my first true mig welds

[torker]

A real crappy pic... This is a verticle weld... 28 volts/305ipm...uphill on 3/16" steel...really hard to hang onto...halfway up it's almost burning right through

Here's verticle stringers on the same thing..

You want a weave...here's one..3/4" wide and 1/2" deep...one pass

Shouldn't show you this one but I'd like to see someone do this on this little piece of steel...This is called a triangle weave...it's big...about 1" wide and 3/4" deep all done in one pass uphill...notice it's still just a tad warm...lol!
You start this in the corner...bring bead out 3/4"...go across the front...then go into the side and head into the corner again. Keep repeating it in a triangular motion. It was crazy to do this on such a small piece of steel but that's all I had in the scrap bucket.

All these welds were run in very hot.

[JRouche]

Very nice!! I dont know beans about welding but sure enough Dan, you will find some great weldors here. Russ being one of the tops in my book.

My only contribution is slow down. Many newer guys tend to rush through the bead (not even saying you did), maybe for fear of burning through.

I say burn through!! Burn through many welds so you can see where the break point is. Then you will see it is higher than you may have expected.

Analogy.. Learning to drive a car fast, really fast on a closed circuit. You can learn where the break off point is and become familiar with the car. Doing it on a closed circuit helps cause you are trying to do it (loose control) in a safe environment. Once you have felt the car and have a decent idea of its capabilities, to failure, you know how to keep it out of that zone.

Similar with welding (for me). Learn your machine and its heat range. Purposely burn through some test pieces so you get a feel for the heat.

Penetration is key to a good weld as much as control. You will get a feel for the penetrating ability of your machine with some proper burn outs..

Again, I am not a weldor, just my two cents worth of wire JRouche

[torker]

Dan...geez..I wasn't thinking...turn your heat up and the wire down a bit...that'll help flatten that bead out. 45* gun angle in and maybe 15* back...straight down the middle of the groove...no wigglin.
BTW...you pushing or pulling that?
Russ

[dan s]

BTW...you pushing or pulling that?

I have been using the pull method trying to maximize penetration.

I think part of my issue is that i'm not moving fast enough. so tonight i was playing with feed rate.

Right when i thought i had it down i ran out of wire (factory supplied partial role .023").

Tomorrow i will be picking up to things, another role or wire, and a 28" x 23" x 1/2" section of plate that will be the top of my role away welding table.

[torker]

Dan...pulling is the prefered method of wire welding(on plate etc.). Only problem for a noob is it's hard to get used to seeing where you are going. Easy to see where you've been...
That also explains the "High in the Middle" weld. Pulled welds tend to be higher than a pushed weld.
So...this means you need to really watch your travel speed and your steadiness. You make a boo boo on a pulled weld..it will show up more than a pushed one.
Be careful you don't get the gun angle too far down as you pull. A "flat" gun angle will also increase bead size.