Welding Help!

[Anonymous No.1115593]

I'm studying as a welder, and I'm trying to make the MIG cert. it requires vertical down welding into a corner >< (on 1/16th inch stainless)

I've got the vertical down bit, but when I have to twist the gun such that I'm angled down into the corner I always punch out the back of the plate or don't get the penetration I need. any tips?

[Anonymous No.1115596]

I also need advice.

How powerful of a welder do I need to handle 1/2 aluminum plates or 3/8ths steel?

Not sure about the duty cycle, it'd be for bike frames, building boats, etc

[Anonymous No.1115600]

stick > MIG

[Anonymous No.1115602]

>>1115596
3/8 steel on a bike? I doubt that, but for 3/8's my fave is spray transfer. run it hot and there should be relatively little noise.

as for aluminum? I haven't welded greater than 1/4 inch so IDK. angle grind it to \/ and TIG?

[Anonymous No.1115604]

>>1115596
check out the Hobart 210 MVP. decent price and has dual plugs so you can plug it into 115v for small jobs. you'll also need the spool gun for aluminium

[Anonymous No.1115607]

>>1115600
false. MIG can weld seamlessly for hours while Stick has to stop every 15 seconds to reload. The waste of both time and material(stick ends) is unbearable in my opinion. Stick MIGHT be better than MIG if you're welding lots of separate short joints.

[Anonymous No.1115608]

>>1115607
a high end one sure but most lower priced MIGs have a pretty crappy duty cycle. that said mine is supposedly only 30% but i've gone for a solid 30 min without any issues

[Anonymous No.1115611]

>>1115608
cry more, porefag. you'll get no sympathy from me.

if you were on my team you'd get a decent welding machine, though.

[Anonymous No.1115612]

>>1115611
right i'm sure you've gone out and spent $10k on a 100% duty cycle MIG

[Anonymous No.1115613]

>>1115612
no, I'm in school. my shop doesn't buy shit...the bad students would accidentally destroy it all.

[Anonymous No.1115615]

>>1115613
must be a pretty shitty school. we had everything from cheap HF junk to huge industrial setups. you had to log a certain amount of time on each machine before you could finish the course

[Anonymous No.1115617]

>>1115615
escuse me? my certification requires skill, not time. anyone can waste time, but only a welder can produce skill.

[Anonymous No.1115618]

>>1115617
yes and with welding you really only gain skill by time. something you millennial shits wouldn't understand

[Anonymous No.1115620]

>>1115618
false.

skill is gained through collaboration. You still have learning to do, poreanon.

a simple tip from a good friend can save you hundreds of hours.

[Anonymous No.1115623]

>>1115620
wrong again kid

[Anonymous No.1115625]

>>1115623
oh...you're right. I meant "pooranon" because you can't afford to buy a millennial machine.

now back to the matter at hand...>>1115593

[Anonymous No.1115644]

>>1115625
so is this an impossible task?

Can anyone here vertical down weld into a corner on 1/16'th inch plate stainless?

[Anonymous No.1115662]

I remember being in welding school and thinking I was hot shit.

[Anonymous No.1115668]

>>1115602

The 1/2 aluminum and 3/8 steel requirement is for boat welding. One day I want to build a sailboat and I doubt I'll ever I've the money to buy a yacht and if I do I don't think I could justify the price.

I'm a legit retard and idiot so I'd need the hull to be bulletproof in case I sail into a rock or half submerged shipping container, which happens.

[Anonymous No.1115669]

>>1115604

How do I determine what voltage/amperage/duty cycle I need?

>>1115607

I keep hearing stick is best for its utility. You can run it off a car battery and fix a broken piece of equipment far away from a power supply, etc

[Anonymous No.1115676]

>>1115607
>comparing stick and MIG only by the aspect of efficiency
Of course you'd think MIG is better in that context, numbnuts

[Anonymous No.1115688]

>>1115662
The only 'hot shit' in my school are the puddles of molten steel you might inadvertently step on and burn into the sole of your boot with...yeah...that smell is not 6011.

>>1115668
>legit retard.
GFTO or I'll become a janitor and then a mod just to ban you from posting that bull shit.

>>1115669
utility? like a give a fuck. a shot gun is the best gun to goldpan with, but I wouldn't want to be stuck in the woods without a rifle.

>>1115676
false. I came here with a very specific question for other DIYers and have been sidetracked with inane bullshit. please use context before posting anime next time.

[Anonymous No.1115700]

>>1115688

>that bull shit

I am pretty retarded. I wasn't retarded enough to ride the short bus, like Forrest Hump I could get away with regular school. Sometimes just barely.

>a shotgun is the best gun to gold pan with

No, a Ruger revolver is. .44 mag kills Grizzly fine. And because prospectors spend a lot of time looking at the ground you'd need a dog to keep a bear or cougar from getting the drop on you.

Also are you drunk?

[Anonymous No.1115704]

>>1115669
>How do I determine what voltage/amperage/duty cycle I need?
What you want to do determines the voltage / amperage / wire capacity / etc. you need. How fast you want to do it determines duty cycle.

Duty cycle given as a percentage is useless. Duty cycle is percent arc time AT A PARTICULAR OUTPUT. Very few machines have a 100% duty cycle at 100% output. A reputable manufacturer will include a chart or graph expressing this information.

[Anonymous No.1115708]

>>1115700
assume I'm always drunk. also...please dear god...never go gold panning alone. THAT's just literally retarded. I don't like pistols because you can't enter Canada with them and *poof* so I go for a snorty 12 guage side-by-side.

>>1115704
oh boy! numbers...

talk about useless.

[Anonymous No.1115722]

>>1115708
>oh boy! numbers...
>talk about useless.
Unless you're forge welding, numbers will be involved somewhere in setting up welding parameters suitable for a task. So when someone asks about that, they're likely to get a response that includes numbers.

[Anonymous No.1115725]

>>1115722
kek.

setting up welding parameters? are you a textbook? that shit will ruin out here.

parameters you need to worry about are "how many cables are you running electricity through? and have you had 2000 calories today? or how many sections have you welded this hour?

like...trial and error. when you're in the groove you DO NOT STOP. except if you need to eat because you've had a 16 hour shift.

oh, and numbers are guidelines only. unless if you're working in a lab then the ambient temperature is more important than your amperage.

[Anonymous No.1115740]

>>1115725
>oh, and numbers are guidelines only
Of course.

>parameters you need to worry about are
So suppose a new guy asks you what you've been doing those sections at. Would you reply, "I've been using two cables." or would you give a ballpark number for amperage or voltage/wire speed? Why use trial and ERROR (which takes time to fix) when you can set things up to work correctly the first time? How about this poster's question >>1115596 >>1115669?

[Anonymous No.1115741]

>>1115740
who hired the new guy? I'm gonna fire him too.

[Anonymous No.1115751]

>>1115741
>no on-job training
>no communication of best practices
>knowledge of technical details regarded as social liability
>emphasis of immediate experience over planning and preparation
Are you by chance a melanin-enriched individual?

[Anonymous No.1115755]

>>1115751
>melanin-enriched
is this what we're calling niggers now?

[Anonymous No.1115757]

>>1115755
hold on. I'ma get /pol/ in on this.

[Anonymous No.1115768]

>>1115757
>>1115755
>>1115751
pol here, you guys are fucking retarded

[Anonymous No.1115770]

>>1115751
NVM.../pol/ is as afraid of bans as you are.

please try to avoid derogatory comments in the future...remember that Ghandi was both 1/8th the man that you are as well as more than you could ever hope to be.

how this relates to welding? it doesn't but neither does your post.

[Anonymous No.1115777]

>>1115770
He is a wise man.

[Anonymous No.1115779]

>>1115777
was a***

[Anonymous No.1115780]

>>1115770
>how this relates to welding? it doesn't but neither does your post.
Have you seen the film Empire of Dust? That's what that image is from. It involves a lengthy, difficult effort to do something that would be rather straightforward in the first world: build a road. But Congo has a dysfunctional culture that lacks many underpinnings of advanced societies, such that infrastructure from the colonial period was left to rot, and foreign investors have to pull teeth to do things themselves.

The anon I was replying to exemplified comparable values, as I listed in my post. My epithet was chosen for the rich tradition on this board of calling people niggers as a general insult, combined with his earlier mockery of such advanced vocabulary as "parameters".

Real-world correlation between melanin content and dysfunctional cultural values is, of course, largely cultural rather than inherent, but it's a correlation that exists.

[Anonymous No.1115829]

what the fuck is this thread

[Anonymous No.1115936]

>>1115829

Drunken trolls trying to be helpful.

[Anonymous No.1116466]

>>1115668
Visit metal boatbuilding forums. They have plenty of pros there and shitloads of al welding info.

You should not be asking on /diy/. You should be asking on real welding forums. You should not want to ask on /diy/. /diy/ is a place to find real resources when you don't know any rather than a resource itself. The reason for this is that /diy/ connects to nothing else useful on this site, while welding forums have ample supporting data and thousands of threads. Get used to using them!

These links are excellent as is the whole Miller site. Check their instructional videos.

http://weldingweb.com/

http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/communities/mboard

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-building/

Most serious welders own more than one machine and a fair amount of tooling. You can save money buying used if you study thoroughly.

For boats it's preferable to have a separate power source and a suitcase feeder so you can bring the feeder into the hull and leave the power source outside it. I'd want at least a 350 amp machine either way. A push-pull MIG gun or (common outside the US) a suitcase feeder with a very short MIG gun and Teflon liner are options. You can shorten a Tweco MIG gun easily. I've done it. Use their clamps (cheap) since a conventional Oetiker clamp won't clear inside the gun housing.

Don't be in a hurry to buy a lot of equipment. Best to buy as you go.

[Anonymous No.1116468]

>>1115725
>oh, and numbers are guidelines only.

True, which is why it's always wise to set your heat on some similar scrap before welding your workpiece.

[Anonymous No.1117752]

>>1116466
cont: http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/materials/overheading-welding-thin-57110.html#post795706

[Anonymous No.1117758]

>>1116468
"wise" would be to construct a custom prescription flip mask with vapor respiration based in a shoulder holster for welding purposes. A crack holster couldn't go amiss...I have access to a crane.

[Anonymous No.1119034]

guys,
how much do I have to spend to get a really shitty tig welder.
I want to hack up some bike stuff , braze ons (tig ons maybe) cutting up and rewelding frames. so it should do thin cromo.

I'll obviously practie first
but what is a resonable investment to try this out ?

[Anonymous No.1119040]

>>1119034

From what I've learned the duty cycle makes the welders price. If you only need to weld for 30 minutes a day, any cheap welder will do. How deep the welder can penetrate metal is something I'm still trying to learn.

[Anonymous No.1119048]

>>1119040

thanks that's allready valuable info.
I'm really only trying to do light hobby stuff

[Anonymous No.1119052]

>>1115620
Welding skill is gained through intensive practice to develop the fine muscle memory allowing you to consistently and properly perform a weld. You must have good eyesight, decent hand coordination, patience and determination to be an effective professional welder.

Collaboration gets you information, but welding is not a collaborative process.

[Anonymous No.1119054]

>>1115644
Stop by a real welding forum and stop asking welding questions on /diy/ because /diy/ will always be utterly inferior to real welding forums.

When posting, give all your details including welder settings to get best advice.

http://weldingweb.com/forumdisplay.php?2-MIG-TIG-Stick-And-Oxy-Fuel-Welding

http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/communities/mboard

One advantage of these forums besides their being filled with a wide vareity of professionals is that people can often direct you to established threads about what you want to do.

/diy/ a shit except for routing people elsewhere. Go, now. You'll thank me later.

[Anonymous No.1119059]

>>1119034
"really shitty" is non-specific. Several hundred bucks for everything plus an argon cylinder will get you there. You need more detail and understanding than these threads can provide, so visit bicycle building forums as well as welding forums.

Learn how to buy used welders because with knowledge you can get insane deals when you know more than the seller.

Don't rent argon cylinders. Buy and exchange. See Weldingweb for many threads on cylinders.

[Anonymous No.1119062]

>>1115596
350 amps minimum. A Millermatic 350 if you get a single machine, but for boats a power source and a suitcase feeder is far superior. Aluminum loves amps.

Example:
https://www.millerwelds.com/resources/article-library/metal-shark-aluminum-boats-cruises-with-millers-millermatic-350p-and-xr-alumapro-pushpull-guns-saves-50000year

Miller have great tech support which includes their forums. I have ESAB, Miller, Lincoln, and Thermal Arc machines bought used but if I bought a new MIG or TIG machine it would be Miller. If I were a pipewelder than of course it would be a Lincoln engine drive.

[Anonymous No.1119156]

>>1119034
£100 chinese stick welding inverter
£30 wp9v tig torch with dinse adapter
£15 argon or oxy regulator (same unit, different labels)
£10 1.6mm #8 gas lens kit w/red or grey tungstens

BOC 'volkszone offer' is £63/yr rental + £36 refill for a Y size argon.
Adams Gas rent-free is £60 deposit £40 refill on a bottle that holds about 1/4 of a Y size.

[Anonymous No.1119851]

as long as we're on the topic of welding i'd like to ask you guys which type is better to be certified in, arc or mig?

[Anonymous No.1119871]

>>1119851

I don't know why you'd only get a cert for one of those, but arc. Arc gives you the basic skills needed for pretty much other type of electric welding.