Wow, anyone really can MIG

I've tried to weld things at various times over the years and each attempt ended in failure and self-flagelation. Last night that all changed. I finally chucked the flux wire and got a bottle. Not having the massive glow and spatter from the flux-cored wire obscuring the pool makes all the difference. I was laying down decent beads in 20 minutes. If I can do it, anyone with hands probably can too. The topper is that the difference in price of the wire will pay for the bottle and regulator in no time. I feel so stupid for not doing this years ago.

If you have a auto darkening helmet, it's even better. I learned to weld in a VoTech class, best thing you can do to learn. And you use somebody elses equipment! But don't let out the secret about how easy it is. Most folks think it is a pagan art, and fear good weldors.

That's one of the reasons I don't like MIG. I have seen beautiful looking MIG welds fail under very little load. It is possible to lay down a really nice looking bead, and have little to no penetration. Especially on small machines.

zomby woof wrote: It is possible to lay down a really nice looking bead, and have little to no penetration.

That's what she said...

Tips I give my highschool shop students:

1. slow the hell down
2. Keep the tip really close to the metal
3. get your face really close so you can see what you're doing
4. run as high a heat as you can get away with without melting through or undercutting
5. run as slow a wire speed as you can get away with without the wire melting up into the tip.
6. Wear the mask - no OCC "Safety Squint" here.
7. 10 minutes welding exposure is like 10 hours sun exposure - cover up.

zomby woof wrote: That's one of the reasons I don't like MIG. I have seen beautiful looking MIG welds fail under very little load. It is possible to lay down a really nice looking bead, and have little to no penetration. Especially on small machines.

then youre not doing it right.

shadetree30 wrote:

zomby woof wrote: It is possible to lay down a really nice looking bead, and have little to no penetration.

That's what she said...

grimmelshanks wrote: youre not doing it right.

Also what she said?

zomby woof wrote: That's one of the reasons I don't like MIG. I have seen beautiful looking MIG welds fail under very little load.

That's why, periodically, I weld things together just so I can clamp one piece in a vise and bend/tear/hammer/otherwise beat the everloving snot out of the other piece. Just to see what fails first, the weld, the area right next to the weld, or something different.

I've only ever had two welds fail, and both were more of a materials problem than anything. You can't just zap a piece of angle iron to an expanse of 22-gauge sheetmetal and expect it to last when used as a SHOCK MOUNT, and you can't make a suspension arm using 16-gauge exhaust tubing as a bushing mount.

The first instance, I welded plates to the other side of the sheetmetal. No more failures, even though both ends of the shock were in single-shear. (Oh the humanity! Oh wait it worked just fine.)

The second instance, the too-thin bushing mount (collar? whatever you call it) ovalled until it tore away from the main tube. I threw the whole mess away and started over with better materials.

I worry about these things, since so much of my car is made of chunks of things that used to be on racks at Sears Hardware, and it's vital things like the bits that hold the suspension under the car...

grimmelshanks wrote:

zomby woof wrote: That's one of the reasons I don't like MIG. I have seen beautiful looking MIG welds fail under very little load. It is possible to lay down a really nice looking bead, and have little to no penetration. Especially on small machines.

then youre not doing it right.

You don't miss a trick, do you?

zomby woof wrote: That's one of the reasons I don't like MIG.

WTF does that mean? I didn't say "I did some pretty looking welds, but they turned out to be E36 M3."

That's one of the reasons I don't like humans.

I meant that it's easy to lay down a nice looking bead that's not actually a good weld, and rookie welders don't usually know that. That can be dangerous.

Not that your's weren't good.

SkinnyG wrote: ..... 6. Wear the mask - no OCC "Safety Squint" here. ....

You have to wonder how many people tried that technique because of that show.

Also of note: Make sure the metal is CLEAN.

I doubt if anybody tries it more than once. Arc burn is really nasty. But I have seen guys weld with no eye protection, no gloves, and then get pissy with me when I try to get their attention. Have at it, pal!

On the topic of welding, how reliable and worthwhile are the Harbor Freight autodark helmets?

I am planning on learning and was wondering if these are in the "good enough" category.

I have one (to try and adjustable one, they were cheap), as well as a traditionally branded one.

I don't really see any difference the HF one works pretty much the same as the one I paid 3 times as much for. The HF one does have a battery in it that will need to be changed as some point (manual says every couple of years). I don't think the other one does, but I should check.

One note though, I cannot tell ANY difference in the shade setting on the HF one, not sure what that is about.

flountown wrote: On the topic of welding, how reliable and worthwhile are the Harbor Freight autodark helmets? I am planning on learning and was wondering if these are in the "good enough" category.

THe guy who sells waaay more expensive helmets at the local welding supply and has some conflict of interest tells me they react slower and expose you to a few extra millis of harmful light per strike. I have the adjustable one from Lowes which appears to have the same mechanism in it as the Chicago/HF helmets. I have not had any itchy/scratchy eyes as a result of making a few cages so I'm inclined to think unless you are doing it all day, every day its probably not really a big deal.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: THe guy who sells waaay more expensive helmets at the local welding supply and has some conflict of interest tells me they react slower and expose you to a few extra millis of harmful light per strike. I have the adjustable one from Lowes which appears to have the same mechanism in it as the Chicago/HF helmets. I have not had any itchy/scratchy eyes as a result of making a few cages so I'm inclined to think unless you are doing it all day, every day its probably not really a big deal.

That's what I figured, and the machine I am getting will probably be stunningly under used, so not worried about crazy long term exposure.

I have a HF auto-darkening helmet. Two, actually, an early model and a later one. The later one is fully auto-charging. The earlier one takes regular AAA cells. The later one will occasionally have a problem if it is left pointing at the sun or overhead lights for an extended period of time, which causes it to darken all the time, running the batteries down. Then it will need some recharging by pointing it away from that bright light source for a few hours or a day or so. Too much light=turns on. Not enough light = doesn't recharge. It's only happened to me a couple times over the last 5 years I've had the newer one. The auto-darkening hood was the best thing I ever got for welding.

aircooled wrote: Also of note: Make sure the metal is CLEAN.

Oh yeah, I forgot that just did up some new posters for the welding booth with that tip....

"8. You can't weld dirt. You can't weld air."

I have an HF auto dark helmet. Totally satisfied, very good minor investment.

zomby woof wrote:

grimmelshanks wrote:

zomby woof wrote: That's one of the reasons I don't like MIG. I have seen beautiful looking MIG welds fail under very little load. It is possible to lay down a really nice looking bead, and have little to no penetration. Especially on small machines.

then youre not doing it right.

You don't miss a trick, do you?

what do you mean "miss a trick"? im not trying to be a dick, im just saying that i know from experience that you can mig things and make them extremely strong, you just need to build up the puddle so theres alot of metal holding things in place.

flountown wrote: On the topic of welding, how reliable and worthwhile are the Harbor Freight autodark helmets?

When our shop's $250 autodark helmet died, I bought a HF unit at $50. It lasted three years. So we bought another one.

It works exactly as well as the super expensive job did. The only trick to autodark helmets is you have to make sure that, when welding, you don't accidentally shield the solar cell from light. I had the LCD go away while welding one time. That'll wake you up!

"That's what I figured, and the machine I am getting will probably be stunningly under used, so not worried about crazy long term exposure."

It might be underused, if you don't get an autodarkening helmet. My MIG paid for itself in the first year though, and I wasn't smart enough to get a real helmet till a couple years later, and now I just don't see how I managed to get through life at all before being able to melt stuff together.

Trouble is, now I need a berkleying plasma cutter....