Remedial Welding Advice

George Rausch · Dec 1, 2011

Need your advice, guys. Trying to re-learn to weld. (I did very well in weld school night-classes in vo-tech 8 years ago, but I guess I've lost the ability.)

New Forney wire welder, 0.035 gage, no gas, I can weld very well on a piece of steel. Straight weld, weaving back and forth, it works great, the weld beads look very good.
The problem; I absolutely cannot weld two pieces of metal together. I get big globs of metal on both sides, but cannot join the pieces.
Have tried for several days now; what am I doing wrong? Have tried all the various combinations of wire speed, voltage, moving speed, angle, etc. No luck.
Any advice?

Anonymous-0 · Dec 1, 2011

Make sure the metal you are joining is clean, and close enough, and grounded, on both pieces. A bad ground, can drive you nuttier than a squirrel turd!

teddy52food · Dec 1, 2011

not enough heat. You have to flow all 3 metals together to weld. You are only flowing the rod or wire.

Anonymous-0 · Dec 1, 2011

Are you able to SEE what you're welding? Before you take offense, realize that, if you're seeing what you're weding,you'll have a better idea of what is [and isn't] happening when you weld.

Just as you would with oxyacetylene welding, watch your puddle. Are the pieces of metal you're trying to join actually melting a bit into the puddle? If not, there are a couple of explanations. Maybe you're trying to weld metal that's simply too thick for .035" wire to be effective. [At the frame plant, we welded the Explorer frames with .045" wire...]Does the bead just lay on top of the metal with no fusion? Maybe you still don't have enough voltage to start melting the base metal, which is when fusion of the two pieces occurs.

My experience with flux-core wire is very limited...you ARE using flux core with no gas, aren't you? If not, that invites porosity into the welds...although you didn't mention porosity.

Without actually seeing either the results OR the process, the best advice is simply a SWAG [scientific wild-azz guess]. But I hope we gave you some ideas on where to begin to solve your problem.

Anonymous-0 · Dec 1, 2011

Are you using flux-core wire that is self shielded(doesn't require additional shielding gas)? Is the machine set up to use solid MIG wire as well as self shielded flux-core? How many amps is your welder? How thick of material are you welding?Knowing the answers to these questions would be a big help, but if you're running self shielded flux-core, make sure you're on straight polarity (gun on negative and ground clamp on positive). Solid wire with shielding gas runs on reverse polarity. Wrong polarity will make a huge difference with a wire feed.

Bob Huntress · Dec 2, 2011

When I started MIG welding first became a problem when welding outdoors. When stick welding there was no issue, but the breeze would blow the welding gas away leaving my work unshielding in any way. It took a bit to learn, but, TIG & MIG are best done in a shop.

Ellis Kinney · Dec 2, 2011

Bevel the edges slightly where you intend to weld if material is thicker than 1/8. Allow a slight crack between the Two pieces of metal, the thicker the metal the more the bevel and the spacing between. Try reducing your wire speed. Ellis

mkirsch · Dec 2, 2011

I don't know much about welding, but IMHO you're not building up enough heat.

You're doing flux core, which I understand to be one step above two car batteries and a wire coat hanger.

mf65 up north · Dec 2, 2011

I use a mig, but I use argon with mine. You're saying your getting good beads if you run them of on an open sheet of metal, but are you? You can get great looking weld beads with gas, arc, or mig like this because there's no place for the melted material, rod or base metal to go unless you blow through. I'd say your going to have to play with your set up. If your talking a butt weld the gap between the pieces should be no wider then the wire. When you weld with a mig you should not be getting 'blobs' of metal, that's the biggest advantage of a mig small tight welds. I'll set the material gap and then play with your temperature and also don't forget wire speed is also important. Good luck, hope that helps.

mf65 up north · Dec 2, 2011

One other quick point. If your trying to weld sheet metal with flux wire, good luck. You can try to stitch weld it but the flux is going to be a problem. Sorry to say flux and mig should be in the same sentence if your attempting to weld sheet metal.

Tony S. · Dec 2, 2011

I vote for the polarity thing. My Miller has a little connector bar under the cover that you have to take off and switch to a different position.

bison · Dec 2, 2011

How thick is the metal you try to weld?
1/4 is pretty much the thickest you can weld half decent with these small mig's,use the highest volt setting and reduce the feed.
Second,the metal has to be sqeaky clean,any rust,dirt or metal slag is gonna cause problems.
thirdly, fluxwire is junk IMO,better to use solid core and gas.

Remedial Welding Advice

George Rausch

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Anonymous-0

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teddy52food

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Anonymous-0

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Anonymous-0

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Bob Huntress

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Ellis Kinney

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mkirsch

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mf65 up north

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mf65 up north

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Tony S.

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bison

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