I have just purchased an Eastwood 135 mig welder and need some help. I have no welding experience and am a little lost. The welder eventually will be used for sheet metal work using gas and solid core wire. My first project though will be some repair patches on my Anderson dump body. The dump metal is 1/8" and since the truck is sitting out in the open I planned on using flux core wire since it's typically breezy where it's stored. Anyway I have the welder and figured I'd practice on some 1/8" hot rolled steel from the box store. I looked at the settings graph and it shows that this welder is only supposed to use .035 flux core on metal this thick. It doesn't show an option for gas at that thickness. I picked up some lincoln 211 wire, cleaned up my metal and started to mess around. I used the graph and set the wire feed at three out of ten and the power at G out of a range from A to J. I cannot get full penetration. I tried tacks and held the welder in location for a count of three seconds and it looks about half way through. The bead is kind of tall and the underside of the metal has a blue heat burn that is 1/2" on either side. I turned the power up and still couldn't get more penetration. I also raised the feed rate but I just don't know what to change in my settings. I feel like I should be able to move faster and get more penetration with how hot the back end looks. At first I had the pieces butted up tight then had them separated about the wire thickness and the weld didn't look any better or deeper. Can someone please give me a couple pointers? I have read some stuff on here but it seems to be more about sheet metal thickness. I did disc sand my material and had good clean metal to start with. I just need some more suggestions before I head back out and try this again.

 

If you have not already read Ax's welding tips do a search and read a of it. The man knows what he is talking about and I am sure you will be icky from it. Good luck

 

I actually did read it a while back and just took another look at the last lesson. He does give some solutions to some problems but I still didn't see the answer I'm needing. I almost feel like I'm moving too slow and getting too much heat just no penetration. The reason I tried it as a tack was to try to get rid of my errors with moving the stinger around and maybe seeing different heights from the metal. He is talking about thinner stock but mentions that the heat signature on the back should be only slightly bigger than the weld bead on the front. I'm getting an inch total across the two halves with a weld bead about 3/8". Maybe he will chime in here. He has some serious skill with welding and body work. I just need a direction to go out and move towards.

 

Sorry I'm on the iPhone and it does what it wants sometimes better off was suppose to be where icky showed up

 

To help with full penetration on the thicker metal grind a heavy 45 degree bevel into the edges of the metal you are welding to and the patch panel. That will help you to get the full penetration on thicker materials. Some materials will also require multiple passes( 1/8" shouldn't though ) .

Slow down your hand movement. You aren't going to be able to weld fast on thicker material with the 110V welders.

Also I like to slowly work the tip from one side to the other in a backwards C motion.

I'm far from being a professional welder and would never claim to be one. This is just what I've learned from my experience with welding with my little Lincoln Weld Pak 100 flux-core wire feed welder. Most of my welding has been on 1/8" plate.

 

When the metal itself is cold, and a big chunk of it like a dump body, you've got to put a lot of heat into it. To the welder that dump bed looks like an almost infinite heat sink. Personally I'd stick-weld that in your situation, but MIG or stick I think you'll need a 220v machine with more juice. Preheating with a torch might help some. How cold is it up there?

 

You may not be getting enough amperage because of a too small extension cord. Cord should be rated for at least 20 amps. Had to make my own cord for my welder as my cords around the house were notheavy enough wire in them. Good luck and hope this helps.

Oscar

 

I have a mig(low quality one) and an an old arc/stick welder. I only use the mig for sheetmetal and the old stick welder for stuff thats beefy. My mig doesnt do well on thick stuff.
It takes some practice either way though. Like mentioned try cranking up the heat on the welder. also go to you-tube and search on welding. If you watch some video's you can learn alot by what the actual welding sounds like. steady sizzling noise is good. too much to just type, but it will help you hopefully.

 

I had this problem too. use as short a cord as possible.

 

It is cold here right now but I'm not actually working on the truck just small pieces the same thickness in the garage. I am plugged into a 20 amp circuit and am using a 20 foot 10/2 extension cord. Thanks for the suggestions. I need to do more looking around. I did intend for this welder to be for the sheet metal. I knew it wasn't going to weld the 1/4" they say it can but I did hope that 1/8" wasn't pushing it. I'm sure it's all operator error I just am not sure if I should max the output and if I did I'm not sure how fast the wire should feed. I'm in no rush to go work on the actual truck. I just need to head in the right direction so I can get in quality practice.

 

Try what I suggested in my last post ( beveling the edges ) .

And crank up the power all the way. Then adjust the wire speed until you get it to sound right. I was told by an old timer that when it sounds like bacon sizzling in a frying pan you got it set right.

 

When I learned how to weld I watched a couple shop class welding YouTube videos just type" mig welding", I think there are three. The one about how to set up your welder really helped. Also check the palarity on your welder, when I bought mine I didn't know any better and it was wired for no-gas and I was using gas so it made my welds week.

 

LOL, I used my old 120v MIG for a month before I clicked that flux core was reverse polarity... made a huge difference.

 

To go along with the polarity, also make sure you are using the correct drive wheel for the wire size.

 

thanks for the input. I did check the polarity for flux core and the drive wheel is correct. I will check you tube and see what I can find. I'll also put a slight bevel on the material and give it another shot tomorrow.