New to MIG

[L3f7y]

Hey all I just recently purchased a hobart handler 140 w cart, (i do have a regulator but cant afford gas yet, so im using flux cored .35 wire ) and since i have been trying to weld just about everything together. I am used to arc welding, but i dont really know the first thing about MIG welding, so through trial and error i have made a lot of crappy welds, and hardly any good ones lol. More to the point:
-How fast do i need to travel with the gun while welding?
-If the wfs is higher do i travel slower?
-What effect will voltage have on my welds?
-What pattern should i be using when making beads? s, zig zag?
-Should i use different patterns for different metals?
Sorry if these are really simple questions its just Ive never had the chance to observe anyone mig welding even, at least for now, and have nothing really to learn from. Usually i can watch someone do it and easily pick it up like i did with arc welding (using a friends hobart champion ) but for now I gotta teach myself
-Troy


Couple pics of my setup and my 1st welds

[L3f7y]

Pic of my welding area

[im_broke]

I, too am new to MIG welding. I was even thinking of purchasing the HH 140. How does it handle for a beginner. Is it fairly easy to learn?

[Michael Albro]

I would be to busy playing fuzeball in that shop to do any welding

[L3f7y]

Lol yea i play fooseball allll the time but since my dad isnt here right now i dont got a worthy opponent. As far as the HH140 is for beginners, i like it alot, especially because i was going to get a crappy campbell hausfeld farmhand until i realized it doesent have a built in contactor. Best decision i ever made was to get my HH140, (also because it comes with a gas regulator) but when i first got it it wouldnt feed :'( and i had to take it straight over to a repair place and wait a week to use my brand new handler. I dont know if this is a common thing or just because i had it in the back of our motorhome for a 3k mile roadtrip from AK to minnesota and back, maybe something jiggled loose. From what everyone else has said the HH135-140 are the best you can buy in that range for 110v, its like 25-140 amps i think, pretty easy to set up and run, the machine is fine, its me trying to make good welds with a mig i know little about is the problem

[myplace46]

Hey,
I'm no expert, but I have a miller 175 that i'm getting used to myself. looking at your welds, I'd have to say to turn up amps a bit, (the higher the better) just so long as you aren't burning holes through. also unlike stick welding, aim your gun in the direction you are moving. try that and see what happens, let me know if I can be of any further help. Good luck! & happy welding.
John

[dda52]

L3
One thing that will help you considerably, is you need to get that machine on its own plug,a dedicated one if you have it. If I'm reading the second pic. right, it looks like you're plugged into a 3 way! These 120v MIGs need all the power you can give them. If I am seeing it all wrong, please disregard the preceeding.

myplace's reply on gun position is good for MIG, but you said you're using flux core, right? That being the case , the rule is "If it has slag, you must drag". Pushing is fine for bare wire, but the flux/slag can get trapped if you push flux core. That will give you a bad and porous weld.

To answer your travel speed question, you first need to know what the weld should look like to start with. On fillet welds, the bead should be as tall and as wide as the thickness of the base material. In other words, if you are welding 3/16" steel, the bead ht. should be about 3/16" tall and 3/16" wide, or there abouts. Your travel speed will be dictated by the way the bead is laying down. If you are laying down a bead that looks like a fat caterpillar, you need to speed up the travel, and vice-versa if it is too small. You may also need to adjust the wire speed a bit, but usually not much. Most of the time you can controll pile ups by moving faster.

As for settings, look at your door chart. Start with those settings first and adjust accordingly. Unless you are totally off base with the voltage, all changes will be made with the wire speed. You can fine tune it to adjust your penetration and bead appearance. The correct combination of travel speed and wire speed to produce the desired bead shape is what all the practice you are getting will teach you.

Keep practicing and ask questions. You will get it. Hope this gets you started.

[James D. Clark]

Just looking at the angles you are welding, I'm guessing it is 1/4 inch thick. So you are pushing the limits of the HH140. That's not saying you can't weld it, but you need to do some prep to get anything to work. Grind bevels on the end of the angle that you are welding. Grind the surface that you butting the angle to. Turn the voltage to 4 and then set the feed to 3 or 4 and then adjust to get the best results.

Look at your manual for how to position the gun and travel. Work at getting the wire stickout the correct distance from the metal and keeping the arc at the edge of the puddle. The trick is switching from pushing the stick in stick welding and holding the gun steady at one distance while the welder feeds the wire.

[L3f7y]

Thnx for all the info guys, big help, but it seems when i am welding the same angle iron, if i turn up the speed from what i was using it goes wildly out of control, the wire is pushing my gun back and isnt melting fast enuf when i turn up the speed (which im assuiming ups the amperage automatically), this somehow doesent seem right. But when iw as welding yes the speed was at 50/100 on the dial, probably way too low but if i went much higher it would start pushing the gun back at me. As far as dragging i vaguely remembered something about flux cored and dragging, plus i could see the pool better so i was dragging on all of my welds. James what do you mean by wire feed to 3 or 4? on my hobart its in increments of 10's from 0-100.

-DDa52 yea your right i am using a 3 way plug for maily one reason, my entire garage has a single 110v outlet -_- of which i looked for the highest guage wire i had to carry the current it needed which just so happened to have a permenant 3way on it, because of it i plugged my grinder bandsaw and welder into it all at the same time BAD IDEA (when i was moving my grinder i accudentially turned it on and nicked my right thumb 2x) now i ALWAYS unplug my grinder when i am not using it, As far as the plug i only use one tool at a time. Should i still be thinking about getting a seperate plugin or just using one of the outlets on the ext cord and not plugging anyhting else into it?
Ty for all the help you guys have already given me
Troy

[James D. Clark]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by L3f7y
[B] James what do you mean by wire feed to 3 or 4? on my hobart its in increments of 10's from 0-100.

Oops. Oh my. Sorry, I intended to write 30 to 40, not 3 to 4. It's true that higher wire feed rates are supposed to create more heat which should help with the thicker metal. Wire stubbing or the gun pushing off is because the arc field isn't hot enough to melt the wire as it enters the arc. If the metal being welded is absorbing and dissipating the heat faster than the arc can produce it, then something has to be changed to get the weld area hotter.

You either have to turn up the voltage or weave the wire so that the arc is kept in the area longer. If that isn't correct, somebody please help us. It's true that your electrical supply may be creating some of the bad results. To get the most power that your welder can produce, and you need it, and to get every drop of electricity you need, get an extension cord that has bigger wire or plug the welder directly into an outlet.

If you can get some lighter steel to practice on until you get familar with how the welder works, that should help you.

[abooker]

I have a HH135 that I've used to build a 12' trailer out of .125 2x4 tube and it worked great. I've found that since I'm using a 110V machine that when welding thick steel ( anything over .125 ) that it's best to use only flux-cored wire. The .030 wire instead of the .035 or larger because it burns hotter, and use the heaviest gauge extension cord like 10 to 8 gauge to reduce line voltage loss. I use both the drag or push method with no difference in bead. I weave the bead on angles with a slightly longer time on the edges so the weld flows into the metal. If the metal on the opposite side of the weld doesn't show heat discolour it's not hot enough. Always grind bevels on your steel and make multi passes on the .250 and larger steels. I also leave my gas on.

[TexasRelic]

I would also like to point out that by pushing the weld you will get a flater bead then dragging it but may get more splatter. Dragging will give you more penetration.

[WildBill]

hey L3f7y where are you in ak , im in wasilla

Bill

[RCH]

http://www.weldreality.com/default2.htm

Here is a site I found helpful in getting started. The Lincoln site as well as Welding 101 on this site is helpful.

http://www.lincolnelectric.com/default.asp

In the past, prior to my last computer crash, there was an austrailian tutorial I've lost that was good. Maybe someone can put their finger on it

[ralenr]

Troy,

Here are a few more sites that may be of some help.

http://www.free-ed.net/fr02/lfc/0211...coursemain.asp
http://www.esabna.com/EUWeb/MIG_handbook/592mig1_1.htm
https://atiam.train.army.mil/portal/...od1651/toc.htm

Have fun.

Allen