"Washing" with dissimilar sizes?

[hippyengineer]

I'm making my first welds with my new 140. Welding 1/8" rect tube cut on about a 20° angle to 3/16" sq tube. I understand that the heat must be concentrated into the thicker material but I don't understand the amount of wash. Just enough to not blow through? I have been getting better with practice but I would like to get someone elses view on this.

Thanks!!

[Sberry]

Just enough to not blow through?

Thats a good place to start.

[hippyengineer]

So I guess I should loop quicker when I am on the thin material and slower on the thick material. Should I keep the same gun angles? Does push or pull work better in this situation?

Would anyone recommend that I don't try to weld the inside of this joint? I'm using .030 flux core and the only way I found to get inside is to increase stickout. Boy was that an ugly weld!

[Hootwelds]

Are you using a flux core nozzle? This should allow you to get in some pretty tight corners.

[hippyengineer]

Thanks Hootwelds! I was thinking about doing that if not just to keep slag out of the gas ports.

[usmcpop]

Beg, borrow or steal every little bit of scrap you can and experiment.

[Blacksmith]

Beg, borrow or steal every little bit of scrap you can and experiment.

If you burn every inch of your first 2 pound spool of wire practicing and experimenting, it'll be money well spent. You won't be an expert, but you'll be better. I still need to install the fluxcore sample in my welder and test drive it, I went right to solid wire and C-25.

[Hootwelds]

When I got my HH140 (used) it had half of the sample roll left in it.
Went straight home with my new tool and read the manual twice cover to cover and then proceeded to weld every bit of scrap I had laying around.
Then went out and found a metal supply co. and bought all sorts of various scrap. Went through about #4 of Fabshield just practicing. I now make welds that I'm actually proud to show! Practice,practice practice!

[Scott Young]

if you set you welder for the thicker metal then you only need to concern yourself with puddle control. Just watch the back of the puddle and the side of the puddle that is on the thinner side. move fast enough to keep it from falling through and you will be in the money for everything else. as for a flux nozzle, just remove the gas nozzle and weld with your exposed contact tip. you can't touch any metal with it when you have the trigger pulled, but you should be doing that anyway. you will have unbelievable access and visual capabilities. this is only for fluxcore.

[Roger]

Your calling this 1/8" rect tube and 3/16" sq tube. You left out tube wall thickness or is that the tube width

[Roger]

Your worried about minor thickness difference here that changing electrode angle 2 degrees more into thicker metal can be all you need to do. Joint configuration will have as great affect on weld with a lap joint or tee joint because your welding on edge of one piece of steel and welding in middle of the other piece of steel.

[hippyengineer]

Thanks for all the input everybody! I will get more practice in as soon as possible. Roger, those were the wall thicknesses. 1 1/2" sq tube is 3/16" wall and 1 1/2" X 3/4" rect tube 1/8" wall. After rushing through this I am embarassed by the welds so I am going to get some more practice before I cut out the old welds. Oh well, it's just a table saw mobile base...it's only supporting 600 lbs. Crap! But I'm having fun. I gotta work on watching the puddle more too, Scott.

[Roger]

Everyone starts out making bad welds. It just shows you need more practice. When you think your ready grind out your bad welds and see if you can do better. This isn't wood working. Part of welding is knowing why your making bad welds and skill to replace bad welds with good welds. A good welding instructor will speed your learning to weld.

[hippyengineer]

More practice with puddle control and aiming the wire at the thicker material has produced much better welds. I even tried taking off the nozzle for the tight corners, but I need more practice to keep from shorting to the tip. I definitely need more practice getting into tight places. Thanks for all the tips everybody!

[Roger]

Flux-cored Nozzle - Handler Guns #770487 electricly insulates contact tip and contact tip adapter from shorting to work while welding in tight places with flux core wire. It is shown at this link.
http://hobartwelders.com/products/ac.../wire-welding/