Today I will mostly be welding...sills....groan

[Clifford Pope]

Many thanks for the inspiring post Shane. Like you I have always been shy of welding, but you inspire me to have a go.

Cliff

[chesters6]

when ever i get my mig out i cleverly weld the little hole in the end closed the wire then gets mucked up at the other end of the feed tube and i give up

[volvo always]

Very inspiring Nice job. I would like to buy a welder at some point but might not be very good at it. I did some lead welding on my plumbing course 12 years ago which turned out Ok using oxy/acetylene, so I can only try It would be great if someone did a write up on how to weld.

James

[stevo48]

for a 1st effort that is very neat welding, i bought a rather rusty cavalier sri many years ago which needed both front inner wings welding, new sills fitting and various other bits and pieces, like yourself i was skint at the time and a mate who runs a garage let me do all the work myself using his welding equipment, I thoroughly enjoyed it apart from setting my overalls on fire .
Re; a write up on how to weld, easiest form of welding is mig, it uses either coppered wire fed through a tube and an inert gas which stops the splatter.as far as a write up on "how to" imo the best way is to get someone to show you how for an hour then get stuck in and learn by your mistakes unless of course you start talking about coded welders.

[stephend]

Stevo, what's a coded welder?

[minesa240x3]

Not sure I'm qualified in doing a write up.But I taught myself using the mig.The tig you don't even need gas?Feel free to correct me folks.
My little welder is very basic but apart from the temperamental wire feed it's a doddle.


ONE BIG THING TO REMEMBER IS ARC EYE!
You can burn the back of the eye by catching just a glimpse of the arc.And you really don't ever want this.I got it once and never again woke up at three in the morning screaming my head off because of the pain.Just like hot needles in the eyes..All new welders come with a hand held visor.A bit fiddly as sometimes two hands are useful for holding a plate before tacking on.If you get on with the welder then spend a little more money and get a head mounted one which just pulls down.
The modern expensive ones are self operating in the fact they are clear until the arc starts and a lense shoots across to protect your eyes.Very quick indeed.But a bit to expensive for the novice.

A good set of welding gloves is also essential or just get burnt hands Lol.

The arc given off from a welder is ultraviolet and will give bare skin a sunburn if over exposed so wear long sleeve overalls.

Basically whatever you weld needs to be clean and rust free(both parts)When you first start use an old piece of plate steel,Connect the earth clamp to the main piece of metal(car).Try just running a line of weld along the center of it.You will probably find it either spits and stops or crackles and pushes your hand away from the plate.This will be because the wire FEED needs adjusting.Usually a control knob that you just turn one way to increase feed and vice versa.
Then you will find once you can get the wire feed correct it will iether burn a hole straight through the plate or it will hardley melt onto it.This is because you have to adjust the AMPS to suit the thickness of plate.
Then theres adjusting the pressure of the gas.as said it's an inert gas to help stop splatter and cool the worked area.Not sure if it's an exact science as mine is very basic but start by having it so you can just hear it coming out when you pull the trigger and then adjust as you experiment.

The ideal sound your looking for is frying bacon(not your skin)A steady constant crackling sound.This means the wire is feeding at the right speed for the amps being fed.

So a bit of adjusting to do until you get used to your particulare welder.I marked my wire feed control and very rarely have to adjust it as the steel I weld hardly ever varies(cars).

The AMPS on mine has two switches of the rocker variety.Very basic but adequate.Fine medium and both together high coarse.
Again I hardly ever touch them as most metal I weld is similare(cars again).

I will get some pictures up of my welder if the wife hasn't buried it.You can also get variouse thickness's of wire but not all wire fits all welders as the wire travels through a metal drive wire which also sends current down the wire and the thin tube inside the main cable.Some you can change the brass ends to suit variouse thickness's of wire.

So the bit you hold has a trigger which when sqeezed makes a contact and tells the wire feed to start feeding and also connects to send power through the wire.It also controls the gas by way of a valve inside the trigger.So a thin tube inside a bigger flexi tube made of spring twisted steel.Wire inside the small tube and gas around the inside of the bigger hose.

Are you keeping up????
It's so much easier to just get stuck in and learn by trial.
Unlike the old fashioned ARC welders it's very missgiving and so much easier to control.It also as a rule operates at a lot lower current range.Most ARC welders are only really good for thick metal like angle iron.And they take a lot of skill to operate.I started off with one many many years ago.Kept burning holes in everything apart from angle iron etc.

I'm open to questions and will help give advice but as I said I'm self taught and if any trained people out there would like to correct me then please feel free.

Regards Brian.

(Off to take pictures of my welder if I can find it)

[minesa240x3]

OK well I found it buts it's buried Lol.
But I did get a picture of the front showing the AMPS switches in yellow.And the wire feed in red.
Regards Brian.

[volvo always]

Excellent write up thanks

Practice makes perfect!!

I'm off to bed.

James

[Clifford Pope]

I bought a small arc welder decades ago, at a time when there was only that or full-scale oxy-acetylene with enormous cylinders.
I never really managed to do anything useful with it. I found it a struggle just to strike an arc, mostly just welding the the thing solid and then having to turn off and cut it free. When I got an arc it just cut a hole. On thicker metal I produced what looked like a good weld, but it usually broke and revealed it wasn't really weld at all, just a sort of crumbly slag.
So mostly I used pop rivits and just pretended to have done a bit of welding.

But this thread really has inspired me to get a MIG and start practicing.

[billmckinstry]

Maybe a silly question but do these welder build up the power they need or will they make all the TV screens on the street go funny when you weld something