Them tacks look awesome. I can see if you do a series of tack welds like that and go back and connect all of them with more tacks, you should have a pretty awesome butt joint. Going to take some serious time, but well worth the effort in the end.

 

I was gonna get some for normal welding but esab says for low voltage sheet metal type welding. I try to tig all body panels but sometime fitment isn't perfect so a mig is needed. I definitely wouldn't use it for anything structural

 

Ax, read through the whole thing. Been mig welding for a long time, but learned a lot from your much appreciated hard work. You certainly have a passion for teaching as your metaphors are right on and create the visualization so important to learning.

I do have a questions.
1. Is it possible to recreate the look of "a stack of dimes" with a mig ?
2. If not, what is the best "looking" weld possible with a mig ?

I'm making steel sculptures which are powder coated so I'm trying achieve the most professional look I can. Right now I'm welding, grinding, smoothing, repeat until I have a smooth looking weld. I'm getting good penetration and not grinding off so much as to weaken the weld. It just takes a lot of time and sanding discs. Any suggestions, much appreciated.



Here's an example of what I was referring to.





The finished piece, if anyone was curious. Not to go O.T.

 

Zoot, Thanks for the kind words. I am a certified school teacher in 2 states, was an instructor in the Army, and have taught more classes, workshops and seminars than I can count. I really enjoy teaching.
To answer your questions to the best of my ability: There is some debate as to if the stack of dimes can be really achieved with a Mig. I have seen some extremely experienced welders who could come close by working "backwards" to normal travel, i.e. dragging rather than pushing the bead while rhythmically pushing directly back to build waves. When the Mig bead is pushed with a weave pattern, it produces a different but potentially attractive smoother appearance of it's own (unless you really want that wave pattern as a texture in your sculpture):


Here is a multipass woven bead done by highly skilled welderwith small diameter wire:


Looking at your example, I obviously can't determine scale or material thickness, etc. But if your goal is a smooth fillet like that, you might try a staight pass fillet weld for penetration/strength, the a second quicker pass weaving in a rocking motion with a little more heat/wire speed setting to create a wider but more concave/flattish bead to provide material for clean up. If you aren't using the Easy Grind wire, switch immediately. To clean up to a smooth blended concave fillet like that, I use a 1/2" diameter 1/4" shank solid carbide flame shape double cut burr in a high speed die grinder with a light touch to remove most of the material, then blend and smooth with cloth backed Al O or carbide strips of various grits in a split arbor. Don't press the arbor against the surface, let the spinning strips take down the high spots. Doesn't take long at all. If you want more info on metal finishing techniques send me a PM with questions and your email addy.

 

I only have a Hobart 140 115V MIG in my shop, so I don't do much heavy structural welding with it. I might not weld in a MII crossmember with EG, but I have used my little welder and EG wire to make a number of T stakes for metal shaping, welding 1" rod across the end of 1/4" x2" strap as well as some special shaped tool rests for my wood lathe welding 1/4" x 1" strap across 3/4" solid rod after cutting a 3/4" h x 1/2 the rod thickness notch in the ends. For the stakes I ground a chamfer on each side of the end of the strap so the strap end was 1/8" in the center where it contacted the rod. Cranked the welder up full, and pushed/weaved the bead concentrating the heat into the rod to get as deep a penetration as possible. After doing both sides, I did a second push pass (pushing the bead increases the penetration) and a wide weave to make a fillet bead that filled the chamfer. I have done some heavy hammering on the stakes with no sign of failure. I could believe the softer EG wire actually allowssome give rather than cracking, same as it does when hammer and dolly stretching out the heat shrinkage in a sheet metal seam???

 

Ax,
Thanks for the reply. Two questions:
1. was the first weld example you posted in you reply done in one pass or one on top of another ?
2. I've done exactly as you describe, fillet covered by a weave for more material to smooth, can I use a weave weld only ?

To be clear, I'm looking for less metal finishing, time is money and I have to make another one. I don't care if the weld is smooth as my example is, I just want it visually pleasing. The weave pattern is acceptable, but "stack of dimes" would be better. TIG only I assume.

Thanks again, great thread.

 

ZOOT, you can't get exact tig looking beads with mig but you surely can get a stack of dimes that do not need to be grinded down. Get some coupons and practice with different settinsg and make a cursive e with the gun. No right to left or pushing the puddle or special tricks. I haven't welded with no weave in forever. It builds up and looks like a lump of wire without it as seen in one of the previous pics

 

I hear ya. It's tensile strength was 80k psi but when they said for sheet metal and body shops I figured they weren't recommending it for structural stuff. Have you ever done any suspension work with your 110v

 

You're telling me that you did that with a mig ? Looks great. If I could get this look I'd be very satisfied. Sorry, I didn't get what you meant by "get some coupons". Any other info on how you got this look, please pass it on.
Thanks in advance.

 

LOL I can assure you that's mig but it's not mine. Coupons are just pieces of steel used to practice on. I'm on my phone and don't have many pics of my mig welds but here's a few.

 

One more. I'd add some more from my computer but don't want to hijack this thread

 

They look great too. Are you working right to left ? Cursive E with a little curly cue in the middle ?

 

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack this thread, my apologies, Ax.
Thanks again for all the great info. I'll practice until I get the welds I want.

 

Left to right and you don't need much action in the "e" to get the dimes.

Found this pic which might help

 

Yes, that's what I was trying to describe above, just didn't do a good job using words.