback, very much appreaciated.

i'm not a fan of back/forward or the C motion. (tho use C on gaps).
i typically use O's or e's. sweep around the front edge of the puddle so the arc eats into the metal then come back across through the puddle to fill.
O's i find works well for me as its a constant motion, so your not stop/start.

jody has a quite a few good video;s on this plus cut and etch to compare penetration, which is so important when dealing with mig.

cj737 wrote:
Personally, I think stickout distance gets a bit too much play.

thats usually what i screw up when mig welding. i do so little of it that it takes some time to get back into the swing of things.

Last one for the day.

Looking much better. Keep playing with the settings and burn some wire.

Thanks, working with 1/8th today and I'm blowing holes left and right. Set it down to 14 guage, same thing. Turned off autoset, set the heat at 16.5, wire speed at 224, welds start good, then it blows a hole.

First please make sure your polarity is correct since I know you were messing with TIG with it as well. Also make sure you are not having wire feeding issues. When the wire gets hung up for whatever reason, the arc can still emanate from the contact tip and that is almost like a TIG arc - heat is being produced but with no filler metal deposition, the heat can blow a hole. Assuming those two are correct and working properly, then it's just a matter of playing with the settings so it doesn't blow through. That is the main journey of welding once you have the basics down. Learning heat control along with metal deposition rates IS welding. So you're simply at a stage where you have to invest the time to learn your machine and build develop your technique so you can learn how to weld. Play with the voltage to learn to control bead profile. Play with the WFS to learn to control filler metal deposition and amperage.

Mas Mig practice. 1/8 metal, .30 wire
Welding left to right with "e" pattern.

Yup, it's getting there. Just need practice. Practice looks like this usually:



I'm half-way there myself!

Olecoot wrote:Mas Mig practice. 1/8 metal, .30 wire
Welding left to right with "e" pattern.

Your settings are fine, but your travel speed is to fast and too extended with your gun motion.

Oscar wrote:Yup, it's getting there. Just need practice. Practice looks like this usually:



I'm half-way there myself!

Oscar,
Thanks for all the great advice. My welds have improved dramatically. Everything from stickout to voltage and practice. I stopped using the autoset and things are much better. I'm much more confident in my skills now and I'm just getting better. Much appreaciated.

OC

Awesome!