Hows this weld? -

[bknbronco]

Practice lots and lots and lots. Im not a welder by any means but i get better with every project i do. We have a tig welder and when i started out i was always doing little puddels, concentrating so much on what i was doing, trying to get it perfect. It looked nice but in fact i was probably not getting enough heat in there. I have learned to move the tungston back a bit, add more heat, add more rod, and make a hotter deeper weld. None of my welds have ever broke (well maybe one at a high stress point) but with my new technique they still look great and i know that there gona be way stronger. I have just made up a stinger for our lincoln 185 and will start practicing some stick welding. Every welder has its pos and neg points. Our tig is just slow and hates dirty, old, rusty metal. With the stick i can now weld perfect on old rusty crap metal hopefully.

The first pic is with the tig. Looks like crap! ground all that weld out in a deep v!
The second and third are with a stick with some 7018 after filling the v with some 6010! Not too shabby!

 

[bmc69]

This shot is what a small 110v weld fillet actually looks like under close inpsection. Pretty on the outside..very little penetration.

Welding in to a gap definitely does help penetration when using a small welder on thicker material. The inspection shot also shows lack of proper weld prep as far as beveling..there was none.

 

[bmc69]

Practice lots and lots and lots. Im not a welder by any means but i get better with every project i do. We have a tig welder and when i started out i was always doing little puddels, concentrating so much on what i was doing, trying to get it perfect. It looked nice but in fact i was probably not getting enough heat in there. I have learned to move the tungston back a bit, add more heat, add more rod, and make a hotter deeper weld. None of my welds have ever broke (well maybe one at a high stress point) but with my new technique they still look great and i know that there gona be way stronger. I have just made up a stinger for our lincoln 185 and will start practicing some stick welding. Every welder has its pos and neg points. Our tig is just slow and hates dirty, old, rusty metal. With the stick i can now weld perfect on old rusty crap metal hopefully.

The first pic is with the tig. Looks like crap! ground all that weld out in a deep v!
The second and third are with a stick with some 7018 after filling the v with some 6010! Not too shabby!

The 7018 reverse-polarity jet rod is very forgiving of 'dirty/rusty' meatl..TIG is completely unforgiving. As you found out.

 

[Broncofan76]

Thanks for all of the feedback. I will practice more this weekend. I will:

1. try a higher heat
2. use smaller "c" patterens
3. keep "c" s closer together
4. slow down

I might try to cut a cross section of a weld as well. I am new to this but feel certain that I am getting better penetration that shown in BMC69's post - I've been wrong before.

and lastly - number 5! I'll go purchase a new millermatic 180 on Monday! Could not hurt to have more versatility and I'll end up buying a welder one day anyway, so it would be great to get some real experience with my own welder on this project. I'm just borrowing this one 110v. Plus, Its old and I don't want something to break on it and put me on the hook for repairing someone else's already old welder.
$790 plus tax seem like a good deal from a local shop? ebay for $825 but the local shop has been really cool about helping me out so far.
thanks all.

 

[Tram]

Don't feel bad, here are some pics of my first weld ever.. LOL..

Had to go with what I had laying around.. Lawnmower blade and some old exhaust pipe.

 

[73azbronco]

how much to run a 220 line from your box if you don't mind me asking, i need one?

 

[bknbronco]

how much to run a 220 line from your box if you don't mind me asking, i need one?

Depends how far you gota run it. We ran a 6 foot 220 run for the compressor, and another 8 foot run for our welder. We got lucky because the fuse panel was close and had room to expand and add two 220 breakers since we had changed the dryer to gas. Do you even have room in your breaker box to expand? You need 2 slots for a big 220 breaker. Do it your self and it dont cost but maybe 100 bucks. You need the plug receptical and some wire and a breaker.

http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Somithing similar to them and some wire.

 

[Tram]

how much to run a 220 line from your box if you don't mind me asking, i need one?

I paid $236 for "stuff" at Lowe's and I used a 10% off card I had. That includes 50' for 6/2 wire, 50' of 10/3 extension cord, new plug and outlet for the extension cord I made and a 50amp breaker.

I had an electrician friend come over and do the hard work. I had to run the 6/2 30' under the house and out to my porch to get the line so I could get to it. He charged me $100 for 3 hours of his time..

 

[Broncofan76]

ordered a new welder. Millermatic 211!! When it gets here I'll have the cage all fitted and tacked up. Then I can practice with the new welder and when I get some good reviews I'll move forward with welding up the cage. thanks for the feedback guys.