How Do I Deepen Weld Fusion?

Really no need to preheat on mild steel. Mike
 
Shepherd, I don't know the answer to that. I had a small 110v Marquette MIG 20 years ago. Pre heating helped with it. My guess is that pre-heating the material I'm welding with the equipment I have now is probably not necessary. Or, if it is, I can just wait until summer and it will pre-heat itself. :)

chuck said:
yes your weld will hold your lathe and cabinet
Click to expand...

Chuck, thanks so much for your help and advise. Believe it or not, I'm listening. It is my nature to question the whys of things.

I'm a practical engineer. I don't know the math, but a lifetime of experience has given me some insight for what is strong enough by seeing things I or others have made that fail or hold up.

No one in Dallas has any s3 wire smaller than 50 pound spools. I doubt one of those would fit in my machine. :)
Even a check of the web only located a couple of sources that have it. Granger has it online but not locally,
and like everything they sell it's 4x more expensive than anywhere else.
I found and ordered a 2# spool from Zoro, but it won't get here until sometime next week.
That may or may not be soon enough for this project.

I'll make a run to AirGas and pick up a spool of S6 .035 wire and a couple of tips. I can weld the wheel brackets this weekend and try to hold off on the multi-pass welds until next week. I don't expect to receive my lathe for another week or two.

This has been a fun learning experience. Thanks to all who contributed!
 
chuck: Thank you for your detailed answers.
Franko: Thank you for starting this thread and posing this question.

If you guys will permit me to further this line of questioning by asking:

I have to weld 1/2" thick 2" bar to relocate the two lower attachment arms for a 160 lbs. garden tractor Gannon Earthcavator dirt working implement.
My welder is a Millermatic 350P
I usually run .035 wire but it will handle .045 and supposedly the machine is capable of welding 1/2" steel in a single pass.
I will practice on practice pieces first, but as far as set up goes:
What type of wire is best?
I assume that I have to buy some .045 tips?
I assume that I can use the same rollers (they are for steel not aluminum)?
I assume that I can use the same liner?
Any suggestions for the settings on the machine? (There is a cheat sheet flip down card on the machine which I can use if you don't desire to comment.)
 
That's a nice welder, E350.
The Spec sheet for the Millermatic 350P says the standard liner is good for both .035 and .045 wire.
The drive roller is reversible and has 2 grooves. So you will need to reverse it so the proper groove drives the .045 wire.
My Hobart handler has the same double duty drive roller and liner set-up, but for .030 and .035 wire.
You will need to get some .045 contact tips if it didn't come with some.
 
When I do not have any time constraints
Choice of Mig, Tig, Stick
I always choose Tig ,it gives me more confidence in the weld I like being able to see what I am doing,no smoke no spatter,usually less clean up.
opinions will vary
 
 
E350 said:
My welder is a Millermatic 350P
I usually run .035 wire but it will handle .045 and supposedly the machine is capable of welding 1/2" steel in a single pass.
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I use a 350P at work and the chart says not recommended on it. You realize short circuit should be restricted to under 1/4 inch clean NEW steel. Short circuit welds 1/4 inch steel fine, for dumpsters, gates, tables, just general welding. You should not use it for trailer building, implement repair, truck and car repair. For these things you should be using the flux cores, specifically the gas shielded flux cores if possible.



As to your tractor, I would use a 6010 and finish out with lincoln 7018,s one with a D designation,,,,
 
Can you elaborate on that, Chuck?

A guy I knew was a production welder who used flux core wire with gas shielding.
Is there any bad or useful result from using regular flux-core wire with gas?

[edited to remove dumb question and to add:]

After I posted that I looked it up. It's not regular flux core wire. Outershield®, UltraCore® flux core gas shielding wire is a different type of flux wire that adds alloying elements to the weld metal and affects the welding characteristics, but the flux does not protect the weld from oxidizing.
 
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chuck: I feel that I need to ask some stupid questions. I hope I don't offend you with my obvious lack of knowledge. Here goes.

1. I bought some ER70s-6 .045 solid core wire which I was going to use for this job. Apparently it is not appropriate?

2. I read your lincoln links for flux core wire. Is there a flux core wire I could use in my 350P for trailer building, implement repair, truck and car repair? From reading your links it would seem that the choice of a gas shielded flux core wire would be between:

1. E70T-1s shielded by 100% CO2;
2. E71T-1 shielded by 90% Argon 10% CO2; or
3. "For semi-automatic welding in the flat position, the fastest way to join thick steel plate is with an E70T-4. It offers the highest semi-automatic deposition rates, up to 40 pounds per hour. This wire is widely used to join thick steels where there is no Charpy impact toughness requirement. This wire is also self-shielded, allowing it to be easily used outdoors."

If I can use my 350P to do structural work with the appropriate wire/gas combination, I would like to learn what to use and then practice how to use it...

3. I also searched for "350P flux core" and came up with, among other things, this :

"The 350P doesn't have any parameters on it's front door chart for fluxcore wire, at least mine doesn't. It is intended for only in-shop use and has no pulse program for fluxcore either. I guess Miller doesn't really expect anyone to be using it for fluxcore welding.

It has mig and pulse parameters for solid steel wire and gas and aluminum and stainless wire, as well as some other alloys, I think copper and bronze, I never use the other alloys so not familiar with it that way. Parameters for running fluxcore in a 350P have to either come from a slide chart or from the wire manufacturer or from seat of the pants.

I have not run a dual shield wire in my 350P but have run fluxcore self shield, both in mig and pulse. I used the solid wire and gas parameters as the starting point and adjusted from there."

http://www.millerwelds.com/resource....php?18604-gas-shielded-flux-core-weld-faults

4. "As to your tractor, I would use a 6010 and finish out with lincoln 7018,s one with a D designation,,,," I searched for this and learned that these are rods for arc welding? Do you recommend arc welding for trailer building, construction, and farm implement repair? If so, what do you recommend for an arc welder? Finally, apparently I naively thought that by buying a large high amperage mig welder that I could weld thick materials such as 1/2" steel. If I need an arc welder to do that, please let me know.

Your help is truly appreciated.
 
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http://www.lincolnelectric.com/en-u...-theory/Pages/fcaw-usability-designators.aspx
Frank this explains what fcaw wires are and what they are used for. The question why they are used will have to wait my key board needs replacing.

E350 said:
I bought some ER70s-6 .045 solid core wire which I was going to use for this job. Apparently it is not appropriate?
Click to expand...
I don't know what steel is in your implement attachement. to be safe i would use a low hydrogen rod. or a low hydrogen gas sheilded flux core, that multi passes.. high tensile steels, such as t1 are often used in booms and such, and are absolutly not to be mig welded. mig wires offer little fatigue resistance, the impact of a loader bucket, concerns me, the repeated abuse will cause the mig weld to fail in the HAZ, heat affected zone, on high tensile steels.
E350 said:
2. I read your lincoln links for flux core wire. Is there a flux core wire I could use in my 350P for trailer building, implement repair, truck and car repair?
Click to expand...
Yes, several, the above links tell you about the applications of the fcaw wires.
E350 said:
I also searched for 350P flux core and came up with, among other things, this :

"The 350P doesn't have any parameters on it's front door chart for fluxcore wire, at least mine doesn't. It is intended for only in-shop use and has no pulse program for fluxcore either. I guess Miller doesn't really expect anyone to be using it for fluxcore welding.
Click to expand...
You purchased a wire feed welder, not a mig welder. wire feed welders will weld with solid wire in the mig , metal inert gas mode, using short circuit, pulse or spray. It will also weld all fluxcore wire types just as well. You will need a fcaw-g wire that will multi pass as a 1/2 single pass weld requires around 500 amps, ,,,
I'll quit welding if they make me weld at 500 amps!!!!! The 350 p will not put out 500 amps, and most hobby welders will have trouble with 200 amps on any out of position weld.
E350 said:
4. "As to your tractor, I would use a 6010 and finish out with lincoln 7018,s one with a D designation,,,," I searched for this and learned that these are rods for arc welding? Do you recommend arc welding for trailer building constrtuction and farm implement repair?
Click to expand...
arc welding is a lot easier in my opinion,,and faster, especially for repair work.
 
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