I am new to welding and having a little trouble picking it up. My biggest problem is I can't see what I am doing. My weld never seems to go where I want it to. Any suggestions?
Matt

 

IF you can't see your weld you have the wrong filter size, there are also magnifying lens as well. You will have to just figure out by mixing and matching. Go to hobart offical welding site and the lincoln foundation site for better help. Your weld is probably not going where you want if you can't see it, once you change filter/magnifyer you will get it under control. Welding is a practice, practice deal- unless you have a natural talent. You will get better.

 

Man...you can say that again! When I got my little Campbell Hausfeld (sp?) wire-feed welder, I didn't think I'd ever get the hang of adjusting the wire speed, heat settings and all that. Now, after MUCH practice, I can do a decent job with it. My beads are still not pretty, but they ARE strong!

Like you said...practice, practice...

 

What kind of welding are you doing Matt66? When I am tig welding, I have to be able to see.

 

Mig welding with a Hobart 140. Mostly sheet metal, body work.
Matt

 

Seriously consider an Auto-Dark helmet! Huge difference! Get 'em from $50.00 and up. The expensive ones are Very NIce!! The cheap ones work fine, just not as good visibility, limited outdoors in sun, but wayyyy better than a fixed shade 10 or 11 helmet!!

 

Matt, I agree completely wih Bike. Auto-darkening hoods are the way to go. They are easier and some have adjustments for shades 8-11. I use a Nex Gen EQC hood by Jackson which is fully adjustable for welding and also has a setting for grinding and cutting. It is expensive, around $350, but has the fastest darkening time and still gives you full UV protection even when the lense is off. I bought one of the high end hoods, but it's also part of my job. Check out some of the online welding supply shops and even ebay.

 

When I first started welding, I had a similar problem; Not being able to see where to start welding.

What you have to do is train yourself to flip down your helmet at the right time. Hold the trigger in your hand, with the wire about an eighth of an inch from where you want it. Steady your hand. Nod your head slightly to flip your lid down, and pull the trigger. If you still can't see where you're going, try a lighter shade.

Don't worry too much. You'll only get better.

 

If I wanted to just replace the shade on my helmet to a lighter one (until I but an auto darkening), what shade should I use and is it good to have a magnifyer in it?
Matt

 

What I did when I stated welding was put a tack weld at the end of my work so when I hit the tack weld I knew when to stop. To set your welder you should have one person weld on a peice of scrap metal and another person adjust the weld while the other person is welding; you should get the welder sounding like your fring a egg. And get a peice of soap stone and draw a line and try welding on that striaght line for practice. IF you cant see your work that means your cone is right over the arc. have your cone at a 45 derg. down and a 45 derg. on the side (if your right handed) and push the weld right to left. The light from the arc should light up your work peice.

 

Matt, if you wear bifocal's like I do, a 1.5X magnifier lens may help you. I had the same problem as you when I first started welding. It seemed I had my face down too close to the work and the illumination of the arc kind of obscured everything else. A 1.5X magnifier let me pull back a bit and get "the big picture."

Also I learned while welding stick, that you don't have to strike the arc exactly right where you want to start your bead. You can strike the arc anywhere close and pull back a little while not running a bead, but still maintaining the arc. The arc is then your illumination to locate where you want to start your bead. Then you move to that point, shorten the arc length and start lay'in down a bead. I've done the same with MIG.

Scott

 

I use a shade 10 at home for mig/stick. At work where I Tig Aluminum mostly I use a shade 11-12. Have you had someone show you at least some basics? I've had people over the years try to stay away from the work as far as possible and didn't know you have to be up close. As for auto-darkening lenses..everybody has their opinions, I've tryed them and don't like them. I'm old school I guess. I just get visions of something happening to that expensive helmet. But try one and you might like it.

 

Use two hands. I'm left handed, I hold and trigger the torch with my left hand and use my right hand to steady my left. I know it looks goofy, but at least I'm welding what I intend to. It helps to have a really good heat resistant glove on my right hand.

Use a light touch on the trigger. I found that I was squeezing the trigger too hard and actually moving the torch tip to point in the wrong direction as the arc started.
I wear a light leather glove on my torch hand for better feel of the trigger.

Also, rest the gas nozzle on the torch against your work if possible. I've found that that technique helps control the distance to the weld, or ESO (electrode stick out). It doesn't work for all applications, but at least the tip is close to where it's supposed to be to start.

Last, invest in an auto-darkening adjustable helmet. Best $90 I ever spent on tool type stuff.

 

Like mentioned before, the auto-dark helmets are great. And if you still lose your place, all you have to do is stop welding for a sec, so it lightens back up, and you can check your work very easily. They've come down in price. I got a solar rechargable one for like 60 bucks at Tractor Supply.

Like someone else also said, welding is just like shooting a gun. If you pull the trigger too hard, it pulls the gun that way a little bit and can get you off track. I always use the tip of my finger and lightly pull, just enough to feed. Works well, especially in combination with using the auto-dark.

You said you were doing body work, which you shouldn't do a lot of welding at once anyways. It will overheat the metal and warp it. Just make a series of tack welds all the way around, and keep going in a cirlce until the gap is completely welded. You shouldn't have a problem getting off track if you are just tacking.
Good Luck

 

Sounds like someone is learning wire-fed welding (flux core mig).

Having learned this myself within the last two years, I'll share some tips I picked up along the way.

1. When you're done your last bead, clip the end of the mig wire on a sharp angle, so its somewhat pointy. Its much easier to have the arc start immediately on contact the next time, so it doesn't push the gun away along with your hands.

2. Auto shade helmet as others mentioned above - big time handy!

3. I found welding with the current all the way up, adjusting the wire feed only, a good way of learning. You can't do this with 22ga steel of course, but pick up some 1/8" sheet or flat stock, and practice on sections of that. Once you get the technique down, and you learn how to control the gun, you can turn the current down and start working with thinner materials. I found thinner materials incredibly difficult, so I as trying to learn gun control, machine adjustments, and everything else at the same time. Start off simple on something unimportant and give that a whirl. All of a sudden you will go "aah-haaa", that's easy.

4. I always do my flux-core welding with small,, 5" muffin fan not that far from the weld, blowing away from me and the material. The vast majority of the smoke is drawn away, but the fan is rather small so it doesn't cool the weld puddle. This allows you to see better. Some people find it useful to use a 500W halogen worklight to brighten up their welding project. I do that sometimes if its very sunny out...

5. Never, EVER weld indoors. Go outside. The fumes, especially flux core fumes, will kill you. Dizziness, nausea, etc. Bad, nasty stuff.

6. Use two hands. I put my left hand around the gun, and my right hand around my other hand to brace my left hand, so I'm steadier. I like straight beads rather than my initial curves and arcs wandering far away from the seam I was welding. Nothing wrong with bracing your gun with two hands.

7. While welding with a flux-core, I find it easier to "push" the weld puddle rather than "pull" it. This is mostly preference, but try it both ways and see what is easier.

8. Don't drag straight... this is the most common mistake new mig welders make... they just run the gun down the seam or bevel making a really nice bead on top of the material. Then they spend hours grinding it off, and their work falls apart. Wonder how I know that

The way to do it is get the puddle started, then slowly make small figure eights moving the gun slowly down the seam you are welding, pushing (or pulling) the puddle with the gun tip. The bead is unimportant - the weld puddle is - so watch the puddle and focus on the puddle.

9. Thinner welding wire is often easier to start off with than heavier gauge wire. This is especially true with flux-core wire for some reason, so you might want to replace your tip and power feed wheel and use something much smaller than .035 wire. .030 or even .025 if you can find it. Lowes sometimes has .025.

10. How to avoid "mig *****". You might have noticed all those little ***** stuck to everything? Grinding them off is a pain - I mostly use an old screwdriver and a small hammer and chip them off - goes faster. But, here is a tip I found extremely useful. I put a piece of masking tape down where I'm going to weld, then spray the area with Pam Cooking Spray. Peel the tape off (it doesn't stick well to metal anyway), then run a bead. You'll find that the little mig ***** will only stick where the tape was, not the pam cooking spray. It smells obnoxious - be warned - but it works really, really well and signicantly cut down on my chipping work!
Hope that helps!