1st welds with my 1st welder

[FOMOGO]

All good advice. Cold welds seem to be a problem for most beginners. Don't be afraid to turn the heat up a little, keep the nozzle angle fairly square to, and close to the work. I think beginners have a tendency to back away from the work to see whats going on. I've had the same pair of dykes that I use for cutting mig wire that I acquired from Ma Bell when I worked for them back in the 70's. The plastic handles are long gone but they still work fine, and I use the tip of the jaws to clean the nozzle. Mike

 

[strantor]

I've had the same pair of dykes that I use for cutting mig wire that I acquired from Ma Bell when I worked for them back in the 70's. The plastic handles are long gone but they still work fine,

That is a good way to remind yourself that welding is an electrical process, if you're like me and have a habit of skipping the gloves for quick tack welds

 

[Nesse1]

I got a Primeweld MIG180. This is my firs time welding since college many many many years ago. Waddya think?

Ah. Do I foretell a machine stand build thread in your future? If you make one, I will gladly follow! I recently built a stand for my lathe, teaching myself to stick weld in the process. Your first welds look a heck of a lot better than mine! I wish I bought a MIG instead of stick! Only thing with my machine, is that I was able to piece together a lift TIG setup fairly cheaply.

I will parrot what the others have said, and recommend lots of lighting. My biggest problem was seeing well.

 

[Aaron_W]

Getting with your colleague at school is a great idea.

If it makes it any easier for you, many of us learned before auto-darkening helmets existed and used godawful 6010 on an ancient Lincoln "Tombstone" or "buzz box" that had automatic nothing and preset nada. Spend some time doing that, and any transformer MIG machine will feel like driving a Cadillac, and that's not even close to what it feels like to run a microprocessor feedback controlled inverter machine. The stick welder is where any school should start, unless demand forces them to just teach MIG from day one.

It's been awhile since we've seen @erikmannie, but his idea of a nice Saturday is practicing his welds and making piles of scrap. I spent many weekends and evenings in my Dad's shop doing much of the same thing.

If you want to learn more about puddle control, I also recommend trying out gas welding. It's really where the foundation is for learning how metal flows, how heat control works, and how to predict and influence metal to metal fusion.

Practicing the old techniques on old equipment the old way will make you better at all of the above.

They still teach this way. I took an intro to welding class, MIG welding class, and was going through a TIG class when covid shut down the school. In the intro class they still focus on stick and gas welding to teach "the basics". Having started from there it really makes me appreciate MIG, but also helped to show me why there are so many different types of welding.

Ah. Do I foretell a machine stand build thread in your future? If you make one, I will gladly follow! I recently built a stand for my lathe, teaching myself to stick weld in the process. Your first welds look a heck of a lot better than mine! I wish I bought a MIG instead of stick! Only thing with my machine, is that I was able to piece together a lift TIG setup fairly cheaply.

I will parrot what the others have said, and recommend lots of lighting. My biggest problem was seeing well.

Stick welders do have some benefits. By far the cheapest and most flexible option, plus with the right rods rusty metal is not a problem. MIG is basically a hot glue gun for steel once you kind of get the hang of it, but a stick welder will always be a useful tool to have.

 

[GeneT45]

I started with O/A, but disagree that it's some sort of magic key - I don't think it helped at all with MIG and very little with TIG (in fact, I had some bad O/A habits that I had to break). That's not to say that I'm a welding master in any technology, but I get by. Two things that I don't think have been mentioned: Saw through some of your welds and file / polish them so that you can analyze your penetration and look for occlusions. Butt weld a few pieces and see if you can bend them at 90* or more without having them break at the weld. Those two bits kicked me farther down the road than much advice that I'd received prior... Finally, look at your bead. You want the angle between the metal you're welding and the bead to be obtuse, which is to say, greater than 90*. If the bead is high (close to, or exceeding, 90* then you're creating a stress riser, and that's where your weld will break.

At the end of the day "Relax, don't worry, have a Mountain Dew" - or something like that. Those who recognize the name Charlie Papazian are cringing right now... In any case, you can do a lot of "bad" welding that still accomplishes what you want to. "Good" welding is for critical situations like welding on your trailer, etc. It takes virtually no talent to stitch together a BBQ stand. a rack, a set of shelves, etc. Lots of stuff you can do for practice that still has a practical outcome.

Oh, and (almost) ignore the videos online. Many are full of good advice, but you can watch them until your face turns blue without improving a bit. At the end of the day it's "seat time" (practice) that will make you a better welder.

GsT

 

[keeena]

For starters: avoid joints (no butt, lap, tee, etc...) for now. I'd start with clean, flat steel plate; I'd shoot for 1/8-3/16" thick. Scribe some heavy lines; no hand-scribing here - use a 4" angle grinder with a cut-off wheel to cut some straight lines on the plate that you're able to actually see. Plenty of light. Get in a comfortable position, use a prop if you can, and make sure you can move the torch 4-6" in a straight line (before you start). You might want to think about moving your whole arm mostly from your shoulder instead of trying to articulate your wrist and elbow (for now). Now run some 4-6" long beads and report back with pictures, settings, etc...

 

[pontiac428]

Other good practice is cutting a beer can in half and TIG welding it back together. Once you get good at that, you move up to welding cigarette paper to glass.

 

[MikeInOr]

What pre-game instruction I received on how to weld I got over the phone from my dad, and that's what he told me to do, so that's what I did on every weld for years. It wasn't until later that I learned why it's done, and that there are other patterns including straight (drag) that can be just as (or more) appropriate depending on the situation. I agree that the circular "cursive e" is a good place to start but I would suggest revisiting this topic down the road and exploring other techniques.

The circular pattern and zig zag really shines when welding two different thicknesses of metal together because you can travel more slowly over the thicker piece, directing more heat into it. You can get full penetration on the thick piece without blowing out the thin piece. You can do this to an extent when straight welding too, by holding the gun at an agle pointed more at the thick piece, but the circular and zip zag offers better control.

LOL! I was stumped for a few minutes on how to describe a line of coiley circles. Cursive "e"'s was the best I could come up with! Interesting to know I am not the first to come up with this description. (Maybe I heard it somewhere and don't remember)

My daughter is 18 and she is unable to read her grandmothers hand written letters. I guess they don't teach cursive in schools anymore?

The Cursive "e"'s is certainly not the only way to lay down a good weld and is not optimal for all welds, but it helped me a lot when I was a rookie.

In high school shop class the teacher made us start with Oxy/Acetylene welding.

 

[strantor]

I guess they don't teach cursive in schools anymore?

My two younger girls (currently 4th & 7th grade) learned cursive in TX public school. My oldest (currently 12th grade) did not. I was in school 1992-2004; I learned cursive because I was home schooled but as I understand it my peers in TX public school did not. This website says that the number of states requiring cursive went from 14 to 21 this year, and seems to indicate that TX is among the states which have mandated cursive all along, but I think that is not accurate. I think we went a long time not teaching cursive and only recently started it again. It is good that it is making a comeback in multiple states in any case.

I know that what cursive my kids were taught was not reinforced beyond the required minimum. I asked my 7th grader about it just now and she said they never talked about cursive again after 4th grade. I had her write a sentence in cursive just to see if she could. She had to look up the cursive capital A but she did write this without any further help, although it took at least 30s and she seemed unsure of herself until the end. I think she could probably read grandma's letters.

 

[Aaron_W]

My two younger girls (currently 4th & 7th grade) learned cursive in TX public school. My oldest (currently 12th grade) did not. I was in school 1992-2004; I learned cursive because I was home schooled but as I understand it my peers in TX public school did not. This website says that the number of states requiring cursive went from 14 to 21 this year, and seems to indicate that TX is among the states which have mandated cursive all along, but I think that is not accurate. I think we went a long time not teaching cursive and only recently started it again. It is good that it is making a comeback in multiple states in any case.

I know that what cursive my kids were taught was not reinforced beyond the required minimum. I asked my 7th grader about it just now and she said they never talked about cursive again after 4th grade. I had her write a sentence in cursive just to see if she could. She had to look up the cursive capital A but she did write this without any further help, although it took at least 30s and she seemed unsure of herself until the end. I think she could probably read grandma's letters.
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I learned cursive in elementary school. The only time I use it is signing my name, and reading "old people" writing. I guess I'm one of those people who thinks teaching cursive is like teaching Latin. It has some value, but very little real world application.

Personally I think most of the push to continue teaching it is just people reluctant to change. They had to learn it as kids, so kids today need to learn it. I don't know anybody under the age of 70 that regularly uses cursive.

On the other hand my cursive knowledge does mean I immediately knew what cursive eeee-s meant in welding, so I guess there is some practical application after all.


BTW that is not a cursive capital A. My name starts with A and I was never taught anything that looked like that. A capital A should look kind of like a squished rain drop.